Advice to residents
The best way to protect yourself and your family from dengue fever is by getting rid of dengue mosquito breeding sites around your home and yard.
Just remember – Tip It, Store It, Throw It.
Dengue mosquitoes can survive in very small amounts of water, meaning that anything around your home that can hold water could contain dengue mosquitoes. Some places the dengue mozzies love to grow include:
- buckets
- tyres
- kids’ toys and wading pools
- gardening equipment (e.g. wheelbarrows, lawnmower catchers)
- tarpaulins and plastic sheeting
- yard rubbish (e.g. fallen palm fronds)
- pot plant bases and self-watering pots
- boats and box trailers
- roof guttering and drain traps
- garden accessories and bird baths
- tin cans, drinking containers and plastic containers
- rainwater tanks with damaged or missing screens
It’s important during the wet season to check around your yard every week because it takes about 7-10 days for dengue mosquitoes to develop in the water.
To stop the dengue mosquito breeding just remember to Tip It, Store It, Throw It.
Tip out any water that’s pooled in things like pot plant bases, plastic containers, tarpaulins, tin cans or buckets.
Store anything that can hold water undercover or in a dry place, including tyres, gardening equipment, toys, buckets, trailers or boats.
Throw out any rubbish lying around your yard like leaves in gutters, fallen palm fronds and unused containers or tyres.
We all have a responsibility to protect ourselves, our families and our neighbourhoods from dengue fever. Dengue mosquitoes do not breed in rivers, swamps, open drains, creeks or mangroves; they breed in our backyards.
Under the Public Health Act 2005 it is an offence to have mosquitoes breeding on private property. So it’s very important that everyone play their part in reducing mosquito breeding around their home.
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