CDF uses the results of its research into the effects of introduced species to inform the Galapagos community and institutions how best to protect the islands from these threats.
Action against dengue-carrying mosquitoes
CDF staff believe in leading by example. During their Friday-morning coffee breaks, more than 40 staff receive bottles of mango leaf solution and germination paper for mosquito traps.
By using the traps to collect mosquito eggs in their neighborhoods, these staffers have become backyard scientists as part of a community-wide campaign designed to reduce or eliminate the mosquito Aedes aegypti before the 2006 wet season begins.
© CDFLocal High school students also helped monitor the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegyptiA. aegypti is a vector of the debilitating Dengue virus. CDF entomologists will analyze the samples collected by their colleagues to provide vital information about the distribution of the mosquito.
“Five of thirteen neighborhoods in Puerto Ayora registered the presence of the mosquito in January,” explained project leader Ronal Azuero. “This information will help the Public Health Department to identify and act in the affected areas.” Since more than 75 percent of the station staff are permanent Galapagos residents and the CDF is one of the largest employers in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, the data collected represent a significant component of the local community.
Cuban thrips in the community
In December 2005, residents of Puerto Ayora began to report finding large numbers of small black insects they had not seen before. The pests were congregating in large numbers on introduced ornamental Ficus trees as well as on light-colored clothes hung on clotheslines.
“Preliminary analysis indicates that it may be the Cuban thrip, Gynaikothrips ficorum, a common insect pest around the world,” said Charlotte Causton, head of CDF invertebrate research.
© CDFNew introduced thrips discovered in 2005Within a week of the first report of the insects, specimens were sent to a specialist for identification. Scientists and quarantine agents are concerned that they could threaten endemic plant species as well as some crops, as this thrip is also known to attack citrus. The concern is heightened by the fact that current dry conditions in the islands are favorable to this insect.
The thrip can be caught using a simple technique of dipping sheets of yellow plastic in kitchen oil, and suspending them from trees.
Grow me instead
The "Grow me instead" community campaign focuses on the use of endemic plants in Galapagos gardens, rather than imported horticultural plants.
Information about the risks of introduced plants is available to the community, and Galapagos residents can collect free endemic plants from the CDRS herbarium to plant in their gardens.