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ity residents are desperately seeking alternate ways of ridding their homes of mosquitoes due to the insects’ apparent increased resistance to repellent materials.

Triana Dyah, a resident from East Jakarta, said on Tuesday that she had tried electric mosquito repellents, sprays and coils. “They used to work well in getting rid of mosquitoes but now they show less effect,” she said. Triana found out that mosquitoes could live even in air-conditioned rooms.

Echa Sinaga, from Ciputat, South Jakarta, said that mosquitoes in her two-storey home seemed to be increasingly resistant to any repellent.

Living with her 1-year-old son, Echa has never opted for mosquito coils. “The smog is really disturbing. I am afraid that it will have a bad impact on my baby’s health,” she said.

Instead, Echa used sprays and electric repellents, which she considered safer but not effective.

Echa said that resistant mosquitoes meant that her son rarely enjoyed fresh air in the morning.

“I love opening the window in the morning to let the fresh air come in. Now I cannot easily do that because the mosquitoes will enter,” she said.

Supratman Sukowat, an expert on environmental biology from the Health Ministry, reminded citizens to reduce doses of repellents. “Excessive doses will make mosquitoes resistant instead of killing them,” he said.

“All repellents are poison and are dangerous. We should use them only in very critical situations,” he said.

Supratman, a senior researcher at the ministry’s center for technology and public health intervention, suggested that residents should move back to previous ways of prevention. “Put mosquito screens in all doorways and windows to prevent the insects from entering rooms,” he said. “We can also net our bedroom, just like our parents did years ago,” he said.

Damar Tri Boewono, head of the Health Ministry’s research center on disease vectors and reservoirs, said that mosquitoes could now survive better in cold temperatures.

“Mosquitoes are very adaptive to their environments,” he said. “As now air-conditioned rooms are easily found in many houses, mosquitoes just adjust to this situation.”

Dien Emmawati, head of the Jakarta Health Department, said that her department had constantly suggested that residents keep their houses clean as a way of reducing insect breeding grounds.

“Simple actions like closing all open water sources can prevent mosquitoes from reproducing,” she said.

Dien said that actions involving insecticide, like fogging, were only taken if her department found cases of dengue fever. “We carry out fogging in certain situations. If a dengue fever case is detected, we do it to stop the spread of the disease,” she said.

Dien said that residents should be patient in ridding themselves of mosquitoes.

“There is no instant way to diminish mosquitoes. Using chemical repellents may work at first, but they will not last in the long term,” she said.

As of September this year, the health agency recorded 5,253 dengue cases with one fatality. (lfr)