河流在整个历史上都形成了文明的症结，提供了生命线和沟通和贸易手段。从极地地区到热带地区，河流和水道仍然是世界各地人类生活的焦点。毫无疑问，那些对人类和人类活动蓬勃发展的昆虫也将生命周期集中在他们周围。许多昆虫，例如Aedes蚊子和采摘蝇是人类和动物寄生虫的媒介。
登革热是由登革热病毒及其载体的传播引起的Aedesmosquitoes, in the Amazon region has, in part, been associated with vehicular transportation. The exact mechanism was unknown and soSarah Anne Guagliardo及其同事investigated the infestation ofA. aegytpi在亚马逊城市的秘鲁伊基托斯（Iquitos），在各种陆地和水生的车辆类型中。
Their results published inPLO被忽视的热带疾病in April show that barges accounted for most of the infestations, with 71.9% of large barges being infested and 39.4 % medium barges being infested. In comparison, buses had an overall infestation rate of 12.5 %. Whether the infestation was with adult or immature (larvae and pupae) mosquitoes depended on the time of year – with adults being found most in October whilst immature mosquitoes were found mostly in February followed by October. The team also found that large barges were infested with a total of 9 mosquito species (includingAedes aegpti) native to the Iquitos region, on the other hand 15 species were found on medium barges though abundance of them was lower.
What is so special about barges in particular? Guagliado and her team found that the vast majority of infestation is in the cargo hold where puddles tend to form – an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. Clearly, aquatic transport is an important means of spreading the dengue vector, and to stop the spread, authorities and health agencies need to work with barge owners to reduce mosquito infestation.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic…
采采蝇是引起睡眠疾病的锥虫物种的矢量。采采蝇目标移动主机，因此有理由认为它们特别吸引了人类以速度行驶的人（例如在吉普车或船上）。
但是，如果我们可以利用它来发挥自己的优势怎么办？Jean-Baptiste Rayaisse and his teamtested whether ‘pirogues’ or canoes can become ‘baited boats’ in an innovative way to control riverine tsetse flies. The team used baits called ‘tiny target’ that are currently being deployed in trials in Guinea and Burkino Faso in their experiments. A ‘tiny target’ has a blue polyester central panel that is flanked by black polyethylene netting. Both sides of the target are covered in a sticky insecticidal film to catch the flies.
在伯基诺·菲萨（Burkino Faso）南部的佛罗（Folozo）游戏预备役中，将一个固定的目标部署在Comoe河的河岸上。同时，一个小小的目标附加到沿河上行驶1.1 m/s沿着河上100米的速度行驶2小时的速度。该测试是在沿河的两个地点进行的14天，然后在下午一次进行。这样，小组发现，固定目标和移动目标在下午的采采蝇数量明显更大。
对于陷入陷阱的两种主要种类的采采蝇物种 -Glossina tachinoides和G. p. gambiensis- 移动目标捕获的苍蝇数量要比固定的苍蝇数量要大得多。下午，固定目标捕获了更多的雄性苍蝇，但是在移动目标上，早晨和下午捕获了更多的雄性苍蝇。捕获的男性数量越高可能与旅行寻求女性的男性有关。
As baited boats caught significantly more tsetse flies than the stationary baits, they may be a promising tool in controlling the vectors, especially in areas, such as mangroves and foliage dense rivers, where tsetse control is difficult to implement.
Rivers and waterways will continue to be important channels of travel for humans, but our transport systems are also an easy way for disease vectors, and indirectly the parasites they carry, to hitch a ride to new pastures and consequently new victims. Therefore, our transport systems should be altered so that they do not become hospitable to these hitchhikers – or even better used to control their numbers.
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