Tire shops and container mosquitoes in temperate Argentina: a perfect urban match

Among the diversity of urban land uses, tire shops are inevitably prone to accumulating discarded tires. When this waste is exposed to rain, it becomes an ideal aquatic habitat for immatures of some mosquito species. Our aim was to investigate the role of these settings as sources of mosquitoes in Tandil, an intermediate city of temperate Argentina. Fourteen tire shops were seasonally evaluated in terms of number of tires stocked outdoors, percentage with water, and infestation of immature mosquitoes. The median number of outdoor tires per site did not differed between the beginning and end of the study (Z = -0.47, p = 0.67). The percentage of tires that retain water increased as the seasons progressed from spring to autumn (χ² = 183.06, p < 0.001). The percentage of infested tire shops remains stable across seasons [50-71.4 %; (χ²₍₂₎ = 1.87, p = 0.39)], whereas the percentage of infested tires increased progressively from spring (18.1 %) to summer (37.7 %) and autumn (58.8 %) (χ²₍₂₎ = 29.76, p < 0.001). The probability of a tire being infested varied considerably, from 3.6 % (small pickup tires in horizontal position during spring) to 90.8 % (tractor tires-vertical-autumn). Five mosquito species of the genera Aedes and Culex were identified, and specific patterns of seasonality, dominance, and characteristics of infested tires were described. Shannon's diversity index showed significant differences between seasons, and also differed regarding tire size. Our approach provides evidence on the role of these solid wastes as mosquito breeding sites in tire workshops within an urban context.