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Mexico’s mosquito control program requires better tools for effective mosquito surveillance in dengue-endemic areas. Additionally, technology must be more available in order to gain a better understanding of the factors that condition the presence of mosquitoes in residential settings. This study is the first to report on the use of drones for mosquito breeding surveillance in Mexico and aims to evaluate the effectiveness of low-cost drone images in order to identify Aedes aegypti mosquito breeding sites on the roofs of buildings and backyards. The results were compared to the current government Aedes vector surveillance program, which is based on on-ground activities in Tapachula city, Chiapas, southern Mexico. Through drone surveillance, we identified a total of 983 containers that were distributed in 10 types; approximately one-third (2752) of the containers were inspected by ground surveillance systems that were distributed in 26 container types. The concordance between drone and ground surveillance was 64.9% in detecting at least one container using both methods. Drones can identify the most common roof containers and should be used in dengue-endemic areas that have many possible breeding sites and are in accessible housing areas. Drones can be useful in complementing mosquito surveillance and control programs.

Aedes aegypti control programs require more sensitive tools in order to survey domestic and peridomestic larval habitats for dengue and other arbovirus prevention areas. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, field technicians have faced a new …