Interference of social Insects on human affairs.

The urban environment represents the extreme form of human intervention on ecosystems. A city is like an island where natural schemes are transformed according to the dynamic of food fluxes and to the hygiene and health parameters of the different environments. In these places even the most harmless animals are perceived as elements of nuisance and contamination, giving rise to often exaggerated control actions that could be avoided with simple preventive measures and behavioral changes. Objective: The aim of this work is to document how much and how social insects (especially wasps and ants) can enter in conflict with men, using a dynamic monitoring criteria and developing a tool capable to advise and support the community. Methods: The estimation of the hazard related to social insects has been analyzed in the cities of Bologna and Florence and in the province of Venice, collecting all the requests attained in a pest control company from the municipalities, the local health units and private citizens. These references are concrete demands for action against unwanted animals and are all associated to specific reports that describe the technical details of the intervention performed.Results: By means of the collected data it was possible to obtain a functional image of the analyzed territories, representing the “infestation status” by social insects at any given time and its evolution through the seasons, allowing to achieve the knowledge of the species and the factors that determine their abundance and to quantify their control costs.Conclusion: With this analytic tool we intend to create a sort of forecasting calendar or a computerized alert system that provides feedback to the community on preventive measures and behaviors to adopt in case of events of acute infestation by insects which, although usually harmless, can sometimes be inappropriate, causing health, economic and psychological problems.