Abbas Aghaei Afshar - Associate professor, Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Mohammad Amin Gorouhi - Assistant Professor, Department of vector biology and control, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Science, Kerman, Iran
Ismaeil Alizadeh - MSc, Department of vector biology and control, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Science, Kerman, Iran,
Kosar Amirafzali - Student Research Committee, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,
Fatemeh Pourchangiz - Student Research Committee, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,
Fatemeh Hosseini - Student Research Committee, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,

Background: Urban pests are a variety of insect species that widely distributed worldwide, and normally adapted to live in close associated with human in domestic environments.Objectives: We surveyed indoor diversity of the urban pests and knowledge and attitude of residents in 197 houses, located in Kerman city, southeast of Iran.Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2018 to May 2019 in Kerman city. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and interview was conducted by a well briefed team of vector biology and control students. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 22.Results: Totally, 197 residents were interviewed in Kerman city. The mean of age of participants in the study was 42.84 ± 11.35 and 54% were female. The results showed that 22% of the participants in this study had diploma education and 36% had college education. Most of residents believed that the urban pest s infestation are preventable by the use of insecticides but did not know the good methods. Our findings showed that there was a general lack of public knowledge among Kerman city residents regarding to urban pests identification, also its prevention and control methods. The results revealed that 96% of residents were very concerned about urban pest infestation in their house. Totally five order of arthropods were observed in indoor houses in Kerman city including Diptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera and Hemiptera. Results showed that the cockroaches, ant and flies were majority of species of urban pests were observed while hazard arthropods species were found in less frequently, such as scorpion and Centipede. In generally, most prevalent of the urban pests were observed in kitchen, bed room and living room, respectively.Conclusion: These findings represent a new understanding of the diversity of the urban pests in indoor houses in Kerman city. Scarce knowledge of resident regarding urban pests, is one of the critical causes of high infestation, so resident’s knowledge must be developed to increase the quality of prevention and control of urban pests

Urban Pest, Diversity, Knowledge, Resident, Iran, Kerman