The carrying capacity of eggs K E was estimated on the basis of data collected in the 2008 in the study area on the number of eggs per ovitrap per week as resulting from the analysis of 2741 ovitraps from week 21 to week 42 [36] . The mean egg density for the region of interest was found to be in the interval ½46:6{63:2 per ovitrap per week. Firstly, we estimated the carrying capacity of a single breeding site as the value K b giving rise (through simulation of model (1), where all other parameters are known) to an estimated weekly incidence of eggs in the observed range (½46:6{63:2) at temperatures observed in June and July. We estimated K b to be 19 in average (95% CI [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] . The carrying capacity of the study region can be computed as K E~B K b H, where B is the density of breeding sites (number per ha) and H~70 ha is the surface of the study area. The exact number of breeding sites (public and private catch basins, stagnant pools of water, etc.) in the area at the time of the epidemic is unknown. Hence, in this study we considered different values of B, namely 50, 100, 150 and 200 ha {1 , in order to describe different (high) densities of mosquitoes, as those observed in the study area [1] . These different scenarios are thus characterized by average values of of the carrying capacity K E in the range ½66500{266000.