Recent developments in pest-borne diseases, such as cases of West Nile fever in the United States of America and the spread of Lyme disease in both Europe and North America, have signalled strongly the crucial need to carefully assess the potential threat of urban pests to public and environmental health. Also, modern living conditions, urban sprawl and emerging changes in climate make the spread of pests and pest-borne diseases increa- singly likely. The effects of these conditions and changes need to be properly monitored and understood. Moreover, the lesson learned from the outbreak of severe acute respira- tory syndrome (SARS) is that modern forms of transport enable.