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Week 10

 New Traps

This week I set two new kinds of traps: BG traps and Ovi traps. I set them both at a site in Blackstone that tested positive for WNV and caught an Asian tiger mosquito last week. We especially want to monitor the areas 

I set the BG and Ovi traps at the site that tested positive for WNV last week to increase surveillance. The BG trap doesn't catch many mosquitoes, but it has been the most effective at catching Asian Tiger mosquitoes. It attracts the mosquitoes with a BG lure, a stick that is supposed to smell like people (but to me it smells awful!). After the mosquitoes fly to the trap, they get sucked in by a fan and trapped in a net. Fortunately, I did not catch any Asian Tiger mosquitoes, so we are safe for now. 

Ovi traps are made to collect mosquito eggs. They are small black cups with a special paper inside that the eggs stick to after being laid. Processing Ovi traps takes about a months time. First, I have to set the traps - which is 6 cups at a time. A week later, I collect the egg papers and give them to my friends in the lab. They count the number of eggs on each paper (this past week I had about 80 eggs per paper) and send them into DPH. At DPH, they raise the eggs to adulthood to identify the species. Some say you can identify the species by looking at the eggs, but this process is not easy and might not be super accurate. I haven't gotten the results on what types of eggs I collected since they just got sent in today, but it will be interesting to see if I found any Asian Tiger mosquito eggs. 



Ovi traps set up in Worcester.

Ovi traps set in Worcester. 




Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus)
source 



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