Monitoring programs are typically labor intensive and expensive, requiring teams to set up and inspect traps alongside experts who can identify, sort and test samples. Some traps attract female mosquitoes with “stinky water” loaded with decaying organic material, while others require dry ice to release carbon dioxide, which mosquitoes smell when they prey on mammals. But dealing with dry ice in rural New York can be difficult—the team had to prepare themselves.
Even beyond logistical and resource challenges, communication, coordination, and information sharing for mosquito monitoring can be challenging.
“One of the problems with states that don’t comprehensively implement these surveillance programs is that surveillance is hit or miss,” Leydet said. “A lot of these surveillance programs are run by the counties, and they don’t really talk to each other.”
Leydet’s lab found that this patch system means some invasive mosquito species fly under the radar.
Funding is another challenge for better control. “If the city doesn’t have the money or the resources, those programs disappear,” Leydet said. “If we don’t have these control programs, then all we’re doing is responding to a problem when there’s a problem, and prevention never happens.”
This may change this year a bill The New York State Legislature introduced a bill this session that would lay the groundwork for a comprehensive mosquito control program, rather than what it called a “sparse and fragmented” current system to help public health officials respond before an outbreak occurs.
Proactive measures may include removing standing water bodies, applying targeted larvicides to livestock habitats, and warning the public to use insect repellent and cover bare skin when outdoors, although outbreaks may require more widespread pesticide spraying.
Leydet said greater centralization would be a start, but broad coordination could be difficult in large states like New York: “There’s general interest in these programs, but when you start to see what they cost, it’s like, ‘Maybe we’re not that interested.’
Still, “any help is better than nothing,” he said.
This article originally appeared there Domestic Climate Newsis a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
