Mosquito Traps? Imagine that!

It's the other  side of 6:15 not AM but PM. There is a fire burning on the Grand Mesa the smoke makes it feel later than it is. The air is tainted with the smell of burning pine and the colors! Ou! la! la! The sun is orange red, the air is orange, red and gray. It's hard to see Lamborn and Lands End as I look back over my shoulder. We are heading down Hwy. 133 on our way to Hotchkiss to set some traps.

The bones of any mosquito control program are the traps. The trapping helps provide scientific data. The data tells the crews what mosquitoes are out there and where the highest concentrations of mosquitoes are. With that information attention to larvicide applications and fog applications can get more exact. Less time, money and energy are used to fight greater numbers of mosquitoes. Locations are logged into permanent records which can be referenced daily which helps the crews understand how well their larvicides are working and how effective their fog applications are. The records are kept week to week and year to year. As the data compounds the districts effectiveness in controlling mosquitoes gets better and better. The goal is to locate and effectively treat standing water and to educated the public to maintain their crops, fields, homes, yards and businesses in such a way that standing water is no longer breeding huge populations of mosquitoes! The end result is a mosquito control program that eliminates mosquitoes in the most effective, safe and fiscally responsible program possible.

Let's start with an adult mosquito. Male and female mosquitoes fly about feeding on flowers and fruit and other forms of sweets. They both need the sugars to supply the energy they need to be who they are. Not a problem. Then the female starts putting of scents that attract the males and next thing you know she's fertilized. Now the fun starts. The female mosquito needs to find a bit of protein to incubate her eggs. All that sugar isn't good for a girl. A culex mosquito, the one that carries WNv, would prefer to drink the blood of a bird. If she drinks from a bird that has already been infected with WNv (the infection came from another mosquito) she will get some of the WNv spores into her body. Now she can incubate her eggs and the virus and the beat goes on. Oh, but maybe she feels she needs a little more blood and you happen to be sitting out or working in your garden or taking a walk. Madame mosquito lites, bites and is out of there. You may not even know she was there but she has managed to leave a tiny bit of her saliva under your skin and now you are infected. How sick you get depends on your immune system. Most people don't even know they had it. Some people get really sick.

Back to the mosquitoes. Mama mosquito now needs a place to lay her eggs. She wants to choose a nice little body of water that won't move and will hardly ripple. Her tiny mosquito babies are incredibly small. They start out as larvae or "wigglers". They can be in this stage for a short time, just a few days, or if the water is colder it can take longer to get the next stage of their development which is called pupae. From pupae to flying mosquito can be really quick maybe hours when conditions are perfect. The whole process from egg, to mosquito who can lay an egg, can take about ten days when the conditions are perfect. The water has to stay still and they have to manage to not get eaten. It's kind of a miracle that any of them make it at all. It's the larvae that we are interested in. We are going to kill them. Lots of them. Mosquitoes are much easier to kill when they are in the water. Once they fly it's to hard to get them. Trapping is not a method of control but it sure helps to know who you are after. Which helps identify fogging places and times. Specific mosquitoes require specific fog applications if you're not getting to the little buggers when they fly you aren't getting them. If a drop of pesticide doesn't exactly land on it's target there is no kill. If the mosquito you're after is a very late dusk and night time flyer and you are fogging early in the evening you won't get them. Data is very important. 

So here we are knocking on peoples doors in the Hotckiss area. We need to set up a pattern of traps that will tell us where the highest concentrations of adult mosquitoes are hanging out. One over on the north side of town, one on the east end of Hotchkiss Ave., one on the west side, and one down by the river. The traps are a CDC light trap. They are a standard trap that is used for mosquito control around the world. They are a not very high tech. A cooler with holes bunched in the bottom holds the dry ice. The melting (evaporating?) dry ice creates the CO2, carbon dioxide, that attracts the female mosquito and her fertilized eggs.  There is a string tied to  the handle on top. The string is tied to the bottom of the cooler, and the top of the light. The light also attracts the adult mosquitoes and other light seeking bugs. The fan and the catch bag complete this odd looking yard ornament and the whole thing hangs from whatever it is you tied it to. There is a little battery hook up for the light and the fan and that's it.  

We leave all our  traps running and we hope they won't be disturbed. Tomorrow morning we'll be back to see what we've got. In some macabre way it reminds me of selling girl scout cookies. We write down the addresses, just like in girl scouts, so we can find our way back. We have set out a grid that Mike will interpret into some kind of working formula when we see what we've caught. Tonight while we sleep the traps will be gathering information. Tomorrow morning we'll collect them and pass them back to Mike. He will count, sort by species and interpret what he finds into a logical story. To me it's a puzzle that's missing to many pieces. To Mike it's a clear picture that directs the next course of action. I guess that's why he's the scientist and I'm the writer.

The PMCD is running five traps in the district. Very shortly we'll be getting two or three more from private citizens who are buying traps and loaning them to the district. The amount of time and effort that is going into the remodeling of the mosquito district is monumental. They sure could use some more help. Setting traps and looking for "wet spots" is really fun. It's positive and pro active.

Once again that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Over and Out.

Lulu Volckhausen