Insect Update – Week of September 7th – Mosquitoes Still Out as Season Begins to Wrap-Up
September 16, 2021
Metropolitan Mosquito Control District 2021 Highlights
December 30, 2021
MMCD conducted our final helicopter treatments of the year for cattail mosquitoes.
Results from the September 20th surveillance show that overall mosquito numbers decline heading into fall.
Every Monday night starting in mid-May through September, the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District sets out a variety of mosquito and black fly traps throughout the district and employs a network of sweep net collections done by employees and volunteers. Any insects collected are brought back to our lab on Tuesday to be identified throughout the week with maps published to show current mosquito and black fly activity.
MMCD conducted the final night of surveillance using sweeps and CO2 traps on Monday, September 20th and the results are pretty typical for this time of year. Overall mosquito numbers are declining and we continue to see a fair amount of Culex mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile virus, but those numbers are declining as well.
According to MMCD assistant entomologist Scott Larson, "there were not very many adult human-biting mosquitoes collected last week. Only 1 CO2 trap collected over 100 mosquitoes; most had fewer than 50 and ~50 traps only had 5 or fewer mosquitoes total. Likewise, there were very few mosquitoes collected in sweeps and the gravid traps had a relatively small number as well."
Here are the mosquito trap counts from last Monday, September 20th:
Now that surveillance is complete, next step is to review the data
Now that the surveillance season and most of the control work is completed, the next step will be to review the data for the 2021 Technical Advisory Board (TAB) report. The technical services team reviews all of the data collected from mosquito field surveillance, control work, tick surveillance, and the black fly program to compile our annual report which is reviewed by experts from various state agencies. This report compares data from 2021 with past years and uses that data to make plans for 2022.
You can view TAB reports from past years on our Publications page.
For the latest updates on mosquito control, disease activity, and planned treatments, follow MMCD on Twitter.
