The Mosquito Minute: Blog Post 5

Welcome back to the Mosquito Minute!

This week we have been quite busy, so trap placing has been a little irregular. Carys is out
this week because she has obligations at the Ohio State Fair, so I have been placing the
traps this week. This week has also been a little hectic for me as well, so trap placement
times have been rather unusual. I have been out from as early as 6 in the morning to as late
as 10 at night ensuring that we get a suƯicient number of mosquitoes to be tested! Next
week things should be back to normal (for the most part!) so you could see us placing and
retrieving our traps in the late morning/early afternoon!

Question Review:

La Crosse (not to be confused with the sport) encephalitis is a mosquito transmitted virus
that causes inflammation of the brain. The virus most commonly affects children under the
age of 16. Most people have no symptoms, but lethargy, vomiting, fever, and headaches are
not uncommon. La Crosse got its name when it was first discovered in La Crosse,
Wisconsin in 1963, and since then has been typically identified in the Midwestern and MidAtlantic states. For more information on La Crosse encephalitis please visit the NIH’s
website–La Crosse encephalitis | About the Disease | GARD (nih.gov).

Testing update:
The mosquitoes that we captured from the week of July 21 are still pending so we are still
waiting on the results. Although we have no testing results to give, we do know that the
Culex sp. mosquito is the most prominent species in our area. We will keep you updated on
any results we may receive for this batch of pooled mosquitoes.

Talk to you next week!
Hayden and Carys