25 Doug Allen - Gravid Traps - Michigan Mosquito Control Association

Back to BasicsThe Sweet Smell of SurveillanceDouglas AllenMidland CountyMosquito Control

• Pregnant• distended with or full of eggs• If mosquito has eggs, female mosquito must have had ablood meal.• Blood meals are when disease transmission generallytakes place.• Gravid traps are an important tool for diseasesurveillance.

• Culex surveillance• Disease surveillance• Real concrete evidence of mosquito born disease,location and species.• Able to focus control efforts in a precise, targetedmanner.

Hocke-Frommer• CDC• Reiter-Cummins• Hocke-FrommerCDCReiter-CumminsDev. 1983Dev. 1987

Mosquitoes senseorganic water and fly into lay eggs.Fan forces the them upinto container.

• Disease Surveillance is a priority.• Reports of dead corvids• July, August, September

• Near Dead Corvidlocations (crows, bluejays, ravens)• Sheltered vegetated areas.• Urban• Unkempt• Hidden

• Classic recipe• 1 lb. of hay• 1 oz. of dried brewers yeast and lactalbumen powder• 30 gals of tap water• Let incubate for 5 daysFresh Grass really helps with recipe

YeastAdd to grassMix withwaterCover and let sit to “brew” for several days.

• Set tub and place trap and capture system over tub.• Set battery• Carefully pour stink water being careful to not coverintake of trap (or spill on yourself).• Plug in battery• Mark location for pickup.

• Label -- Date andLocation• Dry collections net• Kill in Freezer• Identify, analyze andrecord

• Maps• Flagging tape• Labels• Transportation issues.• Put out early in shift, no one wants to haul stink wateraround for hours, bad bad PR• person needs to be strong enough to handle heavybuckets of water.

6 volt or D CellsUse quick connect connectionsRechargeableWing Beats – Summer 2010Maintenance for “Maintenance—Free”Batteries

Rubber Bands, help keep netson trapSurvey tape,locate next dayLabelsMap, locate trapnext day

• Officials: Suspicious device outsidecounty jail was mosquito trap• The New Jersey State Police Bomb Squad was alsocalled and responded before the trap was identified.• The trap caused alarm because it has an attachedbattery and wires. Also, there are no labels or othermarkings identifying it as a trap.

• Bioquip(http://www.bioquip.com/)• John W. Hock(http://www.johnwhock.com/)• Clarke(http://www.clarke.com/)

• Reiter P. 1983. A portable battery-operated trap forcollecting gravid Culex mosquitoes. Mosq. News 43:496-498.• Reiter P. 1987. A revised version of the CDC gravidmosquito trap. J. Am. Mosq. Contr. Assoc. 3: 325-327.

• Gravid traps are important for disease surveillance.• Help available at the county districts and from thestate of Michigan.• More back to basics during 7F training session inOctober.• Thanks to Chuck Pearce and Mary McCarry, BillStanuszek and Tom Wilmot for their help with thistalk.