As mosquito ranges expand, better monitoring is key to preventing disease

Monitoring programs are typically labor-intensive and expensive, requiring teams to set and check traps, alongside specialists who can identify, sort, and test the samples. While some traps attract female mosquitoes with “stinky water” loaded with decaying organic material, others require dry ice to release carbon dioxide that mosquitoes sniff out when hunting for mammals. But in rural parts of New York, dry ice can be hard to come by—the team had to make their own.

Even beyond the logistical and resource challenges, communication, coordination, and data sharing for mosquito monitoring can be a challenge.

“One of the problems with states that are not comprehensively doing 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’re not really talking to each other.”

Leydet’s lab found that this patchwork system means some invasive mosquito species are flying under the radar.

Funding is another challenge to better surveillance. “If the county doesn’t have money or resources, these programs fade away,” Leydet said. “If we don’t have these surveillance programs, then all we’re doing is responding to a problem when it’s already a problem, and that’s never how prevention works.”

That could change with a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature this session, which would lay the groundwork for a comprehensive mosquito surveillance program—rather than what the bill calls the “sparse and disintegrated” current system—to help public health officials respond before an outbreak.

Proactive measures can include removing pools of standing water, applying targeted larvicides in breeding habitats, and warning the public to use insect repellent and cover bare skin when outdoors, though outbreaks may require more widespread pesticide spraying.

Leydet said greater centralization would be a start, but widespread coordination in large states like New York can be a challenge: “There is general interest in these programs, but when you start seeing what they cost, it’s like, ‘Maybe we’re not that interested.’”

Still, he said, “any help is better than nothing.”

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.