Purpose: My experiment aims to test whether:
1) Ovitraps or Safe Bottle Traps attract more mosquitoes
2) CO2 traps or CO2 under light at night attract more mosquitoes
Background:
Studies have shown that mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide and may move towards the area with an increase in carbon dioxide. In fact, pregnant women are a feast for mosquitoes! This is due to an increase in body heat and more significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Additionally, during the day mosquitoes avoid light and prefer shady areas. However, without sunlight, mosquitoes are attracted to light with high amounts of UV. Moreover, for every female trapped that's about 150 eggs that don't hatch. These traps are low cost, easy to assemble and maintain, backed by peer-reviewed science, non-toxic, and pesticide-free!
I learned how to make the safe bottle traps from a video Dr. Rusty Low made. I added the steps below. Yes, the hardest part was drinking the water to empty the container!
Here are some photos of this research journey! With Captions :)
Look at the sign in the very far back. 🧐
Too Late!
Sticky Mess! 😯
Very Scary in here 🫣
Update June 29
The traps gathered fruit flies but no mosquitoes yet. The negative controls had no insects or fruit flies. The traps under light gathered fewer fruit flies than the ones not under light. The ones in my AOI did not have any mosquitoes but collected various kinds of insects and a spider!
Update July 12
No larvae or pupae were found in the traps but mosquito and fruit flies were found.
Update July 20
Methods: Overall 8 traps were set up. In each of the ovitraps, I created a CO2 mixture inside the bucket as well as a bottle with a hole inside the bucket to maximize CO2 so it is released at a slower rate. The negative controls contained tap water and no light or yeast. The negative control ensures that when there is no bait, no mosquitoes, larvae, or pupae are captured. I also placed two safe bottle traps in different quadrants within my AOI. One was near a lake under a shrub and the other was in a bush far away from the lake.
CO2 Bottle Trap Steps:
Cut Bottle in Half
Sandpaper the top half along the upper area which provides a rough area for the mosquito to land
Close drinking hole with netting and rubber band
Add 12 teaspoons of Sugar to 2 Cups of lukewarm water to the bottom half of the bottle and mix until dissolved
Add 1 teaspoon of yeast
Flip over the top half and connect it to the second half
Cover with a black sock as mosquitoes are attracted to darker colors
Place the trap in the shade so you don't cook the mosquito larvae
Check the trap every 3-5 days or else your will farm mosquitoes instead of trapping them
CO2 Bottle Trap Materials:
Bottle, Sandpaper, Sock, Rocks, Scissors, Rubber band, Netting (from onion/orange wrapping, etc.), 1 teaspoon of yeast, 12 teaspoons of Sugar, 2 Cups of lukewarm Water
CO2 Ovitrap Steps:
Black Bucket
Place damp socks around the edge to attract the mosquitoes so they lay their eggs.
CO2 Ovitrap Materials:
Black Bucket, 1 teaspoon of yeast, 12 teaspoons of Sugar, 2 Cups of lukewarm Water
Challenges
My initial traps were testing the effectiveness of different types of water. I gathered creek, Lake, and tap water. I made safe bottle traps. However, after three days the traps didn't gather any mosquitoes so I switched to the current setup.
The yeast, sugar, and water caused a chemical reaction in the closed bottle that exploded.
The traps settled in my AOI dried up and one was removed but was restored.
The old setup is seen above.
About the author: Marvel is a high school student in Huntington Beach High School in Huntington Beach, CA. This blog describes a mosquito trapping experiment conducted as part of the NASA STEM Enhancement in the Earth Sciences (SEES) summer high school research internship. Her virtual internship is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) to extend the TSGC Summer Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) internship for US high school (http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/sees-internship/). Marvel shares her experience this summer in this blog post.
