Mosquitoes in the Field- Olivia Martinez

Hello again! 

I spent this week in a whirlwind. Fellow RaHP-Vec interns and I placed mosquito traps around Fort Collins on Monday, sorted caught mosquitoes Tuesday, and conducted insecticide resistance bottle bioassays with them on Wednesday. We repeated the process on Thursday and Friday. I think I have looked in the eyes of more mosquitoes than people this week, which is a totally normal experience, right?

We collected mosquitoes at the Environmental Learning Center in Fort Collins, on the shores of a small lake. Emerald Cordova, Grace Doerner, Isabelle Byland, and I set up 5 traps each time. We captured plenty of mosquitoes, which we then buckled into a makeshift car seat (see picture below!) It was rewarding work; we got good yields each time. Even better, I got to spend time outside. We brought a butterfly net and caught dragonflies. I used a larval scooper to find rocks and empty snail shells in the shallows of the lake. It was 80 million degrees out, but it was worth it.

I have mainly done research on lab-reared mosquitoes. It was such a cool experience experimenting with local mosquitoes. It felt like the science I was doing had a direct impact. The insects we captured give data that can protect my community, because of our effort. 

On Wednesday, I helped out with an outreach event for CSU's Microbiology program. We brought live adult and larval mosquitoes for high school students to look at under stereoscopes. I brought my own pinned collection of mosquitoes for the students to look at. It was so fun talking to high school students about bugs and microbiology and college. I participated in a lot of events like this as a high schooler. It feels so rewarding to be on the other side now.

Next week, we will trap at other sites in Fort Collins and process more data. I am working on a one-page cheat sheet for mosquito identification, highlighting key unique features. I think this could really help students just beginning their mosquito journey! 

There are days when I doubt myself. A day might be hard, an experiment might have failed. It is days like the ones I have had this week that remind me: I am exactly where I am supposed to be.