Week 4 (?) Ella Eleven

 Hello once again everybody!

This is definitely the next blog post after Week 3, so it is 'Week 4'. That is how we're going to handle it.

Work is anticipated to continue increasing in pace as we get more mosquitos. It rained pretty good these last few weeks, and it's looking like it'll rain tomorrow. Our historic route trapping is proceeding as usual but bug numbers are up! I found a bunch more fun bugs for my 'to pin' collection, and actually when I'm done with this I really ought to pin a bug or two. Work hours stop but bugs never stop!!

Otherwise, we did our first Buffalo Turbine trapping run! Some kinks to work out, but coordinating multiple people prepping fieldwork is inevitably going to have some issues. I have collected traps from the South Valley sites, and tomorrow will collect the NE Heights, but I have not done setup yet. I've only got a week to estimate, but generally we have a few Aedes aegypti per trap with some houses having a ton! This is our 'pre-treatment' numbers, and of course it is still fairly early in the year. In a little bit treatment will begin and hopefully Aedes will decrease!

Our Aedes aegypti and Culex sp. are being given to Dr. Ivy Hurwitz at UNM for resistance testing (A. ae.) and WNV/SLE testing (Culex). Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus is not too bad here but we have had at least one positive mosquito, so monitoring is a must! I just got to see Dr. Hurwitz today, and some of her comrades Jeremy and Miriam. In one of these later blog posts I will try to show some PCR results and talk more about that labwork.

 Ok, that's it for now. Busy week catching up after Juneteenth! I'm going to do my best!!

Here are some fun pictures. The dragonfly shots are from an old specimen hanging out in our lab. The swollen mosquito is very very bloodfed!