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Week 8 & 9: (7/22-8/2)

I decided to combine my week eight and nine blog posts because week nine got cut a little short due to my trip to Alaska! These two weeks involved a lot of prep work for outdoor studies using Natular SC. We filled 15 white buckets that hold about 7-8 Liters of water because we wanted mosquitoes to naturally colonize the buckets that we would later treat. We placed each of the 15 buckets in different locations on the campus. Throughout this time, we also treated some abandoned guardrails that we found on the campus with different concentrations of Natular SC.
The mosquito larvae that we found in the guardrails was mostly Aedes japonicus. The goal of the guardrails as well as the buckets is to create a separate probit analysis for outdoor studies. At first the concentrations we used were 1mL, 0.8mL, 0.6mL, 0.4mL, 0.2mL, and a control. However, after the first trial we realized that there was less volume in the guardrails than we thought, so the concentrations were more like 1mL, 1.5mL, 2mL, 2.5mL, and 3mL. While I was away, Dr. Jack Petersen and Lexi Crans ran trials on some of the buckets at different concentrations in order to retrieve data! During these two weeks, I also learned a lot about collecting egg boats and hatching them! The office hosted some high school students, and they helped to separate each individual egg boat into its own cup. The goal here is to start a pipiens colony! Additionally, I went on a field trip to the Pine Barrens in search of Wyeomyia smithii. We trekked through the woods to find pitcher plants, where these mosquitoes live. It happened to be very dry, so it was difficult to find them. However, we were able to find a small amount of larvae.
Above are some pictures from our search for Wyeomyia ssmithii. I also could not help myself, so below is a picture from beauitful Alaska! I didn't find any mosquitoes on my trip, but I would still recommend visiting if you get the chance one day.

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