What is Benton County Mosquito Control doing to survey for possible diseases in the area?
BCMC conducts mosquito monitoring to try and locate the presence of a mosquito-borne illness before it shows up in humans, horses, pets or livestock. Mosquito Monitoring is the process of collecting adult mosquitoes to be identified, separated and tested. BCMC uses CO2 traps to attract and collect adult female mosquitoes. The trap is made up of a cooler that holds dry ice (with holes in the bottom), a fan and a catch bag. Dry ice emits carbon dioxide as it evaporates and this is a strong, long-range attractant to female mosquitoes (only females bite). When the female gets close to the trap the fan sucks the mosquito into the catch bag, which is then collected the following morning. The mosquitoes are then separated by species and samples are either tested in-house or sent to a state accredited lab.
