Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Community and Urban Pest Management: public health

• Human Health: other, workers, residents, applicators

Target Pests

• Target Pests: Asian tiger mosquito, insects

Practices

• Pest Management: behavioral control, biological control, chemical control, decision support system, disease vectors, habitat modification, modeling, pesticide resistance management, traps

• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, wildlife

• Sustainable Communities: public participation, public policy, quality of life

1. The problem or opportunity

In the southern United States of America (USA), several mosquitoes of medical and veterinary importance are invasive mosquito species, and their presence increases the risk of arbovirus transmission to humans and animals. Coordinated surveillance and control efforts across districts or states can reduce operational costs, resulting in more complete risk assessments, better use of mosquito control strategies, better estimates of mosquito diversity and abundance, and improve opportunities to detect new threats to public health and agriculture worker safety.

Since the inception of Mosquito BEACONS: Biodiversity Enhancement and Control of Non-native Species in 2020, the capacity of implementing an integrated pest management (IPM) approach for the monitoring and control of invasive mosquito species in the Southern Region has improved. Some of the states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) have more opportunities for mosquito biology training after the development of the Gulf South Vector Education Center for Training, Outreach, and Resources (Gulf South VECTOR) in 2023. However, there are still many states and territories in the southern region which require training opportunities on invasive mosquito species management to improve surveillance and control capacity to fight against invasive pests. Some programs need training on the general mosquito surveillance knowledge level before advanced invasive mosquito surveillance training can take place.

2. The approach
For Year 6 of this program, (1) we will continue providing in-person and online training on invasive mosquito species management for pest management professionals in the southern USA. We will focus our workshops on states that the Gulf South VECTOR does not cover such as Georgia and Puerto Rico. We will also expand our workshops to beginner level training where the knowledge level on mosquito identification among pest management professionals need to be elevated before advanced invasive mosquito surveillance training can take place. We will also provide mosquito biology education for K-12 students and the public to elicit public participation on mosquito breeding source reduction. (2) We will build new training resources for invasive mosquito identification. This year, we will focus on building training resources including physical collections and photographic resources of invasive mosquitoes to be distributed to trainees as well as regional mosquito control programs. Moreover, (3) we will submit our mid-term training program evaluation outcomes to a peer-review journal. We have completed our data analysis and are currently working on manuscript writing.

3. The anticipated impact
Our working group is an integral part of the IPM infrastructure to address challenges of invasive mosquito control via promoting multi-state and -county collaborations and promote sustainable IPM practices. The three objectives for the Year 6 program will allow us to provide invasive mosquito management training in the broader southern USA region. Improved training among pest management professionals enhances our capacity to detect invasive mosquito species early and act timely. Direct engagement with mosquito and pest control professionals through our workshops will be utilized to continue fostering collaborations in research and extension on invasive mosquito issues. Strategies developed during our in-person workshops will be used to develop online training modules which will increase access to invasive mosquito management training for those who have limited time and resources for travel. In addition, we are building a larger quantity of our invasive mosquito specimen collections, including improved digital collections to be able to share with trainees and partnering programs to increase training capacity on this topic. Our training workshop effectiveness in eliciting behavior change will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, which will increase our credibility in workshop quality and visibility to the broader national and international-level community.