The Impact of College Station, Texas Weather Trends on Mosquito Populations

Authors

  • Alex Lam Department of Entomology Texas A&M University
  • Kevin Honan
  • Tiffany Mao

Abstract

Mosquitoes pose a significant threat to human society medically, as a competent vector of diseases such as Malaria and Yellow fever, and economically by vectoring diseases to commercial domestic animals that harm and may lead to death, dealing great losses to such companies. With such importance, the need for greater knowledge on the life cycles of mosquitoes is invaluable in the fight to eradicate and control mosquitoes. The goal of this study was to survey the College Station landscape and area surrounding Texas A&M University to determine the species and genus of mosquitoes found to inhabit the area as well as the weather trends during the time of mosquito collection to observe the effects such trends may have on the mosquito populations. During the period of February-March this year, the average temperature was lower than what was seen in previous years. Furthermore, during the month of April lower temperatures had continued to sporadically occur, which led to the disruption in the abundance of mosquitoes seen around this time in previous years. Due to the abnormal weather patterns that were experienced in this region of Texas this year, the mosquito population has been greatly lacking in numbers up until late April. During our survey and collection the largest number of individuals were of the Culex genus, with several Culiseta species also found. 

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Published

2015-04-08