Firstly, my first week wasn't the most successful; I placed 2 buckets around my AOI, but wasn't able to get a third down. I walked in one business and asked if I could use the land in the back. They said they would give me a call when they could... never got that call through the week. I also called a church in my AOI and, again, they would call me back. No call. Lastly, I tried my elementary school since it was in my AOI, but I haven't gotten an email back (understandable as school was over). I tried to look at the bright side of things as I was able to get 2 buckets down.
When checking next Monday, one of my buckets were completely missing, so I was down to one and there had been no evidence of mosquito eggs or larvae. The other bucket had an abundance of [almost] larvae and while taking pictures, I got a mosquito bite! Spirits high, I decided to try a new experiment all at the centroid of my AOI, my house, so I wouldn't have to worried about the habitats being tampered with.
I placed 4 of the exact same bowls and added 3 baits: fish food, dog food, and sugar. The final bowl was left without bait. I am excited to see the outcome of this and I will keep updates coming! :)
No Bait Fish Food Dog Food Sugar
About the author:Carlos O is a student from Brownsville Early College High School. His virtual internship is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) to extend the TSGC Summer Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) internship for US high school (http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/sees-internship/). Carlos shared his experience this summer in this blog post.
