Community-Wide Integrated Tick Management: Not Cheap, New Study Shows
Effective and affordable tick management at the community level has long been sought after, but a new study shows the necessary costs remain steep. An analysis of integrated tick management models in a sample 1,000-acre, 320-home community find even a two-part program could cost about $400 per household, with more robust programs raising the price even more.
In Mississippi, Blacklegged Ticks’ Seasonal Shift Deemed “Very Strange”
In decades of surveillance, adult blacklegged ticks have only been found in fall months in Mississippi. But in 2022, 13 adult blacklegged ticks were collected between June and September in locations across the state, the time of year when previously only larvae or nymphs were found. Scientists sharing the findings admit: They're quite puzzled.
Mosquito Sprays Can Reduce West Nile Virus Risk, Even If Population Numbers Don’t Drop
In a new study on truck-mounted mosquito-control sprays, the proportion of local mosquito populations that could potentially carry West Nile virus decreased after treatments, even though overall numbers of mosquitoes weren't affected—an "invisible" but positive sign about the utility of such mosquito management efforts.
New Study Improves Sterile Insect Technique for Mosquitoes
Researchers in Florida find that male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes live longer when irradiated as adults rather than pupae, an important advance in protocols for deploying the sterile insect technique to manage wild populations of disease-transmitting mosquitoes.