Lowering Mosquito Population in LES Community Gardens Using Dragonflies and Mosquito Traps
Can a natural mosquito predator, the dragonfly, be used as population control in ponds in LES community gardens?
Can scent-based mosquito traps be used as population control in LES community gardens?
Intern(s):
Chandani Shrestha, Ivan Yang, Marc Anthony Suarez, Natasha Gonzalez
Mentor(s):
Marina Delgado
Project Period:
2022 Summer
Team:
LES
Reducing mosquito populations was brought up by members of the community gardens, as they contain an abundance of mosquitoes that pose a problem to daily visitors and workers. This experiment seeks to reduce the mosquito population in LES community gardens by creating and designing mosquito traps and implementing dragonfly nymphs to reduce mosquito larva populations. The honey + yeast trap was the most successful in capturing insects, particularly more mosquitos than the perfume trap and the sugar + yeast trap. The experiment also found that dragonfly nymphs successfully ate all the mosquito larvae after 4 hours. However, they do not contribute enough to mosquito population reduction.
This page was originally developed by BioBus Summer 2021 Jr. Scientist William Rhee.