Mosquito Alert and the Marimurtra Botanical Garden continue their collaboration in various experiments related to the tiger mosquito
Marimurtra, due to its climatic characteristics and the great plant biodiversity it contains, requires variable water inputs. All in all, it generates habitats very similar to the natural ones of the tiger mosquito. For this reason, it becomes an ideal place for carrying out Mosquito Alert experiments.
It should be noted that Marimurtra applies treatments to prevent the proliferation of this invasive species with very good results, and yet it is still a very suitable natural laboratory to carry out this type of study.
The following studies are currently being conducted:
1.Study of the dynamics of tiger mosquito populations throughout the season through the deployment of a series of traps to monitor the adult mosquito population in the Garden.
These traps are part of a more extensive network of traps throughout the province of Girona. The aim is to have data on the population dynamics of the mosquito in the province to understand the climatic factors, land uses (urban, garden, urbanization, etc ..) and sociodemographic that determine the abundance of mosquitoes.
2.Study of the population structure of the tiger mosquito in the garden and its survival. Experimentally, it is being studied in the garden how long a tiger mosquito lives and the demographic structure of its populations, this is done by comparing the survival rates of an experimental population born in a laboratory whose age is known, and wild individuals caught in the garden. The survival study is important because the tiger mosquito is a vector (ie, transmitter) of disease. Therefore, determining the length of time mosquitoes live allows us to better understand the potential for transmission of these diseases.
3.Analysis of the treatments that are being done to control the proliferation of tiger mosquitoes and determine how these treatments affect the mosquito population.
4.Study of the human-mosquito interaction network. The goal is to analyze how many people can be bitten by a tiger mosquito from the genetic study of blood found inside female mosquitoes. Genetics makes it possible to find out if the blood corresponds to one, two or more different people and therefore to know how many different people a female can bite.
It is very interesting to determine what the network of interactions of the tiger mosquito is because there is not much scientific information about it and it will be possible to determine the potential for transmission of the diseases of which the tiger mosquito is a vector.
This pioneering study is done by relating the DNA in the blood in the abdomen of the female mosquito to the DNA of people who donated it to do this study. This way, you can know how many different people the mosquito has bitten and how many times it has bitten the same person.
5.Installing a smart trap. This trap works with artificial intelligence and is able to identify mosquitoes that enter it from the sensors it contains.
With these experiments, the Marimurtra Botanical Garden continues to collaborate with the Mosquito Alert project to better understand the behavior of the tiger mosquito and its impact on the human population. You can find more information about the tiger mosquito in Marimurtra by clicking here.
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