NEVBD-TEC Summer Internship Program

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve officially finished the first half of my internship with DNREC! The past few weeks have been packed with traveling across Delaware, collecting ticks, and identifying tick species. We even had an "arts and crafts" day where we made a tick bagel (an everything bagel with a few hidden ticks) and created resin ticks for outreach events to help show people just how tiny ticks really are.                                                         A photo of my team and me working on the resin ticks!        An example of our resin ticks!  I also spent time working with the mosquito crew, taking the Argo out into the marsh for mosquito surveillance and helping set up light traps. Over the course of one day, we visited fourteen different sites to place mosquito traps for...

I've just wrapped up my first three weeks interning with the St. Lawrence County Department of Health at SUNY Potsdam, working on mosquito-borne disease surveillance through NEVBD. I've settled into my role and everyday tasks quickly, and have picked up a variety of new skills over the past few weeks. My time so far has been split between mornings in the field, learning our mosquito surveillance methods, and afternoons in the lab, learning to ID and sort our captured specimens. We set and check several types of traps, each designed to capture mosquitoes engaged in a different behavior: CDC CO2 light traps, which use light and dry ice to attract host-seeking females overnight; gravid traps, which draw in egg-laying females with pans of stagnant water; and black resting boxes, which we check for mosquitoes sheltering after a blood meal. To collect from the resting boxes, we use aspirators, handheld vacuums, built for the job. A couple of photos of our aspirator and a gravid trap ...

 In my fourth week at the ABDL, I spent a lot of time gathering sources for my project and continued my draft. While doing research, I learned so much about tick-borne diseases and how factors like climate change and habitat modification are contributing to the expansion of tick populations into the Northeastern United States. I got to practice data analysis and use my research skills to further improve my project. In the fourth week, I also had lots of practice sorting the ticks | had collected previously from different sites. As I continue to work at the microscope, I feel increasingly confident in my abilities to identify ticks. We were also able to go to some beautiful sites on Long Island, and I got more experience out in the field flagging for ticks. I also got to attend an informational council meeting that discussed deer, ticks, prevention, and tick-borne diseases in Suffolk County. This was a great opportunity for learning about public health strategies in real time, which...

I can't believe three weeks have already passed; it's gone by so fast! For the past three weeks, I have been doing surveillance on Aedes Albopictus mosquitoes and various other tasks around the lab. During my first week, I was learning the ropes of setting up OVI-position and BG-GAT traps and the exact routes that I go to every Tuesday and Wednesday. Since Aedes Albopictus is attracted to tires, there are a lot of tire shops, often used tire shops, that are on the route. During my first week, I also learned how to make the solution that we use for the OVI-position at GAT traps, which includes hay, oak leaves, yeast, and lactalbumin (picture shown is setting up the solution before we head out on routes).  After my first week, I was able to start my Aedes Albopictus surveillance route solo. I was able to retrieve samples from the OVI position and GAT traps from all the sites and refill the traps with solution. I ran into a roadblock with one of the GAT traps having been broken w...

I finished my first two weeks at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC)! I started the summer off strong with a lot of field work across the state of Delaware. Every two weeks, we rotate parks and drag for ticks for one kilometer, and then take the ticks back to the office for identification and data collection. We do this to monitor tick populations, their behavior, and their ecology across different areas as the year goes by. On top of tick dragging, we also work with many different wildlife biologists to collect ticks from different animals such as birds, foxes, and squirrels.  When I'm not in the field or lab, I am constantly learning from other experts and how we all work together. A great example of this was the Delaware One Health Conference, where I had the opportunity to listen to presentations on new research, technology, and public health topics. This conference really highlighted how interconnected we are and the importance of eff...

Today marks two whole weeks of my time at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health Vector Control Department. Instead of sitting through an introductory presentation on my first day, I was thrown into the field and learned things as I went. During the first week, I was taught how to put together and place gravid traps to catch gravid (egg-laying) mosquitos. The process was much more simple that I thought it would be, using a bin and a toolbox-esque trap with a fan, battery, and collection box. We would leave multiple traps throughout the city and come pick them up after 24 hours. After collecting the traps, we noted the date, times, and locations where each trap was found. When we made it back to the department building, we froze the collection boxes and collected  freeze the collection boxes and approximate how many mosquitoes were in each trap. By the second week we were setting BG traps throughout the city and practicing how to set them up and take them down for data collect...