NEVBD-TEC Summer Internship Program

          Hello! I'm Veronica, a rising junior at Vassar College, and I am currently a summer intern at the Garrett County Health Department in Maryland, focusing on tick surveillance and awareness efforts in the area. I recently finished my first week at the office, and I was really enthused by what I've done and learned so far.      The week started off slow, allowing me to get acquainted with the people working in the office and to familiarize myself with the purposes of my role here. By Wednesday, I was caught up in how the office processes the tick samples we collect and prepares them for shipment for other labs that are able to test them for various pathogens that can impact humans and pets. I spent much of my first couple of days identifying different species, genders, and life stages of ticks in the area, and slowly sorting them so they can be shipped out. So far, as expected, I. scapularis and D. variabilis samples have been col...

 Last week I finished up my 4th week of my internship with the Virginia Department of Health. I did two trips last week one on Wednesday and other on Thursday. My Wednesday trip was back down to Boydton, Virginia to hit two sites for tick dragging. First site was Eagle Point Wildlife Management Area and collected a good amount of ticks, 26 in total but all lonestar ticks and they were almost all nymphs. Second site was Greenwood Wildlife Management Area and collected almost no ticks oddly, both on the trail and deep in the woods off trail. My Thursday trip was to Cumberland Marsh Natural Area Preserve in New Kent, Va, beautiful area but the black flies and horseflies were abysmal basically hundreds of them nonstop swarming and attacking me on my walk over to the trail werevi was going to look for ticks. I collected 120 ticks on just the trail alone, almost entirely lonestar ticks of every life stage, only other species I got were blacklegged ticks but only collected 4, finding 120 ...

 This past week was my fifth week conducting mosquito surveillance. This week was a bit different than usual because my group had a training session in a different county. We set the traps out like normal on Monday and collected the mosquitoes on Tuesday. We tried to sort as much as possible before we had to leave for training on Wednesday. The training lasted two days and was very inciteful.  These instructors had much more experience with mosquitoes than all of my group and did a good job giving us better ways to capture and sort throughout a week.  On Wednesday, we practiced identifying mosquitoes, and the instructors gave us a key they made themselves from the use of multiple other keys. We have been using a key for all of North America and as you can imagine that is very broad and confusing. They also showed us some species that we have never identified before which was nice because we are more informed on what we could be seeing.  On Thursday, we talked about a...

Today concludes my first week interning at Suffolk County Vector Control. Due to poor weather, Monday and Tuesday were both spent in the lab. We received a tour of the facilities, met the entomologists on site, and discussed mosquito/tick control projects and site restorations. I enjoyed learning about the most common tick species on Long Island, which include deer ticks, American dog ticks, and lone star ticks. We spent most of the day on Tuesday looking at tick specimens under the microscope, practicing our identification skills. For the remainder of the week, we spent each morning at various field sites collecting and documenting mosquito larvae. During the afternoon, we put our mosquito larvae under the microscope and practiced using dichotomous keys to ID them. The field sites are beautiful, but I'm still getting used to walking with my hip boots in the marshes. The grasses and plants are thick, and the ground is pretty irregular with some unexpected patches of very soft mud t...

 Last week I finished my fourth week of my internship! Work has definitely started to pick up and we are running light traps once a week at two different sites. We also started to experiment with gravid traps but have not caught much in those yet. The gravid traps require a hay and water mixture to sit for a few days so it can get an odor that attracts the female mosquitoes to lay their eggs. More students have gotten involved with our specific project as well so I, along with another student, have been training these students how to identify the mosquitoes efficiently. We have not sent any pools to the lab for testing yet because we have not found the target species that we know of. Our main goal so far had been to get better at identifying and keeping the mosquitoes in good condition. The plan is to send our first pools next week.

 As my second week is coming to an end, I’ve learned a lot! During breaks, we spent time learning about DNREC’s organizational structure — how the different divisions are set up, what each one does, and how they all work together to protect Delaware’s natural resources. It’s fascinating to see how interconnected the work is and how every department plays a role in supporting the environment. On Tuesday, we focused on mosquito surveillance by setting light traps. These traps use CO₂ tanks, special lights, fans, and collection bags to attract mosquitoes overnight. The mosquitoes are drawn in by the carbon dioxide (which simulates human breath) and the warmth of the light, thinking it's a potential host. Once they get close, the fan sucks them into a collection cup where they are safely stored for later identification. The design is smart — the mosquitoes can breathe inside the cup through small holes until we collect them the next day. Wednesday was a bit different for me. While an...

 Last Tuesday, I took another trip to south central Virginia to Dick Cross Natural Area and Fort Barfoot Reservoir for more tick drags. Majority of the ticks collected Lonestar tick nymphs with 29 at Dick Cross and 43 at Fort Barfoot Reservoir. The bottom photo shows all the ticks collected at both sites in our ethanol tubes to show how many tiny nymphs decided to jump on my tick drag. The top photo is an adult male Gulf Coast tick uner the microscope I collected from Dick Cross. When I first collected it, I thought it was a adult male American Dog tick, but the mouth was different. It has a pretty decorative back that I thought looked really cool and it is not a common find in Virginia.

  I am incredibly honored and excited to be selected as an intern for the summer internship through the NEVBD-TEC Summer Internship Program with DNREC Fish and Wildlife Division. This amazing opportunity allows me to gain hands-on experience, work closely with professionals in the field, and contribute to important environmental work here in Delaware. The week of 6/2 was my first week, and it was full of new experiences and valuable lessons. On Monday, we went into the marshes to monitor mosquito larvae. We used a dipper to collect samples from different spots and carefully counted the larvae while identifying which stage of development they were in. We also kept track of any "hot spots" — areas that could become problematic breeding grounds and might need extra attention or even pesticide treatment. It was fascinating to learn how the position and appearance of larvae help us determine their growth stage.   (picture 1. My dip) On Tuesday, we shifted our focus to tick surveil...

 Hello! I've had a wonderful first week at this internship! For the first couple of days, I had the chance to shadow the collection of Gravid and Light traps in multiple areas of the county. The most tedious part is sorting out the many other insect specimens that get caught in the light traps. In addition to this, I started learning about identifying samples from Gravid traps and larvae samples. I'm getting ready to start this next week, using my knowledge of identification for more lab work! 

 My first few weeks of this internship started off at a slow pace since we had a lot of trouble getting some crucial materials for the mosquito traps. I just finished my third week, and we finally caught some mosquitoes! Two light traps were set out on Tuesday, left to run all night, and we went back on Wednesday to retrieve what we caught. We spent the rest of the week trying to identify each species in our catch. This was a bit of a challenge since I have never worked with mosquitoes before and the characteristics were tough to see at times. However, I think I have gotten the hang of using the dichotomous key and identifying the species.  Attached is a picture of the light trap. The mosquitoes are attracted to the light and the dry ice coming out of the blue container. Then, the fan below the light sucks the mosquitoes into the mesh catch container and keeps them contained by blowing air downwards.