Jashandeep Singh: week 1 vector control yaphank

 Hello! My name is Jashandeep Singh, a rising senior at Nyit university and currently i am doing summer internship at the Suffolk County vector control that mainly works on tick and mosquitoes surveillance. We got a tour of the building, met the entomologists, and talked about mosquito and tick control projects, as well as site restoration work during first two days.I liked learning about the common ticks on Long Island, like deer ticks, American dog ticks, rabbit ticks and lone star ticks. On Tuesday, we spent most of the day looking at tick samples under a microscope and practicing how to identify them.

For the rest of the week, we went to different field sites like timber point, gardener park each morning to collect and record mosquito larvae. In the afternoons, we looked at the larvae under a microscope and used dichotomous keys to practice identifying them. The field sites are very pretty, but I’m still getting used to walking in the marshes with hip boots. The plants are thick, and the ground is uneven with some soft, muddy spots that are easy to sink into.