Week 9 at GCHD

 Week 9: A Week at the County Fair


In order to ensure engagement with a greater amount of the county’s population, Melinda had me spend my evenings this week at the county’s annual agricultural fair, an event that brings out many faces that weren’t necessarily at the birthday bash. I spent several evenings at the fair nearby other local organizations, and shared some of our resources for tick prevention, removal, awareness, etc. 


I met a ton of friendly faces that appreciated the information, and several kids that had fun with a tick-themed game I had at the booth. When things weren't busy, I ended up crocheting a female Ixodes and Dermacentor tick to pass the time. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a heat wave coming through during that week, and the barn my booth was in was not air-conditioned. Though the weather was a bit unpleasant, I enjoyed my time conversing with the locals in the area and their experiences with ticks. 


As a result of me spending my evenings working, I decided to take my mornings off to balance my time. When I came in, I mostly did fieldwork and a few minor things in the office (organizing data, creating graphs, etc.). Towards the end of the week, Melinda and I received an email from a scientist conducting research on Lyme disease rates and tick populations based on various weather patterns in Maryland. She asked for us to share some of our past surveillance data as part of her analysis. It was exciting to see that our data could be put to use in such a large project, so we were happy to share.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yuliia Skrypniuk - Week 2 with DNREC Fish and Wildlife Division

Image
 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...
Read more

Week 3 Tick Surveillance- Shawn Schwenn

Image
 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.
Read more

Week 5 Notes! (Nicole Shevera)

Image
     This week has been fun as well! I've been doing more shadowing on selecting locations and collecting egg rafts! I hope to start doing it on my own once I receive the Collection Kit and the Bottle assays next week. In addition, a new seasonal worker is coming on Wednesday. Someone who can help me set up IR traps next week! We had more larval samples that I was able to do identification for in practice for the mosquitoes I will be rearing after we set up and collect the traps.     As a fun side note, I learned about the possibility of box tree moths in NJ and might get the chance to aid in placing traps while keeping an eye out for them in the light traps!
Read more