Jamie Longo Blog 1 Suffolk County Vector Control: Mosquitoes

 Hello fellow interns and supervisors! I am a rising Junior at St. John’s University pursuing a bachelors in biology. I couldn’t be more grateful to be afforded this opportunity through the NEVBD-TEC Summer Internship Program and look forward to sharing my experience with this side of research! One of the first things that came from this internship was an acute consciousness of weather patterns and natural cycles, as they’ve been much more involved in deciding the kind of days I have. I hadn’t realized how regulated and indoors my life was until my day to day tasks depended on being outside longer than a 10 minute walk from transportation to destination. Working with the tides, the insects, the sky, you really just have to go with the flow nature dictates day by day. 

Our job as a unit is to maintain a stable control over the vectors and habitats within our county to ensure public and environmental health and safety. We surveil our areas, input the data, and devise a plan to spread resources effectively to keep populations at bay. 

The first thing we were introduced to was larva sampling on the marshes. I don’t know what I was expecting but I definitely underestimated the uneven terrain with its sink spots and all. It took adapting and getting used to for sure. The first week I was definitely out of breath every day, almost fell at least a dozen times, and was the first to fall into a ditch (although looking back I should’ve known better than to take that step). I misjudged a false bottom and got stuck in the mud up to my waist, but thankfully only 1 leg was stuck and after a lot of wriggling I got myself out. I expected it to feel more life threatening but it was honestly just frustrating since as soon as i hit the real bottom I was just standing there. That wasn’t my last fall either, and I definitely take the trophy for intern with most falls this summer, but I honestly just have an appreciation for the improvement and perseverance, as well as a sincere gratitude for flat ground. The larva sampling itself is pretty simple and fun when you find them, and you submit little surveys all throughout the walk which is pretty cool and efficient. I like the feeling of putting the pieces together with our data to best contribute to the game plan for vector control every week.

After sampling on the marsh we go to the lab to ID the larva and even adults if we catch them under the microscope, which is one of my favorite tasks. It was very fascinating to learn all the features and species and to just be able to see all the intricate details you’d never be able to see otherwise. When the larva are young enough they are translucent and you can actually see their circulatory system pumping. I aim to learn as much about the internal structures as I’ve learned about the exterior sometime. Even though you normally ID the larva “face down” with their mouths down and you’re looking at the “top of their heads”, They have unique color patterns that often look like different kinds of faces which are fun to personify. I find the specimens to be very beautiful actually, although when I show pictures to friends and family they can’t exactly say the same. 

When we’re not on the field or in the lab we sometimes contribute to the office work including further data logging and organizing which I also enjoy, and since a lot of our data is location based It’s been fun learning the geography of our area and recognizing areas in person solely from the data. Even when they don’t have to, our leaders also show us other sides of the operation, and just talking with them about what they do has taught me so much about how their system works vastly and intricately with both official governmental affairs and natural biological occurrences. They show us the other physical tasks as well, such as the pesticide application process with the backpacks and the trucks and even a helicopter!

Before we were brought out on the field to join the efforts though, we learned about the significance and history behind what we do, which I thought was pretty cool. 

The history of our involvement in the marshes starts with Spartina Patens, or Salt Hay, a cash crop that was used for various purposes such as livestock feed, paper making, insulation, etc. To maximize abundance, thereby profit, various alterations were made on the marshes consisting of ditches and embankments to regulate flooding and salinity. This unfortunately was later found to have made serious damage to the environment and worsened the mosquito issues. As time and science advanced and mosquitoes were discovered to be vectors, organized efforts began to develop to combat their disease spread. Unfortunately their initial plans for grid ditching had the opposite effect intended and later worsened mosquito populations yet again. After further study with chemical attack trial and error, We thankfully reached a system, Integrated Marsh Management, that takes multiple aspects into consideration and aims for proper wetland sustainability. It involves habitat restoration, landscape and vegetation monitoring, mosquito larva, salinity, water level, and nekton sampling, all of which have been part of an ongoing conservation success story. I’m proud to be able to say I’ve been part of such a wonderful mission and happy I’ve been able to look into all of its moving parts.