LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Like most pests, mosquitoes can grow resistant to treatment, but at the Lee County Mosquito Control District, new research helps them stay one step ahead of those bugs.
Biologist Nick Cotter spends hours in the district's lab.
He started this research nearly a year ago. Cotter tests mosquitoes resistance to the chemical treatments the district sprays.
"The better understanding you have of resistance in the area, the more prepared you're gonna be to make those operational decisions to treat, when to treat and how to treat," Cotter said.
The research tells the district to use a different tool if the bug doesn't die from the treatment.
Learn how they test for mosquitoes resistance to treatment in Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades' report:
Cotter tests the mosquitoes in two ways.
One way is with bottle bioassays. He measures the chemicals, pours them into a bottle and lets the chemicals dry.
Then, he puts the mosquitoes in the bottle to see the number of mosquitoes that survived.
The is the other test is called microplateassay. Cotter blends the mosquitoes with a solution. Then, a machine reads the results.
The higher the number, the more resistant the mosquito.
"The resistance is there, but it's not terribly widespread, but there are some severe, a very high resistance," Cotter explained.
His research is fairly new, and Cotter said he believes he's one of few doing it. Cotter said a biologist from the Cayman Islands plans to visit the district to start similar research in their country.
Jenifer McBride, who works at the district, breaks down mosquito resistance this way.
"Every day people aren't gonna notice it because it could still kill insects. It's still killing insects, but maybe not at the rate that it's supposed to be doing," McBride said.
She explained the results from the research helps them do their job better when it comes to spraying across the county.
"Resistance is really about protecting public health. We need to make sure that we are controlling this mosquito that could carry a virus."
To do that, they need multiple options not only chemicals, for example,the sterilization insect technique Fox 4 told you about last month.
McBride said, "We can't keep doing what we're doing for the sake of doing it. We have to make sure that we're problem-solving"
So all of us can suffer less, one mosquito bite at a time.
