Climate Central analysis<\/a> found Raleigh gained 27 additional days with conditions favorable for mosquito activity between 1979 and 2022. Warmer temperatures, along with changes in rainfall and land use, are extending the season when mosquitoes can thrive and potentially spread disease.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTraps mimic people to attract mosquitoes<\/p>\n
Instead of spraying insecticides, the Biogents traps use carbon dioxide, airflow and an artificial scent to imitate the signals mosquitoes use to locate people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey think it\u2019s a human being looking to feed, and then it gets sucked into the trap,\u201d Biogents President Jon Anderson said.<\/p>\n
The traps do not use light, which can attract moths, beetles and other insects. Biogents says its combination of humanlike scent and carbon dioxide is designed to target mosquitoes seeking a blood meal.<\/p>\n
The three traps are positioned near the edges of the property, where mosquitoes are more likely to shelter in shade and vegetation before approaching people.<\/p>\n
\u201cMosquitoes, they don\u2019t fly far and they don\u2019t like to be in the open, so they want to hang out in the edges,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
Each trap uses a fan to pull mosquitoes into a collection net. A counter records activity in 15-minute intervals, allowing the company to track catches over time.<\/p>\n
Biogents says all of the more than 9,000 mosquitoes caught during the pilot were female. Female mosquitoes bite because they need blood to produce eggs.<\/p>\n
The catch total shows how many mosquitoes the traps removed, but it does not, by itself, establish how much the overall mosquito population or number of bites declined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anderson said Biogents evaluates its systems by looking for a gradual decline in catches over several months and adjusting the number and placement of traps when needed.<\/p>\n
The existing pilot does not cover the entire soccer complex. Anderson estimated that about 10 traps would be needed to create a perimeter around a larger section of the property, though the number would depend on mosquito activity and surrounding habitat.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNCFC Youth reports a promising start<\/p>\n
Off said staff members have noticed fewer mosquitoes near the maintenance area where the traps are operating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is quiet and kind of hidden in the back. Nobody really even notices it\u2019s there,\u201d Off said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a good summer this year with the system in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosquito activity naturally fluctuates with heat, rainfall and the time of year, making it difficult to attribute changes solely to the traps without baseline and comparison data.<\/p>\n
The pilot began during the summer and has continued into early fall. Biogents sponsored the equipment and installation, allowing NCFC Youth to test the system without paying for it.<\/p>\n
The soccer complex hosts camps throughout the summer, training during the week and games and tournaments on weekends. Off said reducing pesticide use was especially important because children spend so much time on the fields.<\/p>\n
\u201cExposure to unnecessary pesticides, and the mosquitoes themselves, we\u2019re trying to reduce that and make this a safe environment for kids to play,” Off said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPotential alternative to repeated spraying<\/p>\n
Pyrethroids remain an important tool because they can reduce adult mosquito populations quickly, particularly during an outbreak of mosquito-borne disease. However, repeated use can create selection pressure: Mosquitoes that survive a treatment can reproduce and pass resistance traits to their offspring.<\/p>\n
Broad insecticide applications can also affect bees, butterflies and other insects if the chemicals drift or are applied to flowering plants.<\/p>\n
NC State researchers recommend using several mosquito-control strategies rather than repeatedly relying on one insecticide. Those measures include removing standing water, treating water that cannot be emptied with a larvicide such as Bti and using traps that target different stages of the mosquito life cycle.<\/p>\n
Anderson said the traps are more labor-intensive than spraying because they need electricity, carbon dioxide and replacement scent lures. Home systems start at about $200 per trap, according to the company, with additional costs for lures and carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n
Whether NCFC Youth expands the system will depend on what the pilot data show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can see the numbers that come in,\u201d Off said. \u201cWe start to see those numbers adding up, and expanding would be something that we would consider.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three traps installed at WRAL Soccer Park have captured more than 9,000 mosquitoes since mid-July, according to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4253,192,29899,362355,79],"class_list":["post-858223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-mosquitoes","tag-ncfc","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}