During 2020 to 2021 and 2023 to 2025, inspections of more than 1,300 unique storm sewer basins across an approximately 270 sq mi (699.3 sq km) area of Cook County were inspected. During inspections Culex pipiens and Cx. restuans made up 79.0% and 20.8%, respectively, of 11,999 larvae collected during inspections within epidemiological weeks 22 to 43, or June through October. Culex pipiens was the dominant species in basins when average weekly West Nile virus (WNV) percent positive pools were the highest, generally through the months of July through September. This finding suggests that, at a minimum, levels of larvicide control remain near or at 100% mortality in basins during this time of both high Cx. pipiens and high WNV. Ensuring closer to maximum in control in basins during times when Cx. pipiens can be found in basins may also minimize potential for larvicide resistance of that species as sublethal doses would be less common.

The mosquito species Aedes bertrami was collected during an expedition conducted during summer 2017, in a site of a conserved area of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Campeche State, southeastern Mexico. Within this material, a single adult female was first identified as species of Ae. (Protomacleaya). At the time, taxonomically challenging specimens were classified only to genus or subgenus level. The collection was recently reexamined as part of curatorial activities concerning mosquito specimens collected from the Yucatan Peninsula and held at UAAAN-UL. The single adult female previously identified as Ae. (Protomacleaya) sp. was reidentified as Ae. bertrami based on morphological characters. This is the first record of Ae. bertrami in Mexico, and the first record outer from Belize, where the species has only been recorded. With the addition of Ae. bertrami to the mosquito fauna in Mexico, there are 255 species currently recorded in the country, with 25 species in the subgenus Protomacleaya of Aedes, and 12 species in the Terrens Group.

Mechanical aspirators are useful tools for capturing mosquitoes and collecting a greater diversity of species and physiological states than do attractive traps. Here we describe a novel aspirator design for collecting resting mosquitoes in diverse habitats. The aspirator is constructed of readily available components and is powered by a rechargeable 12-V battery.

Mosquitoes transmit a wide range of arboviruses that cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Surveillance approaches (sentinel animals, mosquito pool screening using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction [RT-qPCR], human serology) are limited by cost, processing time, and assay complexity, which can delay detection of arbovirus activity and timely implementation of vector control interventions. Here, we evaluated the performance of a colorimetric reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay under diverse conditions simulating real-world surveillance scenarios, using West Nile virus (WNV) and Everglades virus (EVEV). Colorimetric RT-LAMP assays detected WNV and EVEV without ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction from a range of samples after 30 mins isothermal amplification at 65°C. The WNV RT-LAMP assay enabled detection of WNV from a single infected mosquito within pooled mosquito homogenates (1:24 and 1:49) without RNA extraction. Additionally, WNV was detected in mosquito saliva collected from sugar-saturated swabs after feeding, demonstrating the potential of behavior-based surveillance for infectious mosquitoes. The EVEV RT-LAMP assay enabled detection of EVEV across high (7.25 log10 PFU/ml) and low (1.25 log10 PFU/ml) titers, as well as heat-inactivated virus, without RNA extraction. Two of the three WNV primer sets tested produced false positives. The colorimetric RT-LAMP platform enables rapid, extraction-free detection of arboviruses with simple visual readout and has strong potential as a scalable pre-screening tool for arbovirus surveillance programs. The RT-LAMP assays require in-house validation and confirmatory testing for positive field samples.

Larvae of Lutzia Theobald were collected from two mountain populations in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, from November 2021 to February 2022. The larvae were placed in flight cages to obtain pupae and adults. Through the morphology of larvae, pupae, and adults, it was determined that the species collected corresponded to Lt. bigoti previously reported in other regions of Mexico, representing the first report of this species in Sinaloa, Mexico. In contrast, when larvae were compared with dichotomous keys of specimens collected in Venezuela, differences were observed in the configuration of the ventral teeth of the mandibles, and the trumpets of the pupae varied with respect to specimens from Guatemala. It was not possible to make comparisons between specimens from Guatemala and Venezuela due to the lack of morphological descriptions. Molecular analyses based on partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and ITS2 sequences showed that the Mexican specimens clustered with other Mexican populations of Lt. bigoti and differed from South American populations currently identified as Lt. bigoti (from Brazil). The combined morphological and molecular evidence suggests that Lt. bigoti may represent a species complex in the Americas and highlights the need for a broader taxonomic reassessment of geographically separated populations.

Aedes japonicus is an invasive container-breeding mosquito species of considerable medical and veterinary importance. This species is native to eastern Asia but spread to North America in the late 1990s and to central Europe later. In the United States, Ae. japonicus was first detected in the Northeast in 1998. It has since spread to all states east of the Mississippi river including the five bordering states along the river's western bank (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana) as well as to Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii. In Louisiana, Ae. japonicus was first reported from Orleans parish in 2020 and then from St. Tammany parish in 2023. Here, we report Ae. japonicus from East Feliciana parish from 2025 to 2026 representing new parish records for the species in the state. However, the role of Ae. japonicus in the transmission of arboviruses in Louisiana is unknown and remains to be examined in further studies.

Nonnative and invasive mosquito species threaten public and veterinary health in the southern USA by introducing pathogens into new regions, making early detection of these species essential. To address this need, the Mosquito Biodiversity Enhancement and Control of Non-native Species (Mosquito BEACONS) Working Group provided training to mosquito surveillance professionals between 2021 and 2024. More than 190 individuals from public health, pest control, and research sectors participated. A 12-question online survey evaluated participant engagement, awareness, and application of skills learned. Twenty-two participants completed the survey, and results indicated that the training led to measurable behavioral changes, with participants applying the learned skills when returning to their home institutions. This study represents the first evaluation of an integrated pest management (IPM) training program focused on invasive species and offers a framework for improving future IPM training evaluations.

Between September 2024 to January 2026, 100 professionals working with mosquito and/or tick vectors and located primarily in the upper Midwest of the United States were interviewed. These interviews were used to assess the work performed in the region and to highlight successes and challenges of the work. The results suggest that collaboration within and across agencies is a strength, whereas a major challenge is that the public and politicians do not understand or appreciate the importance of their work in vector surveillance, vector control, and public outreach.

Mosquito surveillance is essential for monitoring disease risk. However, the high cost of industry-standard traps often limits sampling density in resource-constrained settings. This study evaluated a modified Katchy Indoor Insect Trap, a low-cost ultraviolet-light-emitting diode suction trap, for outdoor field surveillance in Florida. A randomized Latin square design was used to compare the modified Katchy to the New Standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Miniature Light Trap and the CDC Miniature Downdraft Blacklight Trap across three habitat types over 18 nights in 2024. A total of 4,213 mosquitoes were collected from all three traps. All traps exhibited similar mosquito abundance during the spring and summer months. However, during summer, the modified Katchy trap captured a greater species richness (18 species) than either CDC trap models (10 species each). Trap performance varied across species, and community similarity among trap types shifted seasonally. At approximately $60, including modifications, the Katchy trap represents a cost-effective option that performs comparably to the CDC models tested in this study. Although further multisite longitudinal studies are necessary to assess its performance across diverse ecological settings, these findings suggest that the modified Katchy trap is a promising supplemental surveillance tool for programs seeking to increase trap density under budget constraints.

Lee County Mosquito Control District (LCMCD) implemented helicopter-mounted Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to create high-resolution elevation models for refining larval mosquito habitat treatment boundaries in coastal and inland environments. Using a Ranger ULTRA laser scanning system equipped with an IMU-30 inertial measurement unit mounted on an Airbus H125 helicopter, the district mapped approximately 184,567 ha across Lee County during the 2026 dry season (January 13 to May 1), achieving vertical accuracy of 2.0 cm and horizontal point densities exceeding 30 points per square m. The LiDAR-derived elevation data enabled precise delineation of tidal and rainfall-driven flooding zones that may reduce treatment areas and associated larvicide costs while maintaining operational effectiveness. This operational note describes the equipment specifications, flight parameters, data processing methodology, cost-benefit outcomes, and lessons learned from large-scale implementation of LiDAR for integrated mosquito management and represents the first large-scale operational implementation of LiDAR within a mosquito control program.

Mosquito pool surveillance is a cornerstone of arbovirus risk assessment, yet traditional metrics such as the minimum infection rate (MIR) can understate infection probability and, as conventionally reported, do not provide uncertainty quantification that properly accounts for pooling. We analyzed 7 yr (2018-2024) of mosquito pool surveillance data using pooled maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) with transformed Clopper-Pearson confidence intervals to estimate per-mosquito infection probabilities. The dataset comprised 4,930 pools (246,500 mosquitoes) collected across 80 surveillance sites and tested for 6 arbovirus assay targets covering eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile, chikungunya, dengue, and Zika viruses. Viral circulation was sparse (5 positive pools, 0.10% overall positivity), but the pooled-likelihood framework still produced interpretable infection-probability estimates together with conservative upper confidence bounds in zero-positive and sparse-positive weeks. Peak infection probabilities ranged from 0.678 per 1,000 mosquitoes for West Nile virus in August 2022 to 2.667 per 1,000 for chikungunya and Zika virus detections in October 2018. In this low-positivity setting, MIR, pooled MLE, and the Firth/Burrows bias-reduced estimator were numerically close in the observed positive weeks, whereas the main practical gain came from interval estimates that made sampling uncertainty explicit. These results support moving from MIR-only summaries to a broader pooling-aware reporting framework in mosquito surveillance. Reporting both per-mosquito infection estimates and interval bounds places sparse detections and zero-positive weeks on a common operational scale and supports interpretation alongside other surveillance indicators.

Anopheles pseudopunctipennis is one of the most important malaria vectors in the Americas and historically contributed to transmission in northwestern Argentina. Although Argentina was certified malaria-free in 2019, surveillance of vector populations remains relevant to prevent reintroduction. We used ecological niche models to identify climatically suitable areas for An. pseudopunctipennis in Argentina, using occurrence records and bioclimatic variables from WorldClim 2.1. Records were compiled from the literature, biodiversity databases, and personal collections, and were filtered to remove duplicates, records lacking reliable coordinates, and records with high geographic uncertainty. To reduce the effect of clustered sampling on model calibration, occurrences were spatially thinned at 5 km. Models were calibrated with MaxEnt in the northwestern accessible area of the species in Argentina, testing combinations of feature classes and regularization multipliers. Candidate models were evaluated using omission rate, validation Area Under the Curve, and Akaike Information Criterion with Correction. After filtering, 312 records from 287 localities were retained. The best-supported model used LQHP features with regularization multiplier 1.0 and showed an average 10% omission rate of 0.11, validation AUC of 0.83, and the lowest AICc among candidate models (ΔAICc = 0). Suitable conditions were concentrated mainly in northwestern Argentina, especially in Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, and Catamarca, with additional suitable areas in parts of Santiago del Estero, San Juan, San Luis, Córdoba, Formosa, and Chaco. These results provide a first approximation of climatically suitable areas for An. pseudopunctipennis in Argentina and may support vector surveillance in a country where malaria has been eliminated but remains at risk of reintroduction.

Anthropogenic activities cause changes in natural environments, affecting the ecology of Anopheles mosquitoes and, therefore, increasing the potential for malaria transmission. Immature Anopheles were collected from different larval habitats in 3 geographical localities of northwestern Argentina: El Oculto, where the wild habitat included a mountain river; Aguas Blancas, where the peri-rural habitat consisted of stream ravines; and San Ramón de la Nueva Orán, where the peri-urban habitat comprised puddles, ponds, and irrigation and drainage channels. The incidence rate of each anopheline species was calculated according to the larval habitat. Additionally, to analyze the effect of environmental variables, the mean of each variable in each larval habitat was determined and related to the incidence of each anopheline species through Pearson's correlation coefficient. A total of 5,553 larvae belonging to the genus Anopheles were collected. The most abundant species was Anopheles pseudopunctipennis (33.35%), followed by An. (Nyssorhynchus) argyritarsis (28.47%), An. (Nys.) evansae (16.64%), and An. (Nys.) strodei (14.62%). Both An. pseudopunctipennis and An. argyritarsis were present across all larval habitats. Considering the larval habitats separately, An. argyritarsis emerged as the most abundant species in both the mountain river (wild habitat) and stream ravines (peri-rural habitat), while An. evansae and An. strodei predominated in the irrigation and drainage channels (peri-urban habitat). In the peri-rural habitat, mean water temperature was positively associated with the presence of An. argyritarsis. In the peri-urban habitat, mean temperature was positively associated with An. strodei and An. evansae, while a strong negative relationship between these 2 species and water pH was also observed. This study showed the importance of longitudinal entomological surveillance, not only in wild and peri-rural environments due to the abundance of main malaria vectors, An. pseudopunctipennis and An. argyritarsis, but also in peri-urban areas. Considering that both vector species can transition to urban sites, as observed in other countries, current and future changes in these habitats require further studies. Consequently, research should focus on the emergence of new larval habitats that could favor a higher abundance of these malaria vector species.

The continued efficacy of adulticide products is critical for effective mosquito control and rapid response during arboviral disease outbreaks. In Collier County, Florida, documented pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti has increased reliance on other chemistries, including products containing the organophosphate naled. To evaluate current susceptibility status to naled, 7 Ae. aegypti populations were collected from "hot spot" locations in Collier County between 2022 and 2026 and assessed using the Centers for Disease Control and Protection Bottle Bioassay. Five populations, including all residential and commercial sites, were classified as susceptible. One population collected from a tire shop demonstrated developing resistance in both 2022 (93.75%) and 2023 (92.49%), while a golf course population exhibited confirmed resistance in 2022 (52.23%) but shifted to developing resistance in 2023 (90.43%) following site redevelopment. Although most populations remain susceptible, the detection of localized reduced susceptibility highlights the dynamic nature of resistance and the importance of continued comprehensive monitoring. These findings suggest that naled should be used with caution against Ae. aegypti, particularly during arbovirus outbreaks where rapid and reliable vector suppression is essential, and support the need for proactive resistance management and insecticide rotation strategies to preserve operational efficacy.

Mosquito oviposition site selection is governed by chemical, physical, microbial, conspecific, and heterospecific cues, which can alter water composition and breeding site quality, yet field-based evaluations of how specific water chemistry parameters influence egg-laying behavior remain limited. Improving the sensitivity of oviposition-based surveillance tools, such as ovitraps, requires identifying chemical cues that reliably attract or deter gravid females under field conditions. We assessed oviposition responses of wild mosquito populations, including Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus, to 4 water treatments (geosmin-beetroot peel extract [hereafter geosmin extract], pH, salinity, and sucrose) across a gradient of concentrations at 4 field sites in Indian River County, FL, from September to December 2025. Egg counts were collected weekly from paired ovitraps and analyzed using negative binomial generalized linear mixed models with Dunnett's post-hoc contrasts and oviposition activity indices (OAI). Geosmin extract at the highest dose (3.75 ml) significantly increased oviposition by 123% relative to controls (P < 0.001), making it the only stimulant identified. Salinity produced a strong dose-dependent deterrent effect, with complete oviposition cessation at 3% (OAI = -0.56, P = 0.003). Sucrose showed a consistent deterrent trend, with evidence of significant reduction at the highest concentration. pH modifications showed variable but generally deterrent effects, with pH 9.0 reducing egg counts by 55%. These findings demonstrate that geosmin extract is a promising field-deployable stimulant for improving ovitrap sensitivity in surveillance programs, whereas salinity and sucrose function as effective oviposition deterrents. Notably, this study provides the first field evidence that a crude aqueous extract prepared from red beet (Beta vulgaris) peels, a natural source of geosmin, stimulates oviposition by gravid Ae. albopictus, extending previous work conducted exclusively on Ae. aegypti.