Mosquito population monitoring by the ISU Medical Entomology Laboratory began in central Iowa last month and around the rest of the state last week.
Mosquito collection data can be viewed online at the Iowa Mosquito Net. To view data for a specific trapping site click on "County" in the left hand column and then "View Raw Data" link at the bottom of the page. Be patient while the pages load! Summary of mosquito activity in Iowa Mosquitoes are now common throughout Iowa. However, they are not very abundant in the big scheme of things. Light traps used for monitoring are collecting 50-100 mosquitoes per trap per night. This compares to the thousands that are collected per night during more dire situations. There are always individual exceptions. For instance, one site in Black Hawk County last week yielded mosquito numbers that indicate recent floods. This exemplifies the importance of checking out the data for your particular area. The nuisance Aedes species dominate collections so far. For the first couple of weeks of trapping in May, Culiseta and Culex were the most common.
New Jersey light trap records for the state of Iowa are shown for the current and previous year. Data are shown as a weekly average that accounts for the number of traps running.
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