Secure Choice Mosquito Trial

The week of May 15th I traveled to Arizona and California. I flew to Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon and drove to Tucson. Wednesday morning I gave a training class on rodent control and management of stinging insects to a group of PMP's. After the class I drove back to Phoenix to fly to Burbank CA.
I arrived around 4 pm and jumped in my rental car and headed north to Madera (just north of Fresno).

I was in California to help Gary Braness set out our Secure Choice Mosquito control trial. We are working with the Madera Mosquito Abatement District to create barrier treatments for control of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The idea is to spray Demand CS and Archer insect growth regulator around the house and on the landscape plants. We also monitor for mosquito pressure using a B&G trap with dry ice.

Gary Braness using a mist blower applicator to spray the vegetation

Thursday we treated the 5 control houses (water only). Friday we treated 3 of the 5 treatment houses.
We were done around noon so I was back in the car headed south. I decided to stop and get some lunch in Fowler just south of Fresno. I found Mexican place called Favorito's. The food was great and I had time to read The Brothers Karamazov.

Found this container full of brown water, mosquito larvae (all 4 instars) and pupae. If we hadn't found this they would have been inundated with mosquitoes

I was back in Burbank around 4. I changed clothes and had dinner at the Panda Express. My flight home was at 7 am so I was up early and off to the airport. This was a fun trip with the field trial work. I'm hoping we get good results from this trial.