The purpose of this project was to assess the techniques used to manage stormwater accumulations in terms of their role in mosquito diversity and presence/absence of several arboviruses, such as West Nile, St. Louis and Eastern Equine encephalitis. Mosquito diversity and abundance as well as an arbovirus survey was compared among three types of stormwater facilities: Shallow Marshes, Retention Ponds and Extended Detention Ponds (n=3 replicates/facility type) in Howard and Montgomery Counties, Maryland. Mosquito collections for larvae and adults were made biweekly from June - October, 2003. Larvae were sampled with 250ml mosquito dippers (50 dips/site), preserved and returned to the lab for identification. Adult mosquitoes were collected with gravid traps and CO2 traps. Adult mosquitoes were preserved on dry ice and returned to the lab for identification and viral assays. The presence of viral antigen specific to West Nile, Saint Louis and Eastern Equine viruses in mosquitoes was conducted with the VecTestTM , a rapid immunochromatographic assay. Aquatic habitats for larvae were characterized in terms of pH, DO, conductivity as well as floating, emergent and surrounding vegetation analyses.
Keywords: stormwater management, West Nile virus
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