Section III - Mosquito Biology and Control

• Meeting the Challenge of West Nile Virus without Poisons. Deanna McKinney. Winter 2002. Journal of Pesticide Reform 22(4). Provides a good overview of the West Nile virus along with a table of mosquito pesticides (both Adulticides and Larvicides), their selectivity, and their health & environmental hazards (http://www.pesticide.org/westnilevirus.pdf).
• "Mosquito Hygiene" throughout the Life Cycle of Culex Mosquitoes. Environmental Risk Analysis Program, Cornell University. June 2002 (2nd edition).

  This full-color 11 x 17 poster shows what Culex mosquitoes look like at each stage of development (egg, larva, pupa and adult) and provides practical information about mosquito control at each life stage. [Preview]     [Ordering Information]

• Managing for West Nile Virus Infection in the USA. 2002. WILDPro. Wildlife Information Network: London. (http://www.wildlifeinformation.org).

  The WILDPro module is available on-line and as a CD-ROM (PC - Internet explorer).
  Preview: http://www.wildlifeinformation.org/PREVIEW_WILDPro.htm.

  See our Bibliography of Scientific Literature for more information

• The Mosquito Genome: Anopheles gambiae. Science 4 October 2002. Vol. 298 No. 5591 pp1-310. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol298/issue5591/index.shtml. This special issue presents the complete sequence of the genome of Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that is the major vector of malaria. Articles, reports and new features present the implications of this new information for tropical medicine and arthropod research for the many vector borne diseases including West Nile Virus.
• Controlling Mosquitoes Around the Home. Wayne J. Crans and Farida Mahmood. 1994. New Jersey Mosquito Control Association, Associated Executives of Mosquito Control Work in New Jersey, and Rutgers University. http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/house.htm
• Products and Promotions That Have Limited Value for Mosquito Control. Wayne J. Crans. http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/proprom.htm Covers electronic repellers, bug zappers, purple martins, citrosa plants and bats.
• Culex pipiens Fact Sheet. New Jersey Mosquito Control Association, Associated Executives of Mosquito Control Work in New Jersey, and Rutgers University. 1 page. ( http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/cxpip.htm).
• Typical Life Cycle of Culex Mosquitoes. Lois Levitan. Rev April 2001. Environmental Risk Analysis Program, Cornell University. Four page PDF file containing presentation (simplified) and handout (with explanatory text) versions of the Culex life cycle, with control measures effective at each stage (http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/risk/WNV-MosqLifeCycle&Control.pdf).
• Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe. Andrew Spielman, Sc.D., and Michael D’Antonio. Hyperion, 2001. This book is a comprehensive study of the insect itself, its role in history, and its threat to mankind.
• Mosquitoes Are Out to Get Us. But We're Out to Get Them. Kannapell, Andrea. June 21, 1998. The New York Times, Long Island, Section 14 page 1, 10.
• Mosquito Movies. Wayne J. Crans and Anthony A. DiEdwardo. Rutgers University. Index of the 4 video clips is at: (http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/mosvid.htm).

       This series of short, fast video clips is great fun (and good educational value!). One of them shows Culex pipiens emerging from pupa and another (called "fillup") shows a mosquito filling her stomach on a blood meal.

• Mosquito Patrol. March 1999. Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service. 4-H Manual 165. Student Manual (30 pages) (http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/psapublishing/Pages/4H/4HMan165.pdf) and Leader/Teacher Guide (32 pages) (http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/psapublishing/Pages/4H/4HMan166.pdf).
• Operation Mosquito S.T.I.N.G.* (*Stop the Insects Next Generation) Westchester County Department of Health, Supplement to The Journal News.

  The "Operation Mosquito STING" web files are created as a series of jpg images. They can be downloaded onto regular size "typing" paper by setting print size to 53%. Some of the material in the handout is targeted to kids. (http://www.westchestergov.com/health/WNVSTINGSuppl.htm)

• University of Florida Bug Tutorials: Mosquitoes #1 & Mosquitoes #2. June 2001. University of Florida. (http://vector.ifas.ufl.edu/tutorials.htm)

       A USDA grant provided for the development of these two free downloadable, computer-verified training tutorials in the area of Public Health. They are based on Chapter 3 - "Mosquitoes" - of the Public Health Manual. Windows is required to run the tutorials.

• Public Health Pesticide Applicator Training Manual, Chapter 3: Mosquitoes. University of Florida and American Mosquito Control Association. (http://vector.ifas.ufl.edu/chapter_03.htm) and in PDF form (221 KB).

  This chapter provides information on the developmental stages, bionomics and habitat, and control of mosquitoes, as well as on mosquito sampling and surveillance.

• Skin Divers. August 2000. Jim Collins. US Airways Attache (http://www.attachemag.com/).

  Note:Most of the information/advice in this article is right on target. However, bat houses--although an excellent means of providing habitat for a beneficial animal whose habitat is being encroached--will not have a big impact in reducing mosquito populations. Bats do not preferentially eat mosquitoes, and are likely to choose to eat bigger insects, largely ignoring mosquitoes.

• West Nile Virus, Mosquitoes and Waste Lagoons North Carolina State Extension specialists. [htm]

  Note: Of particular interest is section on control of vegetation and nutrients in waters with high concentration of organic matter.

• What's All the Buzz about Mosquitoes? May 2000. Cornell University Community IPM Program.   Available in Spanish and English, html and 365 K pdf versions.
• Common-Sense Pest Control. 1991. Olkowski, William, Sheila Daar and Helga Olkowski. The Taunton Press, A Fine Gardening Book. Newtown, CT. 715 pages. Chapter 36: Mosquitoes, pages 663-679.
• US EPA. Mosquitoes: How to Control Them. (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/citizens/mosquito.htm).
• Interview with Andrew Spielman. Fresh Air (http://freshair.npr.org), NPR. Thursday, June 7. http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/fa/20010607.fa.01.ram

  Andrew Spielman, a leading expert on mosquitoes and professor of tropical public health at Harvard School of Public Health, was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Thursday, June 7. They talked about how mosquitoes transmit diseases and somewhat more specifically about WNV.

• Attitudes: The Latest Buzz Sylvie Halpern. 2001. Air Canada enRoute: 21-22. This article is a question & answer session on mosquitoes (emphasis on mosquitoes in Canada) with entomologist Jean-Pierre Bourassa of the University of Quebec, who stresses the need for mosquitoes.
• Endpaper: Insect from the Underground. Alan Burdick. February 2001. Natural History: 86.
• Bearers of Bad Tidings. Metta Winter. August 2001. Agriculture and Life Sciences (ALS) News: 1-2. http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/erap/wnv/WNVEducDocs/harrington-ALSNews.html

  Excerpts: "In our global economy, insect stowaways travel from continent to continent on airplances and ships, bringing diseases to foreign lands... .[Cornell Medical Entomologist Laura] Harrington is trying to discover the mosquito species that transmits the West Nile virus from birds to people. ’This is a critical question because when we know which mosquitoes transmit the virus to people, then we can look at where they breed and target control strategies accordingly,’ she says."

  This article also contains two sidebars. One, entitled "What about the Birds?" iinvolves a brief interview with Kevin McGowan, curator of Cornell’s bird and mammal collections, about birds and WNV. The other, "Why Was the West Nile Virus So Scary?" talks with Dr. Lois Levitan, program leader for the Environmental Risk Analysis Program, about why people should not be particularly worried about contracting WNV.

• More Than Just a Nuisance, a Virtuoso of Disease. Jane E. Brody. August 7, 2001. New York Times, Science. [Full Text]

  This article gives an excellent overview of mosquito-borne diseases -- causes, consequences and carriers. It draws heavily from conversations with Andrew Spielman, Harvard School of Public Health entomologist and professor of tropical public health.

Section IV - West Nile Virus and Animals(Birds, Horses, Dogs, etc.)

• ANIMALS: Managing for West Nile Virus Infection in the USA. 2002. WILDPro. Wildlife Information Network: London. (http://www.wildlifeinformation.org)

  The WILDPro module is available on-line and as a CD-ROM (PC - Internet explorer).
  Preview: http://www.wildlifeinformation.org/PREVIEW_WILDPro.htm.
  See our Bibliography of Scientific Literature for more information

• ANIMAL OVERVIEW. New York State Department of Health, Letter to New York State Veterinarians. May 19, 2000. From Millicent Eidson, MA, DVM (State Public Health Veterinarian and Director, Zoonoses Program, New York State Department of Health) and John Huntley, DVM, MPH (State Veterinarian and Director,Division of Animal Industry, New York State Department of Agriculture and Market) (http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/westnile/vetltr.htm)
• ANIMAL OVERVIEW. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Index of Resources--WNV and Animals. (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/wnv/index.html).
• ANIMAL OVERVIEW. USGS Wildlife Health Alert #00-02. September 25, 2000. Summary update on insects, birds and mammals that have tested positive for WNV in the U.S. See both http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/whats_new/wha/wha0002.html and http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/research/west_nile/wnvaffected.html.
• BIRDS. Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://birds.cornell.edu). Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a wealth of information about birds, in general, and staff are conducting research on several West Nile Virus-related questions.
  • Project FeederWatch. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw.

    A volunteer project where bird enthusiasts record the numbers and kinds of birds stopping at feeders across North America from November to April. See an Oct 10 article from the Cornell Chronicle about Project FeederWatch and the West Nile Virus: http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/ERAP/WNV/WNVEducDocs/Chronicle10-10-02.pdf [page 5]

  • Taking Count in the Wake of West Nile Virus. David Bonter and Wesley M. Hochachka. Spring 2003. Birdscope 17(2):1,14-15 (http://environmentalrisk.cornell.edu/WNV/WNVEducDocs/BirdScope-Spring2003.pdf).

    Abstract: As West Nile virus (WNV) spreads across North America, so does concern over the impact of the virus on wild bird populations. Limited testing has shown that thousands of birds have been infected by the virus, and many have died as a result of these infections. But has WNV-related mortality had a significant impact on bird populations? Anecdotal reports suggest that noticeably fewer birds are present in some backyards and neighborhoods, particularly in the Midwest, after the WNV outbreaks in 2002. We analyzed bird counts from Project FeederWatch to investigate whether impressions like these were corroborated by this year’s data.

    Our preliminary analyses confirm notable drops in counts of several bird species in the upper Midwest compared with the previous winter, as well as a continentwide decrease in sightings of Black-capped and Carolina chickadees. In contrast, counts of several other species have held steady or increased since last winter.

• BIRDS. Redig, P. 2002. Caring for Raptors Infected with the West Nile Virus. The Raptor Center. http://www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu/content.asp?page=1102. Frequently Asked Questions from Veterinarians, Wildlife Rehabilitators, and Falconers.
• BIRDS. DeGraaf, Richard M. and John H. Rappole. 1995. Neotropical Migratory Birds: Natural History, Distribution, and Population Change. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, NY and London. 676 pages.

  [Larger Map]	[Larger Map]

• BIRDS. Foster, Robert. June 25, 2001. "Lessons from Birds and West Nile Virus." The Journal News. An opinion-editoral piece written by the Legislative Director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment concerning bird deaths from pesticides. Unedited version: (http://www.citizenscampaign.org/birdsopedfoster.htm)
  
• BIRDS. McGowan, Kevin. 1999. The Crow Connection. Online publication with links to other information about the role of birds in transmitting and hosting West Nile virus (http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/westnile.htm).     Kevin McGowan is an ornithologist with the Cornell University Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who does research on the behavioral ecology of crows.
• BIRDS. US Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, has issued several bulletins about birds and West Nile Virus:
  • USGS National Atlas of the United States, West Nile Virus Maps.June 20, 2000. These are the year 2000 survellience maps of WNV. (http://nationalatlas.gov/virusmap.html)
  • Wild Bird Surveillance Critical for Early Detection of West Nile Virus. April 24, 2000. (http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/whats_new/fact_sheet/fact_early%20detection.html)
  • Wildlife Health Alert #99-02B. Updated Jan 12, 2000. http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/whats_new/wha/wha9902b.html
  • USGS Reports That West Nile Virus Goes Beyond Crows. November 19, 1999. Press Release
  • USGS Investigates West Nile Virus, Steps Up Bird Surveillance. October 1999. WHC Fact Sheet #99-02. 2pp. (http://www.usgs.gov/wnvfactsheet.html)

  Summary: USGS issued Wildlife Health Alerts to state and federal natural resource agencies warning of the emergence of the West Nile virus in free ranging birds in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland. USGS has initiated a multi-state surveillance network along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to detect and monitor movement of the virus in birds which can contract the disease from mosquitoes. Since early October 1999, USGS has been working with other agencies to determine the magnitude and distribution of the outbreak. About 49% of the 392 birds tested by USGS and CDC by October 1999 tested positive for the virus. Crows are a good local sentinel because they typically travel in a range of less than 200 miles.

• BIRDS. Sentinel Chickens and West Nile Virus. Health Canada, Laboratory Centre for Disease Control. July 2000. (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/publicat/info/sentchic_e.html).
• BIRDS. Wilcove, David S. The Silence of the Lands: a cautionary tale of birds and exotic diseases. Living Bird. Spring 2001. Pages 8-9.
• HORSES. West Nile Encephalitis in Horses. Penn State University. 2 pp. (http://www.pested.psu.edu/spWNhorses.pdf)
• HORSES. West Nile Virus: A Risk To Horses In Massachusetts? (http://www.state.ma.us/dph/wnv/fwnvho.htm).

Section V - Used Tires (Mosquito Distribution and Breeding Sites)

• Old tires are the major breeding site for Culex pipiens/restuans and Aedes japonicus, the mosquito species primarily associated with West Nile Virus in the USA!
• Tire Flier. Dutchess County Department of Health. Poster for Tire Dealerships, Service Stations and Other Places Where Old Tires May Collect. Full color, camera-ready with information on proper storage and disposal of used tires so they do not become mosquito breeding sites. Available in a black and white version [320 Kb JPG], a camera ready but very large color version [381Kb JPG] and a smaller color file [174Kb JPG]. To print directly from the web, use the smaller color version. If you would like to download and manipulate the flier (e.g. to put the flier into a newsletter), use either of the larger versions.
• See the West Nile Virus Bibliography of Scientific Literature for additional references and information about tires as mosquito breeding sites, the used tire trade and implications for mosquito distribution, and what can be done about used tires.

Section VI - Multimedia

• Penn State's Powerpoint Presentation.West Nile Virus: What You Need to Know. August 2000. This 60-slide powerpoint presentation covers most of the basics and can be "taken on the road" for use at public meetings. (http://www.pested.psu.edu/spwestnile/index.htm).
• Mosquito Movies. Wayne J. Crans and Anthony A. DiEdwardo. Rutgers University. Index of the 4 video clips is at: (http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/mosvid.htm).
  This series of short, fast video clips is great fun (and good educational value!). One of them shows Culex pipiens emerging from pupa and another (called "fillup") shows a mosquito filling her stomach on a blood meal.
• University of Florida Bug Tutorials: Mosquitoes #1 & Mosquitoes #2. June 2001. University of Florida. (http://vector.ifas.ufl.edu/tutorials.htm)

  A USDA grant provided for the development of these two free downloadable, computer-verified training tutorials in the area of Public Health. They are based on Chapter 3 - "Mosquitoes" - of the Public Health Manual. Windows is required to run the tutorials.

• Public Service Announcements - Mosquito Management Program. Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. 2001. These 3 videos are pulic service announcements about "Personal Precautions," "Homeowner Precautions" and "Spraying Precautions." (http://www.dep.state.ct.us/mosquito/video/psa.htm).

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