UW-Madison students travel to Houston to squash severe mosquito problem

Two University of Wisconsin-Madison students traveled to Houston after Hurricane Harvey to aid in mosquito control and study mosquito-borne diseases.

Veterinary medicine student Melissa Farquhar and medical and public health student Erin McGlynn are assisting Clarke, a mosquito control company working in Houston. Stagnant water from Hurricane Harvey’s extreme flooding has resulted in millions of mosquitoes swarming the southeastern part of the state.

Mosquitoes can carry and easily transfer diseases. Farquhar and McGlynn are catching and identifying different species of mosquitoes in an effort to limit mosquito-borne illnesses and reduce the amount of mosquitoes that are making repair efforts around Houston difficult.

Mosquito presence is so strong in Houston that traps which usually catch around 20 mosquitoes a night are now trapping several thousand a night, according to a UW-Madison press release.

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