FORT HOOD, Texas — Mosquitoes thrive best when it is consistently above 70 degrees. Because of this, Texas has one of the longest mosquito seasons in the country.
First Lieutenant John Hackler and Pfc. Jamie Evans, both assigned to Alpha Company, Troop Battalion, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, catch mosquitoes, ticks, bed bugs, roaches, along with other flying insects and creepy crawlers.
Hackler is the medical entomology program manager and Evans is a preventative medicine specialist at CRDAMC.
“I’ve been doing this since 2019 and it’s really cool,” Hackler said.
Evans, who has been doing the job for about seven months, said he enjoys it as well.
“I spend a lot of time checking gyms, dining facilities and day cares,” Evans said.
Hackler, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Evans, a native of Spokane, Washington, check mosquito traps on a regular basis.
They check the traps at various locations to include West Fort Hood, Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area and North Fort Hood, three times a week in order to send mosquitoes to San Antonio for testing.
But not any mosquito will do.
Hackler says mosquito sampling locations are ideally selected based on three criteria:
• The location is near at-risk populations, such as a housing area.
• There should be adequate resting and landing areas which can include woods, dense and shaded vegetated areas.
• Most importantly, prime locations for sampling may include those areas where there is consistent standing water.
“In theory, if you identify several locations like this for a given area, you can always get a statistically representative picture of what’s occurring with the mosquito population, such as species makeup, disease prevalence and population size,” Hackler said.
The Department of Defense uses integrated pest management as a control measure for the mosquito population.
The first measure is known as cultural control. Cultural control is where people are asked to drain flower pots, clean gutters and other areas to prevent breeding. The second control measure is known as physical controls. Examples includes screens, doors and bug zappers. The next control measure is biological control, which infect mosquito larva in the water. Finally, the release of chemical agents such as fogging is the last control measure.
“However, this is a last resort and is usually only used when disease is detected or population levels reach nuisance proportions,” Hacker said.
For citizens, mosquitoes represent a problem in several ways, not only buzzing in the ears and leaving itchy bumps, but they can spread disease that can affect large portions of the population, becoming a major problem.
“Mosquitoes carry a lot of disease such as the West Nile virus, Dengue virus and Zikka virus,” Hackler said. “However, if we can detect the disease first we can react and help the population.”
Hacker shared the following tips to help control the mosquito population:
• Use Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA-approved mosquito repellents as needed.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants during dusk and dawn hours.
• Consider switching outdoor house lights to yellow lights, or bug lights as they attract mosquitos at lesser densities.
• Be diligent about draining stagnant water.
• Frequently clean gutters that may clog, flower pots that hold water for more than two weeks, including bird baths, trash can and buckets.
• Be diligent about managing vegetation on personal property.
• Inspect all door and window screens for holes or gaps, and replace as needed.
More information on how to control the mosquito population can be found on the CDC website.