Photo by Adam Blake
News coverage:
Mornings with Simi, June 16, 2022 - Ch7 (45:30): An entomologist at the University of British Columbia is canvassing the public for slapped mosquitoes by snail mail.
Castanet, June 13, 2022 - B.C. scientist wants your dead mosquitoes. As climate change expands the northward range of many species, a new citizen science project is calling on B.C. and Yukon residents to send in slapped mosquitoes so researchers* can track them and the diseases they may carry (see video below).
https://mosquitolab.zoology.ubc.ca/lab/news/WhatBitMe/
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How to send the mosquitoes to *Dan Peach & *Ben Matthews? Here are the instructions:
Mosquitoes are found in a wide variety of habitats, from deserts to rainforests to tundra, from sea level to the alpine. Most people are more familiar than they would like to be with mosquitoes. However, what some people may not know is just how many types there are.
More than 50 species can be found in British Columbia, and more than 30 in the Yukon. Unfortunately, there are gaps in our knowledge about the distribution of both indigenous and invasive mosquitoes in British Columbia and the Yukon. Furthermore, current distributions may shift in the coming decades due to climate change.
If you are interested in contribution to our knowledge of what BC and Yukon mosquitoes exist where, and helping scientists predict how this may change in the future, please mail us your squished/swatted mosquitoes this summer! This data will help us to create current distribution maps and will be used to model species distribution shifts in the future.
Mail samples to:
Ben Matthews Lab
UBC Department of Zoology
4200-6270 University Blvd.
Vancouver, B.C.
V6T 1Z4
Please mail your mosquito folded in a piece of paper and include the date of collection and a location, such as address, cross-street, or latitude and longitude coordinates from Google maps. Squished mosquitoes are ok! If you would like to know what species you sent, please include an email address.
Thank you very much!
Dan Peach, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC