Field trip to N. Kohala on the Big Island
We picked up the lab and temporarily moved it to the N. Kohala district of the Big Island! Our hosts and guides met through iNaturalist have been showing us mosquitos, providing great hospitality and even producing a video about the project! Here is a quick summary of our activities:
July 20th. Arrived at our hosts N. of Kawaihae and immediately found a few Ae. aegypti. The widely spaced homes are punctuated by roads and ornamental vegetation but basically we are in a lava field hundreds of feet off the ground.
July 21st. Apparently there was an unseasonal rain several weeks ago and large numbers of mosquitoes resulted. We were led by @donkephart to check out Keawewai Gulch and found it full of mosquitoes though apparently fewer than a week ago. The normally dry creek had several algae filled pools and a lot of adult Ae. aegypti flying about. We were accompanied by @lynnbeittel and @waimeamiddleschool who are putting together a video piece on the project.
July 22nd. We spent the morning mosquito time capturing and photographing mosquitoes. My best shots are here: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3506724. In the afternoon we went N. to Hawi and found several Aedes albopictus (males and a female). Hawi well into the moist end of the transition from leeward to windward climate. In fact it was raining lightly! Tomorrow we travel to the Honaunau - Nopoopoo area to meet more potential volunteers in the field: Manini Beach at 1:30 PM!
July 23rd. We drove to the Honaunau-Napoopoo area today starting with a visit to an organic farm where they are experimenting with various natural methods to control pests including mosquitoes! We were happy to meet the farm owner and crew and they were fascinated with the details of documenting mosquitoes and we discussed the life-cycle of mosquito transmitted viruses where islands such as Hawaii don't support continuous transmission so outbreaks can only occur if an infected person arrives in Hawaii and starts a cluster by getting bitten by local mosquitoes. Our hosts also told us the story of the recent dengue epidemic from their perspective where transmission originated at and near a popular beach and then people who visited the beach neighborhood were bitten and brought the virus back to their local neighborhood spreading dengue to mosquitoes and back to people who moved out further and further across the island repeating the cycle. This sounds very familiar to the 2001 epidemic where a telephone booth was implicated in the major case cluster. From the cool moist farms where we observed a dominance of the Asian Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) we went down to Manini beach and met a whole crew of concerned citizens who self-organized to effectively trap and kill mosquitoes. We also met Representative Richard P. Creagan, a Hawaii MD who has experience with Dengue in Hawaii and the Marshall Islands. It was amazing to discuss mosquitoes and citizen involvement while in a very clean beach park with a great view: it sure beats an office!
July 24th. Worked in the N. Kohala area including revisiting Keawewai Gulch and looking at a historic monument and parks by the coast and drove through from dry grass covered lava (with Kiawe trees) to a more moist moderately wet environment affected by the windward moisture. Definitely finding the Yellow-fever mosquitos in Keawewai gulch we did not find any more to the N along the road and parks although we found some likely areas that would be good if volunteers could occasionally visit in the early morning or evening. At Makukona BP we did find 4-5 Culex quinquefasciatus at about 5:30 pm. Tonite the iNaturalist mosquitoes in Hawaii was featured on KITV news thanks to @lynnbeittel's Visionary Video!
July 25th. Visited Linda Elliott at the Hawaii Wildlife Center (HWC). The HWC was amazing, a state-of-the-art facility with a focus on native wildlife rehabilitation and education. Linda gave us a great tour and we discussed our common interest in pathogens and parasites of wildlife. Linda was familiar with long-standing surveillance for mosquitoes so was immediately on board to try to capture and photograph mosquitoes for the project. After HWC we stopped at the farmers market in Hawi and had an amazing Puerto Rican inspired lunch and handed out hand-lenses and directions to get started documenting mosquitos to the owners and patrons at the market. We then drove to drop off collaborator and wife Shannon N. Bennett and our daughter Anika, staff photographer and not-to-happy about being mosquito bait! I miss them as I finish off the field trip with visits to the two other main beaches between the airport and Kawaihae (so far zero beach side mosquitoes on this coast!).
July 26th. Checked out a higher elevation gulch in the N. Kohala area today with local resident Beth. Actually checked it out twice (the second time with help from @waimeamiddleschool!). We were able to find two Aedes albopictus in addition to Aedes aegypti though the latter still dominated 100:1! We found three pools of water in the gulch, almost all dried out. Only one had active larvae and this was shaded by a boulder! The complexity of topography and the lack of standing water makes one wonder where the majority of these mosquitoes get their blood meals and lay their eggs. The day ended with a very nice dinner with guest Dr. Emilie Bess from the Springstar company hosted by @donkephart along with @lynnbeittel & @waimeamiddleschool! Thanks!
June 27th. Today was spent organizing field gear and photos, taking field notes and moving on from the N. Kohala area. In the later afternoon @waimeamiddleschool, Dr. Emilie Bess and I visited Charlotte on the way up to Wiamea and found plenty of Aedes aegypti and a few Culex quinqefasciatus. Her house is near Keanuiomano stream which has regular but intermittent flow, but no mosquitoes were seen in the margins. The garden areas near houses were more likely sources here. We spent some time into the night with @waimeamiddleschool and @lynnbeittel eating great food, telling stories photographing today's mosquitoes. Thanks you two!
June 28th. After a long drive from Waimea I visited Ho'okena Beach Park during the mid to late morning. Mosquito activity was low but I did encounter a few Aedes albopictus in the freshly lined garbage can in the very clean main restrooms. A general walk around the beach park revealed things were pretty cleaned up but that the area still has challenging environs to keep mosquitoes completely at bay. For instance, there were several Culex quinqefasciatus in the port-a-johns with completely open gridded floors. At lunch I drove to Manini beach where we met with and trained various community members who are actively supporting community efforts to combat mosquitoes through education and small grants to promote community based control:
Visit S. Kona Mosquito Trapping Program. Being my last day on the I visited the Wawaloli Beach park to repack and clean up everything prior to returning the rental car and checking in for my flight to Honolulu. No mosquitoes were found their either wrapping up a careful check of many beach parks between S. Kona and N. Kohala where only a few Culex quinqefasciatus and one record of several Aedes albopictus were seen. That's a great report for these areas!
June 29 - 30th. Spent the end of the trip at the University of Hawaii - Manoa where I presented preliminary results of the trip with the Hawaii Exemplary State Foundation CEO and president, as well as the head of the Pacific Disaster Center and an engineer from Konturlabs on Maui. All in all it was a very successful trip. Thanks everyone!
Durrell D. Kapan
@cydno
