Mentor: Dave Carlson

Project:   SSTP students Christina White and Kaylin Gong studied the suspected West Nile virus vector, Culex quinquefaciatus.  These mosquitoes prefer to bite birds over people.  There are no good chemical attractants known for these mosquitoes.  Their project was to prepare solvent extracts of materials known to be attractive to other species of mosquitoes.  Then they used the olfactometer to identify the most attractive class of chemicals for these mosquitoes.

SSTP Students Christina White and Kaylin Gong are comparing attractiveness of their human skin odors to the suspected West Nile virus vector, Culex quinquefaciatus.

Christina is collecting mosquitoes for a bioassay from a rearing cage.