Hi neighbors,

If the mosquitoes felt worse a week or so ago, you weren't imagining it. By October we're all a little tired, and it's easy to let tossing, treating, and trapping slide. Cooler, rainier weather also keeps puddles around long enough for mosquitoes to breed. This week's lows in the 40s are helping, but highs are still in the 60s and 70s, so keep at it until a hard frost. We'll send a note via the portal when it's time to stop for the season.

👋 Come say hi at the CHRS House Expo on Halloween

I'll be at the Capitol Hill Restoration Society's Annual House Expo on Saturday, Oct 31, from 9 am to 3 pm in Eastern Market's North Hall. Bring your questions, your stories, or just yourself! I'm excited to meet you.

🏛️ The White House executive order: still TBD

A few weeks ago, the White House put out an executive order that makes DC the national pilot for mosquito and tick control. We're encouraged by its emphasis on non-chemical methods like removing breeding habitat, and by its call for a plan built with DC government. Beyond that, it's too early to say how it will all come together.

In the meantime, we're working to make sure our voice and experience are heard. No plan for DC will work unless residents and DC government are at the center of it, so I've been talking with people in DC government and at DC Health to stay in the loop. If you've been part of conversations about the order and think Itty Bitty should be at the table, please reach out.

🔬 Updates on our Surveillance Project

The UMD team is still finalizing counts to see whether Itty Bitty participation changed mosquito numbers on our blocks. One finding is already in. When they checked catch basins and exposed DC Water valve vaults on a subset of sampling blocks, they found:

• Standing water on every block they checked
• Larvae on every block where they could reach the water

And this was late in the season! It confirms what we've been saying for months: some of the biggest breeding sites are in our streets, alleys, and sidewalks, where neighbors can't reach them. This evidence gives real teeth to the issues we've been raising, and we're excited to share a fuller picture next month.

✈️ Greetings from Biogents HQ!

Earlier this month I visited Biogents in Regensburg, Germany, and it was a blast. Every staff member we met was flabbergasted by how many DC neighbors jumped in this season. A lot of researchers consider community-wide mosquito control impossible in practice, and you're doing it.

We toured the lab where they raise mosquitoes for testing, and I offered up a sacrificial arm to blind-test repellents. (I picked the right one!)

I also had a long session with their product team, where I shared all of your feedback. Troubleshooting trap placement is still one of the trickiest and most important steps in getting the most out of your trap. But many of the structural issues we've run into are addressed in new products coming to the US by next season:

• New GAT with Reflect Tech. The clear dome sits more securely in the bucket (squirrels, take note), and a larger black funnel should draw more mosquitoes in.
• Aerotrap. About the same catch rate as the Mosquitaire, with a lot of user-friendly upgrades: it's smaller and sleeker, swaps the catch bag for a bigger canister that's much easier to empty, has a sturdier CO2 connection, and lets you replace the Sweetscent hands-free.
• CO2 regulator. My favorite. It works with the Mosquitaire and Aerotrap, replaces the old CO2 timer, and lets you set a schedule and get low-tank and maintenance alerts from your phone. It also comes with an attachment for a Sodastream canister. The canister will only give you a few days of CO2, but they're much more convenient to source than 20 lb tanks!
• 3D-printable accessories, available now. If you want something more custom than wire mesh to keep critters out of your trap openings, Biogents engineers have made accessories available for 3D printing. No printer? Check out DC Public Library's Fabrication Lab.
  • The 3D printing library is a side project for their engineers, but they're excited to keep designing accessories that solve trap headaches as they have time. Keep the feedback coming!

We're working with Biogents on community discounts for some of these new products as well as current models. We'll share those details before next season.

Biogents also surprised us with their first ever community impact award! It belongs to every neighbor who tossed, treated, and trapped this season.

Thanks for sticking with it this late in the season. Stay tuned next month for our end of season report and see you at Eastern Market next week!

Michelle

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