Strange Boxes Discovered at Lake Shaftsbury State Park

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Earlier this week, we received an email from a park visitor who happened upon some strange black boxes in the woods at Lake Shaftsbury State Park. There were at least a dozen of them and he was curious about their purpose, so he sent us photos and asked if we knew what they were.We shared them around with park staff, managers, friends at Fish & Wildlife and a host of others, to no avail.



Finally, today, we have an answer!  They are mosquito traps. Our friends at Vermont Agency of Agriculture explains, "Yes! Those are resting box traps. We come by weekly during our collection season (beginning of June through Mid-October) and use an aspirator (a big vacuum) to collect mosquitoes in the boxes. They are called resting boxes because after a female mosquito feeds, she settles to the forest floor looking for a dark place to digest the blood meal and create eggs. Resting boxes target Culiseta melanura, the primary vector of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, although we do get other mosquito species in them as well." Pretty cool, huh?




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