Female Culex oviposition preference based on container water depth

Understanding the preference of water depth for a mosquito to oviposit can lead to a greater understanding of how to control mosquito populations and the spread of vector borne diseases. Culex mosquitoes are the main carriers for West Nile virus, a virus that made its first appearance in the United States in 1999. To conduct our experiment, we used three standardized buckets at each site and filled them with varying grass infusion depths (6, 12, and 18 liters). Egg rafts laid on the top of the grass infusion were collected daily per bucket per site, with a maximum of 60 egg rafts being kept for species identification upon hatching. We used a generalized linear mixed effects model (GLMER) to determine the fixed effect of water level on oviposition rates. Our results showed that there was no significant difference between the average number of egg rafts laid in the 18 and 12 liter buckets. However, there were significantly less egg rafts laid in the 6 liter bucket. This shows that Culex mosquitoes do take physical aspects of their habitat into account when looking for a place to oviposit. The use of grass infused water in our buckets, could also present a question as to whether the mosquitoes preferred a specific species of plant for the grass infusion, or whether they preferred a more nutrient dense grass infusion for oviposition.