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Poster Short Abstract

A new mosquito reporting platform has been developed for Scotland, allowing members of the public to report mosquito sightings and bites alongside images. This platform has been instrumental in providing insights into temporal and spatial variation in human exposure to mosquitoes in Scotland.

Poster Abstract

Mosquito surveillance is essential for monitoring mosquito distributions and ecology, which are critical parameters for the prediction of mosquito-borne disease (MBD) emergence and establishment. Active mosquito surveillance methods such as trapping remain indispensable for understanding population ecology at high resolutions, but these measures are labour-intensive and are typically limited to high-risk locations. Passive surveillance schemes can complement active mosquito monitoring by filling gaps in surveillance and giving broader insights into mosquito distributions and seasonality. Citizen science is one such measure which is increasingly being integrated into mosquito surveillance programs in Europe. Here, we report on the first two years of results of a new online citizen science platform (www.mosquito-scotland.com) for mosquito reporting in Scotland. The platform enables members of the public to submit reports of mosquito sightings, including the date, location, mosquito life stage and human bite status of the encounter, with the option to submit a photograph or specimen for identification. Since the reporting platform launched in May 2024, over 1100 reports have been received, with approximately 30% of these confirmed as mosquitoes. Of the confirmed reports, eleven different species were identified. The most frequently reported species were Culex pipiens s.l. (56% of identifiable specimens) and Culiseta annulata (22%). Human biting was reported in approximately 53% of sightings of adult mosquitoes. Data from this survey has enabled the identification of several mosquito biting hotspots in Scotland and will be used alongside field surveillance data to model MBD risk under current and future climatic conditions.