Two UW-Madison students are helping to control an issue plaguing cleanup crews in southeastern Texas: a post-floodwater mosquito boom.
Hurricane Harvey dumped on parts of Texas for up to nine days, leaving standing water that acts as a breeding ground for the blood-sucking pest.
Melissa Farquhar and Erin McGlynn have flown to Texas to monitor for mosquitoes that could spread harmful diseases and to analyze the effectiveness of ongoing control efforts. The two have been temporarily hired by Clarke, a mosquito control company contracted by Texas to mitigate the problem.
Farquhar, a veterinary medicine student from San Jose, Calif., and McGlynn, a medical and master’s in public health student from Wisconsin Rapids, are part of the new Upper Midwestern Regional Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases at UW-Madison.
Illinois-based Clarke, a partner in the vector-borne disease center, reached out to center co-directors Susan Paskewitz and Lyric Bartholomay to get student backup for the company’s overwhelmed employees. The two students will be in Houston until Sept. 21.
See more at WisBusiness.com.
