AIMSurv - Aedes field surveillance

The success of AIMSurv2020 and we were pleased to announce it  continued as AIMSurv2021 through the following survey season!  AIMSurv2021 combined conventional field surveillance and the use of the open access Citizen Science App Mosquito Alert. The conventional surveys used oviposition traps to count the eggs laid by Aedes females and adult traps, such as BG-Sentinel traps, to collect mosquito adults. Weekly samples were implemented by each participant team in a minimum of three sites until the end of the mosquito season. The participants were also using the tool VECMAP® (Avia-GIS) which allows the collection and upload of collective data directly from the field and further analysis by using modelling. 

AIMSurv participant countries

The protocol has now been developed, proven and repeated by AIMSurv participants over two full sampling seasons.  You can download the latest version of the AIMSurv protocol here.  This protocol can be used in conjunction with the other videos and resources on this web page to design your own surveys using the best practices devised by the AIMSurv specialist partners.

The Mosquito Alert App, allows citizen to personally contribute to the monitoring effort, by using their Mobile phone to report the presence of an AIM by sending a photo to a team of more than 50 expert entomologists for identification. It can also be used to report possible breeding sites, as well as simple biting activity.  

Mosquito Alert Logo
Mosquito Alert Logo

Mosquito Alert has received more than 19,000 photos of mosquitoes since 2015. In Spain, where it has been implemented so far, the App has allowed experts to monitor the expansion of the tiger mosquito, and to discover new invasive species. The first evidence of Aedes japonicus in Spain was from a photo reported to Mosquito Alert. In five years, the initiative has managed to scientifically prove that citizen collaboration is useful and reliable for studying invasive mosquitoes and is an effective partnership for administrations and managers.  

The App has now been updated to be exploited at a pan-European level and is being translated into the languages of the countries that are part of the AIM Cost Action, so that citizen from any European and neighbouring country can report observations of all four invasive Aedes species included in AIMSurv.  Mosquito Alert can be downloaded from Google Play and other App stores.  

Check out Mosquito Alert "in the news".  A compilation of articles from around Europe in Spanish, Italian, Turkish and other languages.

AIMSurv was coordinated by Dr. Miguel A. Miranda (University Balearic Islands, Spain), Dr. Dusan Petrić (Faculty of Agriculture Novi Sad, Serbia) and Dr. Francis Schaffner (FSConsultancy, Switzerland). The Mosquito Alert App surveillance was coordinated by Dr. Frederic uBartumeus (Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes, Spain). AIM-COST was coordinated by Alessandra della Torre (Sapienza University, Rome, Italy)

You can follow the AIMSurv activities in our social networks using the hashtag #AIMSurv

Some useful videos on how to construct an ovitrap provided by our partners Antonios Michaelakis and the Life Conops project.  In the first video we describe how to construct an ovitrap and in the second how to manage the oviposition substrate after its collection. Although the first two videos are in the Greek language they are useful to anyone who wants to know the different steps on the oviposition trap’s assembly.