Building an APP (Aedes Predator Pod)
Mosquito Assassins as Mosquito
Awareness Ambassadors
Education Session
AMCA 86th Annual Meeting Portland, OR
March 2020
Anita Schiller, Director
(Mosquito) Biocontrol Initiative, Harris County Precinct 4
Building an APP (Aedes Predator Pod)And utilizing Mosquito Assassins as Mosquito Awareness Ambassadors
1
Why do the Aedes Predator Pod adoptions?
Stronger impact at outreach events
Ability to track extended impact
We repackaged Mosquito Control Outreach with the APP campaign and created strong impact as evidenced by our booth visitor numbers.
2
Engaging booth with live ambassadors
Able to tier interaction to include
outreach on:
Mosquito biology
Local emerging arboviruses and their
vectors
Urban, backyard (domestic) mosquitoes
vs. rural and floodwater pests
Citizen science project
Darya Pinada, BCI intern shows off Mosquito Assassin larvae
We took our booth to a higher engagement level by showing live mosquito assassins. Having the campaign as part of our booth allowed a tiered interaction system and engage visitors in various outreach messages including mosquito biology, vectors, mosquito control and the take-home citizen scientist project. In addition, we are able to track impact beyond the typical “number of booth visitors”. But…. this does create more work in planning, logistics and tracking.
3
Why
involve
public as
citizen
scientists?
Interest
Engagement
Tracking
Data
Why go beyond the norm and create more work for us? In a nutshell, the APP campaign increases interest with event visitors and creates a stronger impact. It also allows a tiered engagement level. Merge traditional mosquito control Outreach with custom (Biological Control) Messages.Able to track impact beyond the event. Get R&D data in return
4
Biological Control Initiative’s
R & D Component
Identify objective: Tox release pod
= container + Tox eggs + Tox food = Tox adults
Evaluation criteria
Container size, shape, water volume, stability and integrity
Quantity and age Tox juveniles
Quantity and type Tox food
Highest Tox adult output
Cost
Environmental footprint
What R&D data is the APP campaign after and what part can be done by laymen citizen scientists? First: Identify objective. We needed to record the sum Tox. Adults a standard APP would produce. Tox release pod = container + Tox eggs + Tox food = X Tox adultsSecond: Find a container by comparing commercially available containers against a set of criteria:
Container Size, Shape, Water Volume, Stability and IntegrityQuantity and Age Tox JuvenilesQuantity and type Tox foodHighest Tox adult outputAlso, the overall new container costs compared against current costsAnd finally, we considered the APP material on its environmental footprint and breakdown
5
Phases 1 and 2: APP design evaluations/obtain and evaluate samples
Development phase 1: After obtaining manufacturers’ samples Development phase 2: APP container stability and integrity evaluations done by interns
6
APP container product cost analysis
existing $0.24ea
$0.22eanew
A cost analysis provided further selection criteria, comparing the winners from the integrity trials.
7
“Podding” with Rookies
Community Assistance Dept. helpers
After finding a suitable APP container, we set up the Tox. Larval rearing to produce the needed 3000 identically aged larvae for total 300 APPs. Helpers recruited from our citizens assistance dept. helped feed and prep the APP pods. Another win/win as this allowed us to train staffers from a front line department to become ambassadors.
8
APP “Adoption Events” to
recruit Citizen Scientists
The Aedes Predator Pod campaign piloted in the fall of 2019 at three different outreach events. We were amazed at the interest shown across a diverse audience. While the APPs themselves did not differ, we hoped to receive a lot of data back. A handy FAQ sheet attached to a simple observation recording sheet helped each citizen scientist gather the information we were after.
9
Contact permissions
From paper sign up sheet To tablet version
Contact sign ups allowed us to email the participants with more information and links to the data submission platform. We ran into problems with the sign up right away and learned paper versions were quick and easy but often resulted into illegible entries. We remedied this by creating a simple Excel spreadsheet that was formatted to read in tablet form with fixed margins and locked screen. The digital format then allowed for importing typed email addresses.
10
Survey / Reports / Data Submission Link
We created a Google Form as our data submission platform. We hoped for increased participation through Google’s name recognition and wide use. The form was easy to set up and was intuitive for end user submission
11
Google Forms built-in
analysis tools
Built in Google analytical tools allowed us to ask many more questions after reporting was completed. For instance, we wanted to know how important it was to prioritize a biodegradable container, and found that most folks recycled them but a quarter simply threw them in the garbage bin. Therefore our concern to find an environmentally friendly container was justified. We also wanted to know if folks followed the verbal instructions of the preferential placement for the apps being in the backyard rather than front yard- ( to minimize risk to the APP by mosquito adulticides) and found the majority did follow instructions.
12
Messaging Matters!
APP Reports Received from Citizen Scientists (2019)Civic Day HMNS Levy Park
“SURVEYS”Levy Park
22% Returns
45 APPs/40 Participants=10 “Surveys”
“REPORTS”Houston Museum of Natural Science
31% Returns
38 APPs/31 Participants14 “Reports”
“DATA SUBMISSIONS”
Civic Day47% Returns
54 APPS/34 Participants
While the APPs were identical across the events, the message we provided at the table mattered immensely. We increased data submissions by changing messaging to direct emphasis on scienceMessage on first event at Levy Park: ADOPT-An-Aedes-Predator-Pod; sign up and please remit a survey Second event at Houston Museum of Natural Science: ADOPT and become a citizen scientist, sign up and fill out reportThird event at Civic Day festival: Sign up to become a temporary team scientist; take home a pre-set experiment and collect data; then submit your data
13
Track the reach
Maps generated with the release location provided by the APP participants showed our impact across the area. While not very indicative of mosquito reduction results, this type of map does show where our efforts end up (and incidentally which elected official’s precinct)
14
Results show an insignificant difference among the number of adults emerged in APPs sourced from Civic Day, Levy Park, and HMNS
outreach events.
R&D component outcome analysis:
A comparison of the available reports of adult eclosion across all the events showed an average of three adult Tox. To come off the water within the APP set up.
15
Mistakes made, lessons learned and things to consider:
Ask media to promote the event BEFORE the event
Pragmatic messaging design: Survey? Report? Or Data?
Digital typed sign-ups instead of hand written sign ups
Experimental design protocol during APP set ups (no variables)
Communication is key
1. At sign up
2. Immediate follow up email
3. Progress email
4. Submission email
5. Final email with thank you wrap up
Emphasize messaging to parents (not a kiddie game) and adult email addresses only!
We learned valuable lessons which may be useful for others looking to incorporate citizen scientists in their work:Request the media to promote an event to increase interest BEFORE the event. Pragmatic messaging design must identify objective. In other words: don’t call a survey a survey if you actually need the info backDigital typed sign ups instead of hand written sign upsFollow experimental design protocol during APP set ups. (no set up variables)Communication is key
1. At sign up2. Immediate follow up email 3. Progress email4. Submission email5. Final email with thank you wrap up
6. Don’t sign up minors and try to engage the parents rather than the young kids.
16
Thank you!
Anita Schiller, Director
We sincerely hope this presentation inspires our colleagues to consider a citizen science project. If planned out correctly, this sort of interaction can be not only fun but really rewarding for all. In our case, the outcome data submitted told us an average adult Tox. Output when rearing aspects remained constant and folks were excited over participating. Please feel free to reach if you wish to learn more about our Aedes Predator Pod campaign and I look forward to hearing from you.
17
