Zika Mozzie Seeker is a citizen science project from Metro South Health. We work with people in our community to check our yards for invasions by Zika mozzies - Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.
Zika mozzies don’t fly very far from their breeding sites. So even if we don’t find any Zika eggs in your neighbour’s trap, it doesn’t mean there’s none in your yard or suburb. The more people collecting eggs, the more confident we’ll be that we don’t have Zika mozzies in the Metro South area.
Find out if your suburb is in the collection area and how many households are taking part [PDF 297.22 KB].
This is an ongoing project and since 2017, we’ve collected over half a million eggs from nearly 5,000 traps in 172 suburbs. The great news is these all tested negative for Zika mozzies.
Our goals are to:
Our project was a finalist for the 2018 and 2019 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science. These nominations are thanks to all the people that have got involved.
You can find out more about citizen science on the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist’s website or watch our video about becoming a Zika Mozzie Seeker.
Zika mozzies don’t live in the Metro South area, but they do live in other parts of Queensland and many cities overseas. If they go undetected, they’ll invade our South East Queensland suburbs. This is bad news for the future health of our cities because Zika mozzies can carry exotic viruses not found in Australia – for example Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses.
Zika mozzies breed in backyard containers that can hold water for more than a week, such as:
Zika mozzies aren’t found in swamps or drains. They stick their eggs to the insides of containers that have water in them. Dry eggs can survive for months, which is how Zika mozzies can invade if those containers travel long distances within and between countries.
The adults don’t fly far – about 500 metres, from their breeding sites (containers of water). This makes it difficult to detect a small or recent invasion in a large region like Metro South. This is why we need a lot of people from all our suburbs to help collect mosquito eggs twice a year.
Female Zika mozzies are unusual because they’ll bite people during the day. Aedes aegypti mosquitos will bite you inside your house and bites often go unnoticed. Aedes albopictus mosquitos will bite you outside your house and the bite is painful.
Mosquito bites can cause the spread of diseases. Learn about mosquito borne diseases and how to prevent mosquito bites on Queensland Government websites.
Twice a year we invite the community to set up a mosquito egg trap (ovitrap). These are called rounds. We do one from November to December, and another one from March to April, when there’s more mozzies around.
Once you register, we’ll send you an egg collection kit with instructions on how to set it up. We’ll also send you a few SMS reminders, so you know when to check your kits for mosquito eggs.
When you send your trap back, we count your eggs and send them to Queensland Health's Public and Environmental Health Reference Laboratories for testing. Our tests screen each batch for traces of Zika mozzie DNA.
We’ll send you the results by SMS before publishing them as a heat map on this website.
We’re looking for 2 invasive urban mosquito species that live in other parts of Queensland and overseas. We call them Zika mozzies.
You can take part if you live in Metro South, which includes the following areas:
Check for your suburb on our area and boundary map [PDF 2166.85 KB] or in the table on the registration page.
Use our online form to register for our next round.
We’ll send you the kit closer to that time. If you registered for the last round, you don’t need to register again.
Find out how to set up your kit
If you’d like to know more about our project, you can email MSPHU-Med-Ent@health.qld.gov.au.