Mosquito Alert
Report mosquitoes through the Mosquito Alert app.
Human-Mosquito Interaction Project
Host-vector networks, mobility, and the socio-ecological context of mosquito-borne disease. A project funded by the European Research Council and implemented by Pompeu Fabra University and the Blanes Center for Advanced Studies.
ExploreAbout
DNA Analysis
We’re analyzing DNA to see how many different people each mosquito bites.
Citizen Science
Citizen scientists are reporting where they find mosquitoes and where they get bitten.
Mobile Positioning
Volunteers are sharing GPS data to see how mobility shapes mosquito interactions.
Funded by the European Research Council
ERC-2019-STG - ERC Starting Grant
1 April 2020 - 31 March 2025
Overall budget: €1,960,828
Implemented by
UPF and CEAB-CSIC
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 853271). The content of this website represents the views of the author only and is his sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for the use that may be made of the information it contains.
Key Insights
The project is built on several key insights: (1) mosquitoes are an excellent source of information about the people they bite; (2) people are an excellent source of information about the mosquitoes that bite them; (3) mobility phone positioning can provide novel insights about human-mosquito biting networks; and (4) adding a social science perspective to disease ecology is crucial for tackling the problem of mosquito-borne disease.
Mosquitoes can tell us about people
Because they carry our blood, we can see how many people a mosquito has bitten. This lets us improve disease models.
People can tell us about mosquitoes
People like to complain about mosquitos. We listen and harness their energy through citizen science.
Mobile phones can tell us about biting networks
With a privacy-focused app, we let people share information about how they move among mosquito populations.
Social science strengthens ecology
Our interdisciplinary approach illuminates the socio-ecological context of mosquito-borne disease.
Participate
If you are at least 18 years old, you can participate in the project by reporting mosquitoes through the Mosquito Alert citizen science system, or by volunteering to be interviewed or observed, or to have us inspect your house for mosquitoes or analyze your DNA to see which mosquitoes we can find that have bitten you. To participate with Mosquito Alert, just download the app and start reporting what you find. For other forms of participation, download our information sheet and consent form below and then choose what you want to do. You can always change your mind and withdraw from an activity or add a new one.
Download Information Sheet and Consent FormTalk to us
Talk to us about your experiences with mosquitoes.
Show us
Let us accompany you during your usual routines.
Share mosquitoes
Let us hunt mosquitoes in or around the places where you spend time.
Share tracks
Share your mobility patterns using a privacy-focused app.
Share DNA
Spit into a tube to see which mosquitoes have bitten you.
Mosquito Alert
Start participating by downloading the Mosquito Alert app. Report mosquitoes and their breeding sites when you find them. Mark where you have been bitten. Learn about mosquitoes and more.
Go to Mosquito Alert now
Talk to us
Talk to us about your experiences with mosquitoes. We are recruiting volunteers for interviews, which could be in person or by phone or video conference. We can keep the interview very short if you are pressed for time, or make it longer if you want to talk more. We are particularly interested in learning where and when you tend to be bitten by mosquitoes and how often. If you want to participate in just a very short interview, download the information sheet below and come talk to us.
Download the information sheet for short interviews
Show us
Let us accompany you during your usual routines to observe mosquito interactions. We will soon be recruiting volunteers.
Share mosquitoes
Let us hunt mosquitoes in or around your home, garden or other places where you spend time. We will soon be recruiting volunteers.
Share tracks
Share your mobility patterns using a privacy-focused app. We will soon be releasing a new version of Space Mapper, which uses end-to-end encryption and lets you control what you share.
Learn more about Space Mapper
Share DNA
Spit into a tube so that we can analyze your DNA and see which mosquitoes have bitten you. We have been recruiting volunteers for this at special outdoor events, but will are also interested in volunteers for this component if we are also collecting mosquitoes near your house or some other place where you spend time outdoors.
Learn more about DNA collection
Explore
Check back here regularly for updates, videos, and articles.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 853271). The content of this website represents the views of the author only and is his sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for the use that may be made of the information it contains.
Latest News
Federica Lucati: 'Mosquitoes are an excellent source of information about the people they bite'
Today we meet Federica Lucati. She has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Padua (Italy) and a Master’s in Natural Sciences. Last June she presented her doctoral thesis entitled: Linking phylogeography and recent dispersal in high mountains: Insights from two Iberian amphibians, directed by Dr. Marc Ventura from the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC) and Prof. Rui Rebelo of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) of the University of Lisbon.
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Reconstructing human-mosquito interactions at the Marimurtra Botanical Garden
On Saturday June 12, the Mosquito Alert team carried out an activity in the idyllic Marimurtra Botanical Garden in Blanes. Throughout the day, a pilot test was developed within the framework of the Human-Mosquito Interaction Project granted by the European Research Council (ERC), which aims to study the network of interactions between the tiger mosquito and people.
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The complex interaction between humans and mosquitoes
Despite the great scientific and clinical advances of the last decades, diseases transmitted by vectors such as mosquitoes continue to be one of the main threats to global public health. Diseases like dengue are a risk for hundreds of millions of people each year, while malaria still causes more than 400,000 deaths a year. These diseases have been compounded in recent years by outbreaks of Zika, chikungunya and West Nile fever. To the infections transmitted by mosquitoes must be added those of other arthropods, such as black flies, sandflies, chiches, ticks or tsetse flies, which together cause more than 26 million cases annually.
Read moreContact Us
Contact Details
For questions about the project, please contact John Palmer at the Socio-Demographics Research Group, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University.
Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34-93-542-2346
Email: john.palmer@upf.edu