- April 16, 2026
- By Kimbra Cutlip
A recent study by University of Maryland researchers could help explain why economically disadvantaged neighborhoods have higher rates of mosquito infestations, putting them at greater risk for mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus, Dengue fever and LaCrosse encephalitis.
The study, published in March in the journal Ecosphere, suggests that the relationship between socioeconomics and plant species in neighborhoods and the impact of that relationship on mosquito survival and abundance could be key in understanding inequitable patterns of disease transmission across neighborhoods.
“But why and how that matters are largely unknown, so we call on future studies of urban mosquito ecology to explicitly acknowledge and incorporate fine-scale differences in plant communities along socioeconomic gradient,” said lead author Sarah Rothman Ph.D. ’24, a Science and Technology Policy Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Rothman was a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology while she was writing the paper; co-author Professor Paul Leisnham is the department’s chair.
Rothman started the study with a multidisciplinary review of literature to present a holistic understanding of urban mosquito socioecology. The results showed that infection rates for diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are usually higher on socioeconomically disadvantaged blocks, likely due to the higher abundances and larger sizes of mosquitoes consistently reported in those locations, although why that is the case isn’t known.
Scientists have established that containers that can collect water and fallen leaves serve as a nursery ground for developing mosquito larvae, and that more leaf material typically results in more and larger mosquitoes. But that notion conflicts with studies revealing that disadvantaged areas tend to have less greenery and plant debris than elsewhere. Other studies by Rothman and others show that the quality and type of plant debris, as well as the types of water collection vessels, may influence mosquito abundance as much or more than simply the amount of plant material. In addition, different mosquito species prefer different environments.