Evaluation of BG-Counter agreement with human-counted mosquito collections in Naples, Florida

The BG-Counter is a remote surveillance tool that uses an infrared sensor to record automated mosquito counts at 15 min intervals. Although the device can provide near real-time data on mosquito activity, its performance under local field conditions should be validated, especially in areas with diverse and abundant mosquito populations. This study evaluated agreement between BG-Counter reported mosquito counts and human-counted mosquitoes collected from trap bags at seven study sites in Naples, Florida. BG-Counters were mounted on BG-Sentinel 2 traps operated overnight with carbon dioxide as the only attractant. Physical collection bags were added below each trap fan, and captured mosquitoes were counted and identified to the lowest reliable taxonomic level. Across 45 paired trap-night collections, 10,691 mosquitoes were counted from physical collections, while BG-Counters recorded 11,492 mosquitoes. Mean agreement between BG-Counter and human-counted totals was 77.16 ± 3.59% across all collections and ranged from 53.41% to 88.35% among study sites. A negative binomial generalized linear model showed that log-transformed BG-Counter counts were a strong positive predictor of manual catch-bag mosquitoes collected from traps and explained 97.5% of the null deviance. Physical collections included 28 mosquito taxa, with species composition varying among sites. These results indicate that BG-Counters provide a useful real-time index of mosquito abundance in Collier County.