Inside a patch of Raleigh forest, a hunter is becoming the hunted.
Michael Doyle, state public health entomologist, is on the front linese of the battle - man versus mosquito.
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"There is a love, hate relationship with mosquitoes," Doyle said.
Working from a lab on the campus of North Carolina State University, Doyle isn't just helping catch these tiny bloodsuckers, he is also helping the state track three key diseases, including West Nile Virus.
At its worst, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that West Nile causes high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and, in rare cases, death. But serious cases are relatively rare.
Between 2012 and 2020, data from NCDHHS data shows North Carolina averaged just one to two cases per month between July and November, with the greatest concentration of cases popping up in Wake, Guilford, Cumberland and Mecklenburg counties.
In July, Durham reported North Carolina’s first case of West Nile virus in 2025. Infected mosquitoes were also detected in Pitt County.
"These viruses don't occur evenly across the state. They have hot spots, and if they can identify the hot spot, then they can react by reducing the adult mosquito population and stopping that cycle of virus out in the environment," Doyle said.
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Roughly a quarter of North Carolina counties participate in the state's monitoring program, sending in live bugs to Doyle's lab, where assistants keep bus well fed with bovine blood until testing time.
Doyle said the goal of the program is to be react quickly. When viruses are detected, counties can respond, bringing in pesticides, poisons or other treatments to swat the next outbreak before it starts.
"It's like the art of war and where you if you know thine enemy. And for me, that's, that's how it is," Doyle said.
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