Getting Into the Weeds of Lab Work

To most people, weeds, ticks, mosquitoes, and the problems they cause are better out of mind. For us at Teton County Weed & Pest, they’re in our crosshairs.

Our mission is to track vector-borne disease, manage invasive species, and educate the community. While it sounds like we’re outdoors all day long spraying for mosquitos, pulling weeds, and visiting schools—we spend a lot of time in the lab digging deep into science. We test samples, collect data, and share our findings to help Teton County and beyond make informed decisions about public health and ecosystem protection.

How the Lab Enables Our Mission

Our lab is where fieldwork blossoms into information. What started as a simple operation (a closet with a microscope, essentially), has grown into a fully equipped BSL-2 lab capable of supporting mosquito testing, tick surveillance, pathogen detection, genetic identification, and more.

Simply put, we collect things that grow where they shouldn't—or bite—and figure out what they are, what they're carrying, and what that means for Teton County. From testing mosquitoes for West Nile, screening ticks for Lyme disease, and genetically testing invasive plants that are identical to natives, we get answers.

Meet the Lab Rats

What makes our team special is an equal love of the great outdoors and nitty gritty science work. From fresh air to fluorescent bulbs, we thrive in both worlds.

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Take Mikenna Smith, our entomologist, who works with pests that can spread disease. For her, getting to connect her work to public health is a strong motivator. Plus, in her words, she loves catching ticks.

“I also really love catching ticks. They are my favorite. So come spring, as soon as we can get out and go get ticks to bring back to the lab and do our experiments on them and test them is a lot of fun.” 

Kelsey Mitchell, our biologist, brings molecular biology and genetics into the mix. She’s passionate about applying high-quality science to real-world problems that impact people and the ecosystem, and she has helped expand the lab’s capabilities into new territory. But like any good biologist, she strives to stay connected to the outdoors.

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“I think to be a really well-rounded biologist, you also need to make sure that you're getting out in the field and you're immersed in the ecology of the system that you're studying.”

Together, their office switches between every inch of Teton County and the cozy confines of our lab. From catching mosquitoes to looking at them through a microscope, analyzing data that helps guide real public health.

What We Hope to Keep Accomplishing

As Teton County changes, so do the challenges we face. Tick ranges shift. Mosquito seasons fluctuate. Invasive plants spread. Luckily, we’ll be there to meet them in the field and in the lab.

By continuing to expand local testing, strengthen safety protocols, and build partnerships, we can provide better public health insights, better invasive species detection, and better methods to protect the places we love.

In short, we’ll keep getting into the weeds (and pests) so Teton County doesn’t have to.

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