A dipper with a 1-mm mesh screen bottom was used to sample larval populations of Coquillettidia perturbans from plant roots in Minnesota wetlands. This sampling technique was especially useful for large-scale larval surveys because the sampler was portable, individual sample collection and processing could be completed in < 10 min and data collected were appropriate for statistical analyses. Sampling indicated that larval populations were clumped, with a negative binomial model closely describing larval distributions.