diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index d24b3de..2a7c03e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -81,10 +81,10 @@
     "@bull-board/api": "^5.9.1",
     "@bull-board/express": "^5.9.1",
     "@opentelemetry/api": "^1.7.0",
-    "@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node": "^0.44.0",
     "@opentelemetry/exporter-jaeger": "^1.19.0",
     "@opentelemetry/exporter-metrics-otlp-proto": "^0.50.0",
     "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto": "^0.50.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http": "^0.53.0",
     "@opentelemetry/resources": "^1.18.1",
     "@opentelemetry/sdk-metrics": "^1.18.1",
     "@opentelemetry/sdk-node": "^0.50.0",
diff --git a/src/controllers/opentelemetry.ts b/src/controllers/opentelemetry.ts
index e05793a..77b81e3 100644
--- a/src/controllers/opentelemetry.ts
+++ b/src/controllers/opentelemetry.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { NodeSDK } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-node";
-import { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } from "@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node";
+import { BatchSpanProcessor } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node";
+import { HttpInstrumentation } from "@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http";
 import { Resource } from "@opentelemetry/resources";
 import Debug from "debug";
 import { OTLPTraceExporter } from '@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto';
@@ -10,17 +11,28 @@ const jaegerHost = process.env.JAEGER_HOST ?? 'jaeger-otel-collector.sri';
 const jaegerPort = process.env.JAEGER_PORT ?? 4318;
 const jaegerResName = process.env.JAEGER_RES_NAME ?? '/v1/traces';
 
+const traceExporter = new OTLPTraceExporter({
+  url: `http://${jaegerHost}:${jaegerPort}${jaegerResName}`
+});
+const spanProcessor = new BatchSpanProcessor(traceExporter);
+
 debug("Initializing Opentelemetry instrumentation...");
 const sdk = new NodeSDK({
   // metrics, if needed, shall be exported on a different endpoint
-  traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({
-    url: `http://${jaegerHost}:${jaegerPort}${jaegerResName}`
-  }),
-  instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()],
+  // trace a subset of instrumentations to avoid performance overhead
+  instrumentations: [new HttpInstrumentation()],
   resource: new Resource({
     [ATTR_SERVICE_NAME]: "biothings-explorer",
   }),
+  // @ts-ignore because MetinSeylan/Nestjs-OpenTelemetry#63
+  spanProcessors: [spanProcessor],
 });
 debug(`OTel URL http://${jaegerHost}:${jaegerPort}${jaegerResName}`);
 sdk.start();
 debug("Opentelemetry instrumentation initialized.");
+
+export async function flushRemainingSpans(): Promise<void> {
+  // avoid losing any spans in the buffer when taskHandler exits
+  debug("Flushing remaining spans...");
+  await spanProcessor.forceFlush();
+}
diff --git a/src/controllers/threading/taskHandler.ts b/src/controllers/threading/taskHandler.ts
index 78b2629..b22ae41 100644
--- a/src/controllers/threading/taskHandler.ts
+++ b/src/controllers/threading/taskHandler.ts
@@ -14,9 +14,10 @@ import { tasks } from "../../routes/index";
 import { getQueryQueue } from "../async/asyncquery_queue";
 import * as Sentry from "@sentry/node";
 import { ProfilingIntegration } from "@sentry/profiling-node";
-import { Span, trace, context, propagation, Context } from "@opentelemetry/api";
+import { Span, trace, context, propagation, Context, Tracer } from "@opentelemetry/api";
 import { Telemetry } from "@biothings-explorer/utils";
 import { InnerTaskData } from "@biothings-explorer/types";
+import { flushRemainingSpans } from "../opentelemetry";
 
 // use SENTRY_DSN environment variable
 try {
@@ -91,14 +92,13 @@ async function runTask({
     });
 
     let activeContext: Context = propagation.extract(context.active(), { traceparent, tracestate });
-    debug(`OTel task ${traceparent} and ${tracestate}`);
-    let tracer = trace.getTracer("biothings-explorer-thread")
+    debug(`OTel task context: ${traceparent} and ${tracestate}`);
+    let tracer: Tracer = trace.getTracer("biothings-explorer-thread")
     span = tracer.startSpan(
       routeNames[route],
       {kind: 1},  // specifies internal span
       activeContext,
     );
-    debug(`OTel span created ${span}`);
   
     span.setAttribute("bte.requestData", JSON.stringify(req.data.queryGraph));
     Telemetry.setOtelSpan(span);
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ async function runTask({
     transaction.finish();
     span.end();
     Telemetry.removeOtelSpan();
+    await flushRemainingSpans();
   } catch (error) {
     debug("Sentry/OpenTelemetry transaction finish error. This does not affect execution.");
     debug(error);
diff --git a/src/controllers/threading/threadHandler.ts b/src/controllers/threading/threadHandler.ts
index e9a595c..c23e69c 100644
--- a/src/controllers/threading/threadHandler.ts
+++ b/src/controllers/threading/threadHandler.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { MessageChannel, threadId } from "worker_threads";
 import Debug from "debug";
-import { context, propagation } from "@opentelemetry/api";
+import { context, propagation, trace, Context, Span } from "@opentelemetry/api";
 const debug = Debug("bte:biothings-explorer-trapi:threading");
 import path from "path";
 import { redisClient } from "@biothings-explorer/utils";
@@ -221,6 +221,11 @@ export async function runTask(req: Request, res: Response, route: string, useBul
   propagation.inject(context.active(), otelData);
   const { traceparent, tracestate } = otelData;
 
+  // add req dest to root span name as HTTP instrumentation doesn't do it automatically
+  const activeContext: Context = context.active();
+  const rootSpan: Span = trace.getSpan(activeContext);
+  if (rootSpan != undefined) rootSpan.updateName(`${req.method} ${req.originalUrl}`);
+
   const taskInfo: TaskInfo = {
     data: {
       route,