Who doesn’t hate mosquitoes? For centuries humans have had to endure this pest, and we started to win the war when DDT came out. Of course DDT isn’t allowed any more, but now you can kill these little buggers with a new gadget. It’s like Star Wars technology for vampire defense. I want one, preferably with a USB port so I can watch the body count on my PC. It will probably be a few years before the digitized ghost of Billy Mays hawks one on TV though. Still, I want one.
Here’s some background from Information Week:
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the project has been dubbed “WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction.” It aims to kill mosquitoes with lasers to prevent the spread of malaria, which mosquitoes can transmit.
The anti-mosquito laser system is being funded by Intellectual Ventures, a company run by Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former CTO.
…
Kare said that “WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction” isn’t a term used internally to refer to the project. He calls the project “the Photonic Fence.” “When we’re being lighthearted, we call it ‘the bug zapper,'” he explained.
As its name suggests, the Photonic Fence prototype consists of two posts that direct laser fire at mosquitoes that fly between them. Kare said the research team is still optimizing its targeting algorithm. “But we definitely can detect them and aim a beam at them,” he said.
When that happens, the mosquitoes literally get toasted.
From the intellectualventureslab.com website: This illustration shows one way our “photonic fence” mosquito laser system could be used to set up a perimeter defense, protecting a single building. The red “fence” shows a border that mosquitoes can’t pass through, but it is safe for everything else. There is no top coverage because mosquitoes don’t fly very high.
Here’s the videos of mosquitoes meeting a well deserved death by laser fire:
Here’s the live demonstration setup at the 2010 TED conference:
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This will work until the Disney feature animated film that makes Mosquitos out to be cute defenseless insects only trying to survive, then we’ll have to have targeting systems that distinguish between malaria carrying ones and disease-free mosquitos.
I’d pay good money for something similar that took down houseflies
Another SNL joke that has turned into reality.
Expect outrage from the PETA types.
Aren’t lasers dangerous to human eyes? How do they avoid them?
/Mr Lynn
I see some difficulties implementing this over irregular ground with some changing vegetation.
Semi-seriously, you could wind up generating the “stealth mosquito” in the same way we’re on our way to creating super bugs.
Can it be adjusted to get flies, too?
The mosquito lasers can target female mosquitoes specifically, and just kill the females. This makes sense because it is the females that spread malaria, dengue, yellow fever, etc.
But feminists are unhappy with the selective killing of females, and may use their influence at court to shut the technology down. More deadly than the male, always.
Or, for about 100,000x less expense, you could spray a small amount of DDT. Either way though…
‘Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former CTO.’
What ever will they do when they get a bug in the system?
Maybe taking debugging a tad bit too far?
I wonder, when this think malfunction will it turn the beams blue?
Funny, every time a bug finds a way through the fence, the system overloads.
BTW won’t the nasty little bugs just fly above and over the fence?
Animal Cruelty if you ask me; about on a par with putting a mouse in a pot on the stove and watching him dance when his feet get hot.
But speaking of lasers systems, this mosquito getter seems about as practical as laser implosion thermo-nuclear energy. You first catch your mosquito, and then stick him(er) on the head of a pin with black wax, so you can zap him(er) with the laser. The corresponding fusion energy trick to sticking the skito on the pin, is to manufacture “fuel pellets”.
These are fancy multilayer perfectly spherical hollow balls, that get squished by lasers all around them. Then you brush away the debris, and stick another sphere down; maybe black wax works there too.
People think the fuel is the Helium/tritium mixture used to blow up the balloons; but no the pellets themsleves are the actual fuel, and it takes a damn side more energy to make one of those pellets than you ever get out of the crushed gases inside the pellet when they decide to fuse.
So I predict a great future for the laser skita getta; it will surely be the malaria cure of the future; just like fusion is the energy of the future; and always will be.
whoa! now that is cool, and I want one.
that puff of smoke wouldn’t be aerosol soot or something? and are mosquitos made out of carbon? I don’t want these banned because they cause global warming or something….
Creative – WMD – Weapon of Mosquito Destruction.
“Build a Better Mosquito Trap and the World will Beat a Path to Your Door.”
Will be interesting to see if such technology can ever be made to be safe, effective and delivered at a competitive price.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organziation re-evaluated decades of science research and is now promoting very successful interior wall spraying with DDT. Beyond the high mosquito kill rate, DDT appears to have a unique ability to repel mosquitos from even entering a sprayed building. Those that do enter leave at a very high percentage rate. Those that stay tend to cling to walls at some point, thereby eliminating them from the gene pool.
So, with cost-effective spraying, enormous drops in Malaria death rates have been obtained. And that is crutial, since most people probably don’t realize the number who get Malaria can reach a Half Billion People or more per year. That is an enormous problem, concentrated mostly in poor areas around the world.
Fortunately the World Health Organization’s interior spray program is having significant results, where it isn’t blocked by those who are not up to date with the safety and effectiveness of this life-saving program.
World Health Organization Program Link:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/index.html
“There is no top coverage because mosquitoes don’t fly very high.”
They will quickly evolve to fly higher is my bet. Or crawl on the ground.
But, nice try.
Isn’t this the equivalent of usine a sledgehammer to kill a fly. As someone already noted, ddt should do the trick.
sounds like a cool tool. will nature rebound by a genetically enhanced mosquito with silvered wings and body? will we be expected to “eat what we shoot” ???? Will roast skeeters ever compete with chocolate covered ants in the way of epicurian delights.
Could this device be applied to debug some models?
1DandyTroll;
What ever will they do when they get a bug in the system?>>
Funny, but the first bug actually was a bug. Admiral Grace Hopper of the US Navy (deceased) started her career programming one of the first computers for the Navy. I think she was 3rd person in the world to program a computer, so a real pioneer. They were getting arithmetic errors and could find no flaw in the code, so concluded it was a hardware problem. They began going through the switches, which were relays housed in cans about the size of a soup can. In one of the relays she found that a moth had crawled between the contacts and been killed when they tried to close. The contacts couldn’t close as a result, and caused the error.
She took the moth, placed it on the open page of her journal and put a piece of clear tape over it. It was on display at the Smithsonian for the longest time open to that page (might still be for all I know). Written clearly at the bottom of the page is the date and the words:
“first bug found”
Interesting technology but could be very expensive in areas of the world where it could do the most good. Even electricity is in short supply there. I still prefer the DDT approach. I read that the old zappers so many people have in their yards do not attract the harmful mosquitoes, just the beneficial ones.
Just wondering how effective it would be at keeping the door to door salespeople from stepping onto our property.
Wouldn’t that be a WTD – Weapon of Tiny Destruction?
I’m not sure this is a such a good idea. The guys in the following video had a fence like that and all it did was annoy a really big mosquito:
I wonder if they have ever tried these in e. g. Lapland. To protect a reasonable sized house there would require a firing rate of tens, if not hundreds of pulses per second. Sounds about as practical as an ABM system.
they should call in the Silent Spring system …
Can’t wait to hear what PETA has to say !!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder if this a topic to be handled on a climate sceptics website?
REPLY: and I wonder if you’ve ever read the masthead?
“Commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts”