Mosquito Eradication by Laser

[Greenmechanic]

If you don't live in the south, you probably don't know what Love Bugs are. They are a pain in the butt, get all over your vehicle, they stink like a dead monkey, they also contain acid, so if you don't wash them off right away, it will eat the paint off your vehicle.
Anyway a 405nm is very effective at killing them. (they are a deep black color, perfect!:eg
I was bored one day and sitting on the deck zapping them. I killed so many, I had to go get a broom to clean them up.
Yes, it killed them. Watched a few for a while, looking for signs of life. Stone dead. Just like a Love Bug should be!:wave:

 

[Cyparagon]

A GGW or a 8x would do the trick easily

Did you see the spot size? even a watt spread over several mm like that would not be enough to cause a puff of smoke. It almost looks like a YAG beam, but the pulse duration is far too long. High power IR diode seems most plausible to me.

why does every bug zapper on the market have a UV light bulb in it?

Excellent observation. "These traps are not effective at killing biting insects (female mosquitoes and other insects), being much more effective at attracting and killing other harmless and beneficial insects. A study over a summer found that 13,789 insects were killed, of which 31 were biting insects. Mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide and water vapor in the breath of mammals, not ultraviolet light."

 

[photonaholic]

I have some of the best mosquito control on the planet. (actual photos from my back yard)

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

That pile of "eyeballs" would scare me too !!!

Kidding --- HMike

 

[photonaholic]

the tadpoles eat the mosquito larvae so quickly that I have photos of tadpole cannibalism, they had to start eating each other for food.

It's awesome to see, Bullfrogs will eat "lesser tadpoles" , then large swarms of smaller tadpoles (like toads) will gang up on the bullfrog tadpoles and eat them alive.

Nature is amazing.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Photo ---
Sounds like politics in real life.
Hmike

 

[photonaholic]

Photo ---
Sounds like politics in real life.
Hmike

 

[xStatiCa]

As much as I hate mosquitoes I am surprised that it seemed to bother me watching them go down like that. The poor little fellow was trying to flap those wings but... oh crap... they are gone!

I don't see how they could deploy something like that if there were any chance an animal or person might be around the area. It seems like dragonflies would be the answer. They do a great job of taking out other insect pests like mosquitoes. They are neat insects. Unfortunately they are not so bright. They seem to like my RC Helicopter and go right for it and get chopped up within a minute or so of takeoff :/.

 

[ossumguywill]

^lol photonaholic

 

[Arayan]

I have some of the best mosquito control on the planet. (actual photos from my back yard)

Here another superb mosquito control

 

[Byrnz93]

Yeah, instead of looking into chemicals, lasers, etc to control insects we should be making use of the natural, native predators of them.

 

[Things]

Here in Cairns you don't have to worry about mosquito's --- It's always to hot and humid to go outside anyway

It's interesting what different people call different animals. To me, those are called toads, and this is a frog:

Toads are for making a mess on your car tyres

 

[Arayan]

It's interesting what different people call different animals. To me, those are called toads, and this is a frog:

For these reasons it is better to use the scientific name in Latin (Genus and species)

 

[photonaholic]

the mating pair are in fact common toads.

The others are frogs, I brought some eggs into the house and cultured them in an aquarium, some of the tadpoles turned into bright green frogs that walked right up the glass with little suction cup feet.

I love Bats too, bats are awesome, every night during the summer they circle overhead sucking down bugs like crazy.

I never have to spray here, we even have a large population of these on my land.

 

[Svensson]

I don't see how they could deploy something like that if there were any chance an animal or person might be around the area.

In the information I've linked to on the first page they explained why that won't be a danger..

Here's the text again:

The system would create a virtual fence made out of light— we call it a “Photonic Fence.” Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps on each fence post would beam infrared light at adjacent fence posts up to 100 feet (30 meters) away; the light would then hit strips of retroreflective material (similar to that used on highway signs) and bounce straight back toward the illuminator. A camera on each fence post monitors the reflected light for shadows cast by a hapless insect flying through the vertical plane of light.

When an invading insect is detected, our software identifies it by training a nonlethal laser beam on the bug and using that illumination to estimate the insect’s size and also to measure how fast its wings are beating. Using this method, the system can not only distinguish among mosquitoes, butterflies, and bumblebees, but it can even determine whether a mosquito is male or female! (Females are significantly larger than males and have slower wingbeats.) This is useful because only female mosquitoes bite humans.

Our software is able to track a mosquito in flight once it establishes that it is a valid target. After running safety checks to ensure no unintended object is in view, the system activates a second, more powerful laser that zaps the mosquito, causing death either by damage to its DNA (an unconfirmed hypothesis) or by overheating. The energy levels and light frequencies used are not capable of damaging human tissue, but even so, we’ve built in safeguards that ensure that the system doesn’t fire when anything much larger than a mosquito is in the photonic fence.

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

Frying bugs with lasers might be fun sometimes but it doesn't seem like a very efficient way of destroying large populations of certain insects. Compared to most pesticides it would certainly be better for people and the environment, but it still seems like a lot of effort and complexity is needed.

If such a system is set up outdoors, what about dirt, dust, rain? Sounds like something that would need constant maintenance in an outdoor environment, as we all know that lasers don't go together well with dirt and moisture.

IMO natural predators of mosquitos would be best. One of my neighbors somehow let his inground swimming pool become a frog pond (don't ask me why - I think he's too lazy to bother taking care of it, as his house and property are often a mess) and he probably doesn't have any biting bugs around his place. The frogs and toads are so loud in the springtime it sounds like a pond in the wilderness!

I don't have a pool but I do have a bunch of bats around my yard, and some of them have taken up residence under one of the shutters beside my living room window. Our cleaning lady freaked when she heard them because she thought they would fly into her hair, which is of course a myth. I try to attract animals that eat mosquitos and other biting bugs. I did use a bug zapper a few times last summer but not to kill mosquitos. I have moths, crane flies and other harmless but annoying bugs that get into my garage but it didn't do much good because they were more interested in the overhead florescent lights than the bug zapper.