Laser Fence Zaps Mosquitoes In Flight | Hacker News Reader

Laser Fence Zaps Mosquitoes In Flight

spectrum.ieee.org

37 pointsmhb19 comments

If you have a short attention span, just scroll down and watch the video. Awesome.

DIE, LITTLE BLOODSUCKERS!! :)

On a side note, in Asia I got the chance to use a device that's like a tennis racket with a bug zapper sandwiched between finger-impermeable outer net layers. So it's hard to shock yourself, but swing it through a cloud of mosquitos, and they pop, burn and die in a very satisfying manner.

It's hard to avoid maniacal laughter.

I have this, and I concur heartily. In Tamil, it's called a 'kosubat' (unofficial name - literally translates to 'mosquito bat')

Sometimes it is a lot of fun (and good exercise!) to dance around the house to Johann Strauss' The Blue Danube zapping the life outta the little pests.

A friend of ours in Puerto Rico has one of those. Great stuff! They're available mail-order, but I never got around to buying one.

I love this very tongue in cheek, over-engineered solution to a real problem. It seems the authors are well aware that there are more cost-effective ways of dealing with the problem. But shooting the critters out of the air, one by one speaks to the geek in all of us. This would be a great "give one get one" device, but then again, giving to more conventional causes for malaria prevention is probably more useful.

We had a scam over here a bunch of years ago that took the low-tech route instead. Easy-to-use, painless and fast mosquito-killing system advertised. Upon payment, the lucky owner received two pieces of plywood with a handle on each, plus instructions on how to quickly move the plywood pieces together with the mosquito between them.

I had fun laughing at the audacity at the time, but I think using this system I'd actually have fun using the system instead of having fun at the expense of the users. =)

This is a cool engineering project, but hardly seems like an efficient approach, at thousands (hundreds at best) of dollars a pop. Traditional chemical elimination methods (C02 traps, pesticides) seem much more effective, and biological approaches are probably the most promising (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique).

And in case you want a local, mechanical option - don't those electric fly killers with the blue light work for mosquitoes as well?

I think the problem is they attract various types of insects indiscriminately, which can be disastrous for the ecosystem. IIRC, the laser's tracking mechanism only detects the mosquitoes' wing frequency range.

Blue light does not attract mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are actually attracted to infrared light - the exact opposite of blue light. And CO2.

If it can be set up and torn down with relative ease, there would probably be a market in rentals for people having outdoor parties or weddings, or camping trips.

Yet another idea I had when I was a kid, now wending its way towards the market.

I wanted a sprinkler system with lasers instead of water. Pop up, laser the grass in all directions, pop down. Just make sure nobody's in the yard, first. :)

In practice this is probably a terrible idea - your beautiful green grass is constantly being burned on top.

Which is worse, cauterization or hacking with a mower blade?

I'd say cauterization. Wouldn't it prevent the grass from growing anymore, as well as looking terrible (burnt on top)?

Grass grows from the root up, i.e. it's not like a tree. Whether you chop it off with a laser or with high-speed steel, it's going to keep growing from the root; it's evolved to grow after being chopped off by sheep's teeth, after all.

I absolutely love this. I also applaud them for making sure they only zap the evil mosquitoes and not other friendly bugs, such as moths, who are not trying to suck my blood in exchange for a nasty, itchy welt.

>but if your virtual fence is 3 to 5 meters high, it can catch almost all mosquitoes that fly by

Yeah...it's never going to work unless they eliminate all the bugs.

Not so. If you keep the population down, you're already doing a great deal to stop the spread of disease - especially if you're mostly keeping population down in populated areas, where sick people tend to be located.

This is fantastic.

Depends on what you mean by "work." If you mean "completely eliminate mosquito-borne diseases," probably not.

If you mean "slow their spread and reduce the number of people affected," or "help your party guests get fewer bug bites," then yes, it will work.

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