How hard is it to kill mosquitos? What about thousands of them? How many can you get at once, and is that enough to do yourself any good in the backyard? Unfortunately, a fly swatter does little harm, and chemical sprays do too much.
Since 2010, Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, located in Bellevue, Washington, has been hard at work on answers to these questions. They’ve come up with a solution, The Photonic Fence, a laser system that can optically track all flying insects that enter a coverage area and zaps only those identified as threats, namely, mosquitoes. However, it was only recently that researchers identified the best combination of wavelength, power, pulse duration, pulse energy and beam diameter to efficiently kill the disease-spreading pests.
Reminiscent of the Reagan-era strategic defense initiative, the Photonic Fence is dubbed “Star Wars”. Instead of using lasers to shoot down ballistic missiles, the Photonic Fence uses a laser to shoot down mosquitoes that enter the protected zone, such as a hospital entrance or hotel courtyard.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 207 million cases of malaria and an estimated 670,000 malaria deaths occurred worldwide in 2012. Governments and aid agencies have set up many programs to distribute antimalarial drugs, insecticides, and bed nets in endemic areas, and these important tools have curbed malaria’s spread through the poorer parts of the world. However, existing measures have only held the epidemic in check. To have a real chance of conquering this disease, we need truly new approaches.
By creating an electronic fence, this approach could offer a new tool for mosquito control that will work without human attention, and have zero negative damage on the local ecology. Used in conjunction with other preventative measures, such as bed nets, insecticides and other existing vector controlled techniques, perhaps it won’t be long before the battle against malaria will be won. While initially made for just that purpose, eradicating malaria-carrying mosquitos, South Africa is looking at this technology as a way to battle the Zika Virus.
Eric Johanson, and his colleagues, have been testing this system not only on mosquitos, but, also on psyllids, which ravage the citrus crops in Florida. Interestingly, the system can detect insects based on their wing beat frequency. Using such a system can distinguish between mosquitos, butterflies and bumblebees, and determine the sex of the mosquito, thereby going after only the females. With the precision built into these types of detection radars, having the clearest possible lens to track down the insects would be of vital importance. At UKA, our development team is with you from start to finish. Because we design and manufacture without one facility, you can rest assured your job is getting done accurately.
“Using this information on a regional, state or national level, we can make decisions about where and when to concentrate our pest-control efforts, whether they should be photonic or traditional,” Johanson suggested. “We will now be able to understand, for the first time on this resolution, the trends in insect behavior and the impact that our pest control efforts are having.”
Universe Kogaku designs and manufactures optical lenses for Photonic Lasers, security, high tech and electronic applications. We stock 1000’s of standard lens assemblies and can custom design a solution for scanners, CCTV, CCD/CMOS, medical imaging, surveillance systems, machine vision and night vision systems.