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Wireless Sensor Networks for Killing Mosquitoes
aaditeshwar writes "It looks like sensor networks have some applications afterall, other than the usual stuff for defense and US military! AmBio has created a wireless mesh network of bugspraying "magnets" that report back data on the temperature, air conditions, and wind directions, and a central controller uses this data to turn ON or OFF the magnets in different areas. They plan to cover entire cities with such wireless meshes, and create an anti-mosquito shield around the city!"
spammers, phishers, Nigerian 419'ers, and their ilk?
I thought they meant real magnets. I was like "WTF do we have nano-robitic mosquitos now?". Glad we can all sleep safe in the knowledge that we will only be bitten by regular mosquitos.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I didn't know that mosquitos were magnetic. I guess I'll have to welcome my new magnetic insectoid overlords. I'm getting really sick of welcoming new overlord, but whatever.
... and then they built the supercollider.
QUIMBY: For decimating our pigeon population, and making Springfield a less oppressive place to while away our worthless lives, I present you with this scented candle.
Skinner talks to Lisa.
SKINNER: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
LISA: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
SKINNER: No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
LISA: But aren't the snakes even worse?
SKINNER: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
LISA: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
SKINNER: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
The family head back to the car.
k e l l a r
I'm racking my brain, but I cannot think of a negative reason to remove mosquitoes from cities.
Frogs eat moskitos. You leave frogs without food. Won't anybody please think of the frogs?
I find it a great way to unwind whenever there are too many bugs buzzing around my place I reach for the badminton racquet and go on a genocidal bug swatting rampage through the house.. its great fun and solves the bug problem for a while.. side effects include getting a good workout and having to buy more lightbulbs..
. . . just make smaller, nano-mosquitoes to bite the regular mosquitoes and teach them a lesson?
I've been involved in mosquito repellant trials, as a test subject.
Yes, there are people who will donate their blood and time to counting and collecting all thee mosquitoes that bite them in the middle of a bog, with only whatever snake-oil product we're given to defend us. Most of our group is composed of entomologists, though, so we're weird like that.
So far, we haven't seen any significant results with similar (non-topical) products- we'll be seeing about this one next summer, I suppose.
I highly doubt, even if this does work, however, it would ever be applied to the 'save the world' purpose of fighting malaria in the third world. Let's be realistic, here. This is a product to keep upper middle class suburbanites in North America from feeling a little itchy and think they're protecting Grandma and Little Billy from getting big bad west Nile virus.
The only realistic control for malaria in the third world? DDT. That's right. I said it! DDT is cheap. It can be incorporated into nettings and enclosures in the form of a wash, so very minimal amounts need to be released into the environment. It requires practically no technical expertise to install or maintain, and doesn't require inputs to 'run.'
Now, I'm as leery of chlorinated hydrocarbons as the next granola-crunching hippy, and new, 'clean' (though one has to wonder the environmental impacts of the propane and whatever else goes into producing these things and to make them work) technologies are fine and good, but I can't stand the 'save the world' argument being fed to us here. These will never be in common use in the third world because they'll be comparatively expensive, require technical expertise to install and operate, and require constant fuel imputs. It's not realistic.
I'd rather get a few mosquito bites than buy this miracle new product, thanks.