Sonic-powered Mosquito Larvae Eliminator

Bob Vila's Hammer writes "Inventor Michael Nyberg, at the age of 15, developed the idea for a mosquito larvae eradicator after hearing about rising cases of West Nile virus. His company, Larvasonic, has developed these devices. They utilize sonic blasts at certain frequency that rupture the breathing sacs of the larvae, killing them instantly. Remarkably, it does not harm other insects and it is considered a very effective means of destroying problematic mosquito infestations."

Malaria too

[kinnell]

West nile virus aside, think about the effect this could have on malaria. Mosquito control without the massive environmental fallout of chemical insecticides. I just hope it's cheap enough that the regions which need this can afford it.

Too bad the mosquitos themself are part of...

[Compunerd]

...the biotope. Several places they've tried fiddling with nature to stop plagues, like in denmark, they spilt chemicals on small lakes to stop the mosquitos from sitting on it, drowning them instead. What happened? Small birds were dying, not having enough food. Also, in denmark, they tried to stop birds eating their apples from apple farms, pulling huge nets and shooting birds approaching, discovering the birds really didn't like apple, but the bugs inside them, resulting in a great production loss. And - also - a friend of mine is doing a lot of parachute jumping. They found out that the barn swallow living in the hangar were shitting on their chutes, and started to shoot the birds, resulting in a vast amount of flies and mosquitos etc etc etc.
Perhaps not fiddle with nature after all?

roy

Re:Breeding Resistance

[TwistedGreen]

You can't stop evolution from happening, though it doesn't look like mosquitoes will develop a resistance to bats anytime soon...

This is because bats prey on the fundamental design of a mosquito: they can move faster, think faster, sense faster. Developing a resistance to bats will require a change in the entire organism.

I think there is a similar case in the vulnerability of their breathing sacs. This is a rather fundamental organ of the mosquito, and expecting it to change very rapidly is unreasonable. This is not just some chemical resistance, but an inherent physical vulnerability. They may evolve thicker breathing sacs, but this is a flaw in the fundamental structure of the breathing sac and cannot be changed quickly. Thus, correcting this defect won't happen over a few generations.

Not a new invention ...

[fygment]

... by a long shot. This concept first surfaced somewhere in the late seventies. The principle is correct however the implementation is problematic. The device needs to be in proximity to the larva or else acoustic levels have to be high enough that they do affect other insects, fish, etc. As I recall, the intitial experiments worked fine in an aquarium where acoustic properties were ideal for the purpose of concentrating the acoustic energy. (Note: after the blast the larvae keep rising to the surface with all appearance of normal breathing patterns, they just can't breath when they get there.) Not an issue for the storm drain and industrial setting. In the wetland scenario however the method is very inefficient (due to small area coverage) which means a lot of wasted resources (fuel) and disruption (vehicular traffic, etc) just getting the acoustic devices in place.

best method for malaria control would be a vaccine

[pg133]

The cheapest and best method for malaria disease control would be a vaccine, in which an single inoculation would deliver permanent immunity. Unfortunately, western drug companies are traditionally unprepared to invest money, in tropical/non-western diseases, due to high risks and return of investment.

At least William H. Gates Foundation has got the right idea The William H. Gates Foundation Announces a $50 Million Gift to Establish the Malaria Vaccine Initiative [malariavaccine.org]

Modern drugs

[Anonymous Coward]

You correctly present the problems in creating a vaccine for malaria.

However, Is it not a simply a matter of insufficient international research funding, for a non-western/tropical disease, that leaves this disease without modern drugs

After all chloroquine was introduced in 1943, 61 years ago, and was highly effective.

The recent outbrake SARS show the speed and technology that modern drug companies can throw at a problem when energised to do so, why not for malaria?

History of malaria [museums.org.za]

Ideal malariavaccine [malaria-vaccines.org.uk]

world map of malaria [malaria-vaccines.org.uk]

Nice idea but somewhat impractical

[sapbasisnerd]

Nice idea but somewhat impractical with the possible exception of the storm drain application, in a contained area you have to repeat the treatment at least weekly (and more often would be better) for at least 10 weeks before you break the breeding cycle.

Something more practical in west nile terms would be a small, timer driven one that could be put in a birdbath for a whole season. The wetland and canal dragged versions are just short of silly.

The real problem with west nile at least are breeds of mosquitos that tend to prefer urban settings and can (and do) breed in the water trapped in a discarded pop can so all this would do is naturally select for the bugs that tend to use more marginal water sources.

As much as one would like to one does not want to take these things completely out of the food chain, just keep them away from areas of human habitation.

There are easier solutions in many cases, our summer place abuts a swamp where we just couldn't get in there with this thing as it's so overgrown, Last year we used one of those CO2 exhaling traps (Mosquito Magnet brand) and it's amazing how well it works, for the first time in living memory we were able to sit outside at dusk without being eaten alive. Changing a propane tank every three weeks and emptying the bag of dead mosquitos (and no other bugs) sure beats slogging through a swamp in hip waders once or twice a week...