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A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

nytimes.com

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Re: A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

#22

Post by heliostatic »

Ives wrote: post #20
Aardwolf wrote: post #16

Personally I'd love to have an auto-aiming laser that detects and fries any nearby mosquito. The poor critters wouldn't stand a chance.

I've thought about that, but mosquito's are small and hard to detect. You'd need quite a high resolution camera (or realistically two, to compensate for the parallax between the camera and the laser) combined with some serious software to spot mosquitos at the other end of the room.

IV did develop this... http://intellectualventureslab.com/?page_id=563

Re: A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

#23

Post by michael_h »

sadkingbilly wrote: post #5

Or put a dryer sheet in your pocket. Have it hang half-way out. Skeeters hate the stuff. And you smell good.

I've tried this and it didn't work for me at all. Mosquitos love my wife, so she rubbed the dryer sheet on her exposed skin. Result: completely covered in mosquito bites.

Re: A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

#25

Post by michael_h »

cobrausn wrote: post #21
Aardwolf wrote: post #16

Personally I'd love to have an auto-aiming laser that detects and fries any nearby mosquito. The poor critters wouldn't stand a chance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser Oddly enough, Intellectual Ventures invented this.

Somebody tell Nathan Myhrvold so he can come in and sue everybody in this thread for reading about his intellectual property.

Re: A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

#26

Post by adolgert »

Mosquitoes in the US used to be mostly Aedes, but now there are a lot of Culex, which fly twice as fast (120cm/s, or about 2.7 mph) and are better hunters. The Aedes come into a room, find a wall, and eventually eat, while Culex go straight for the bite. Both of them tend to fly upwind toward meals. I wonder whether fans blow the close mosquitoes away but draw lots more to the area, in search of that good human-food smell the fan disperses.

Re: A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

#29

Post by grecy »

Spend a summer up in the Yukon or Alaska if you want to see solid walls of ravenous mosquitoes.

I get bitten while riding my bike, bitten while my arm is out of the car window driving at 30km/h, and bitten through jeans. 100% DEET (you can get it in Alaska) does the trick for about 30 minutes before you have to re-apply - and it's nasty stuff.

This past weekend I was camping at a music festival and slapped my arm casually, and killed 14 mosquitoes with the one slap.....

A fan? That will do nothing.

The mosquitoes will mostly be gone in another month, then it's No CM and black fly season, until it gets below freezing in ~September.

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