Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: katieHaylor on 17/10/2017 13:54:47

Title: Have flight patterns of malaria mosquitoes been studied?
Post by: katieHaylor on 17/10/2017 13:54:47

Peter says:

Interesting  Question of the Week (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/question-week/are-flies-easier-swat-if-you-move-slowly) this week about fly swatting. Have the flight patterns of malaria mosquitoes as they evade swatting hands ever been studied? How variable are they? Knowing more about this could have human health consequences.

What do you think?

Title: Re: Have flight patterns of malaria mosquitoes been studied?
Post by: evan_au on 17/10/2017 20:39:54

Some scientists who had worked on Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defence system proposed a scaled-down version, where lasers would be used to zap malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

They did study the rate of flapping/buzzing that mosquitoes produce so that they wouldn't annihilate the entire insect population of the world. They could even specifically target the female mosquitoes which transmit the disease.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser#Environmental_and_ecological_concerns

Title: Re: Have flight patterns of malaria mosquitoes been studied?
Post by: syhprum on 17/10/2017 21:09:05

I don't think swatting them by hand is a very effective way of controlling mosquites