New York Times: The High-Tech Device That’s Like a Bouncer for Mosquitoes
“…The new traps, made by Microsoft, overcome one of the most frustrating aspects of insect surveillance: There are 56 species of mosquitoes in [Houston], and conventional traps suck in nearly all of them. Entomologists want only a few disease-carrying types, including Aedes aegypti, which carries Zika and dengue, and Culex quinquefasciatus, which spreads West Nile virus. … The Microsoft trap, by contrast, has 64 compartments, arrayed like studio apartments in a skyscraper. When an insect flies in, it crosses an infrared beam that reads the pattern of the shadows thrown by its buzzing wings, said Ethan Jackson, a computer scientist who leads Microsoft’s Project Premonition, which created the trap with advice from mosquito experts at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation…” (McNeil, 6/19).