Mosquitoes are among the most annoying and dangerous insects. Why are they dangerous? Because they can transmit serious diseases to humans, such as malaria, dengue fever or the Zika virus. According to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates , mosquitoes kill more people every day than sharks have killed in an entire century.
A Yale report showed that climate change will worsen the problem . Therefore, early warning systems must be created to protect people.
The Institute for Research and Technology of Agricultural Products (IPTA) in Catalonia, Spain, is using technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), sensors and satellites to automate the process of trapping mosquitoes. The aim is to classify them according to species, sex, age and the likelihood of causing infection in humans.
Traps are not a new control technique.
However, according to a researcher from the Animal Health Research Center, these processes are time-consuming and costly. In addition, the classification of mosquitoes requires a lot of experience and specialized researchers.
For this reason, IRTA decided to adopt the Vectrack system, which is funded by the "EU Horizon 2020" program.
The first trials with traps are being carried out by the Public Health Service of Barcelona (ASPB), which monitors mosquitoes in the urban environment of the Mediterranean.
Developed by Irideon, a Spanish-German company based in Spain, Vectrack allows researchers to combine traditional sampling procedures with remote sensing and modeling techniques.
The traps are similar to those generally used in these cases. However, this system uses optoelectronic sensors, which allow for remote and automated counting and classification of mosquitoes.
Researcher Dr Carles Aranda says the traps attract mosquitoes because the devices “emit carbon dioxide and then put the samples inside, so they don’t escape.”
The sensors are also able to collect data on the temperature and humidity of the environment the trap is in. Essentially, the morphological, physiological and kinetic state of the mosquitoes is converted into a “digital fingerprint of the insect”.
Advantages
Using this system with sensors is very helpful in analyzing samples. According to experts, it is much more effective than photos or videos from traps.
Furthermore, Vectrack sensors can be installed almost anywhere in the world, as they are compatible with a range of communication protocols (2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, LPWAN NB-IoT and LoRA technologies, and IoT).
The information collected is sent to the cloud and analyzed by algorithms. It is then processed based on some geographic information.
Through the above processes, researchers can develop maps real-time risk prediction. The maps can help authorities prevent diseases and contain an epidemic in a timely manner.
The optoelectronic sensors have been used before and have proven to be very effective in identifying the species, gender, and age of mosquitoes. This is very important because researchers will be able to discover which mosquitoes are dangerous, and also locate (through the new system) the area where they are found and the area from which they originate.
