Acoustic Tracking of Mosquito Swarms for Vector Control

Szabolcs Marka of Columbia University in the U.S. will develop acoustic software to locate mosquito swarms by their sound, thereby allowing elimination of thousands of breeding vector mosquitos that can cause diseases such as malaria. They have already demonstrated that they can acoustically detect a single distant mosquito in a noisy laboratory setting. They will further develop acoustic locator hardware and sensors targeting the common malaria mosquito Anopheles and field-test its performance in locating swarms from several tens of meters. By studying the acoustics of single mosquitoes as well as of swarms, it could be possible to track the behavior of individuals and to artificially induce swarm formation, to further support disease control efforts.