What if it’s possible to use LED lighting to attract and distract disease-carrying mosquitoes and other bugs? Lighting Science Group intends to find out. Fortune magazine has the story on its website.
Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s entomology lab in Gainesville, Fla., Lighting Science began testing its light-based bug traps this spring. “There is room for improvement in existing trapping technology,” says USDA research entomologist Daniel Kline. He’s specifically interested in the idea of targeting insects associated with diseases like Zika and malaria.
To that end, the traps follow a simple principle: Different bugs — even different mosquito species — are attracted to different light wavelengths. “There is no one size fits all,” says Fred Maxik, Lighting Science’s chief technology officer. With the traps placed in the USDA’s controlled mosquito habitats, he’ll be able to pinpoint the light that will draw in specific insects. Lighting Science is eager to begin field-testing, and told Fortune that a consumer version of the device should follow within a year.