In Brazil, a New Zika Strategy: Billboards That Smell Like Humans and Kill Mosquitoes

Friday, May 13, 2016

There’s an impressive array of creative billboards in Brazil.

One in Rio de Janeiro sprays mists of water to cool down beachgoers waiting for a bus home.

But a new innovation recently unveiled in this city is plain lethal — at least for bugs.

The Mosquito Killer Billboard attracts, traps and kills mosquitoes that carry the Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses, according to the publicity company promoting the device.

The billboard apparently spreads a solution of lactic acid and CO2 that “replicates human sweat and breath,” which, according to its promoters, attracts mosquitoes from as far as 2.5 miles away. Fluorescent lights lure the bugs in further and then a vacuum device sucks them into the billboard, where they die of dehydration.

Source: PRI (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care
Tags
infectious diseases