Okay so it won't zap larger things like pets and people but what about other insects? I'm mildly annoyed at how the majority don't give a fuck about insects. It says fast insects such as houseflies can't be detected if flying fast, but there's plenty of slow flyers that are not mozzies. Would they get zapped too? Tiny moths and butterflies? Ladybugs and other small beetles? Hovering dragonflies? We already have a massive decline in insect diversity
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
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A previous version of this claimed that it could distinguish between male and female mosquitos (the ones that bite). It used the different wingbeat frequencies, if memory serves.
It feels that a point-defence system is less harmful than gassing the whole area, which is what e.g. hotels do now.
Now that would have been reassuring to read. It wasn't in the article though. I agree with you that gassing or blanket poisoning is a lot worse in principle
I'm with ya, u/Mothra.
Not this again https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/laser-shooting-mosquito-death-machine-nathan-myhrvold.html
tl;dr this idea was pitched in 2010, this article from 2017 says the demo was faked. 15 years later and the cycle repeats.
This was mentioned in the article, although not the fact that it was faked.
I can believe that the tech has improved enough to not need faking this time around.
This sounds like a dream come true, but I'm worried it's not going to be legal in many places because of the potential eye damage.