// /⌒フ ))
(⌒ノ;;::::ノ
/(^)(^)\ ̄\_
ノ / |
/ `
Zika virus isn't intensely impacting this area, but why not consider options.
BBC has an interesting article on the Ovillanta, a do-it-yourself mosquito trap made from old tyres.
This would be useful to have translated to Thai:
http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160422 ... -at-a-time
In a move that could have far-reaching implications for equatorial countries, Canadian researchers have developed a cheap, effective and non-toxic way to dramatically reduce disease-carrying mosquito populations by using a ubiquitous item that, ironically enough, the pests love to breed in: old tyres.
“We are turning a weapon that mosquitoes use against us – old tyres – against them,” says Dr. Gerardo Ulibarri, PhD, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry and eco-health at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. He developed the device, known as an ovillanta (loosely translated, it’s Spanish for “tyre for laying eggs”), to destroy the larvae of the Aedes, a genus of mosquito that carries the now-notorious Zika virus as well as the dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses.
---For starters, the devices eliminate the need to use pesticides that can damage the environment and carry the risk of collateral damage to other insects – including those that eat mosquitoes. Furthermore, subsequent generations of mosquitoes can build up resistance to pesticides, making them less and less effective, Ulibarri notes.
AND WITHIN this article off to the side, the recently developed Thailand option:
Vehicle of Destruction
In Thailand, using the common motorbike to smoke out the common mosquito.
Repurposing old car tyres isn’t the only novel approach being used to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes. Consider MotoRepellent, a small mobile device developed in Asia. It dispenses a non-toxic, mosquito-repellent oil from a machine that’s almost as abundant in Asia as mosquitoes: motorcyclus popularus, otherwise known as the common motorcycle.
The brainchild of an advertising agency, BBDO Bangkok, and the Duang Prateep Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to improving living conditions in Thailand slums, MotoRepellent attaches magnetically to a motorcycle’s exhaust pipe. Heat from the exhaust activates the oil and emits a mosquito-repelling scent. It’s effective up to three meters (nearly 10 feet) from the point of emission.
While the means of dispersal may seem amusingly clever, mosquitoes are no laughing matter in Thailand — or other equatorial countries. In just 2015, Thailand experienced a 270% increase in dengue-virus infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the disease afflicts 390m people worldwide and results in 25,000 fatalities. WHO officials say that more than 2.5b people — about one-third of the world’s population — are at risk for dengue infections.
On the other hand, motorcycles are one of the most affordable – and thereby common – forms of transportation worldwide. In 2010, one study estimated there are 455m motorcycles in use globally — almost 80% of them in Asia (primarily China and India). That’s a lot of exhaust pipes. —KW