” Our gadget eliminates the requirement for using topical repellents and for insecticides that are sprayed throughout an open area, which can pollute surrounding plants or bodies of water and have a negative effect on helpful pollinators like bees and butterflies,” Rajagopal stated. “This is flexible, portable, easily released, and doesnt need electricity or heat to trigger the service.”
Mosquitos are more than an irritating interruption for military workers, as they can spread severe diseases and viruses like malaria, dengue infection, Zika, and West Nile infection. The DOD continuously looks for ways to safeguard soldiers in the field from mosquito bites.
The controlled-release passive gadget is comprised of a tube-shaped polypropylene plastic that is 2.5 centimeters long and holds 2 smaller sized tubes and cotton including the repellent. The team connected 70 of the devices to the opening of a big military camping tent utilizing fishing line and absolutely nothing to a comparable control tent. Caged mosquitos were launched at various points along the exterior of the tent, and nearly all were eliminated or warded off within 24 hours, Rajagopal said.
He discussed that while the field test showed the teams model produced a protective space from mosquitos for 4 weeks, the last product, which will be developed through a 3D-printing procedure, could extend that period as much as three months.
” We call our gadget passive since you do not need to do anything to trigger it,” he said. “It supplies a sustained release of the insecticide over an extended duration instead of just a spike at the beginning.”
Rajagopal stated they are filing for a patent on the device, and the government has an interest in more research study, so that it can become advertised for the civilian market. USDA researchers think there are more opportunities for its usage by individuals who take pleasure in outside activities.
” While at first established for tent-entrance protection, the personal defense device in different sizes and configurations has capacity for other applications, including for treking and fishing,” said Kline, a research study entomologist with the USDA.
Kline added that they will assess other active components in addition to transfluthrin to expand its potential.
” It doesnt stop with mosquitos,” Rajagopal stated. “We want to reveal that it will deal with other bugs, specifically ticks, which posture a threat by causing Lyme disease.”
Referral: “Semi-field examination of an unique controlled release gadget utilizing transfluthrin as spatial repellent to avoid entry of mosquitoes into military camping tents” by Nagarajan R. Rajagopal, Adam R. Bowman, Floyd J. Aldana, Christopher D. Batich, Jerome A. Hogsette and Daniel L.Kline, 13 January 2023, Current Research in Parasitology & & Vector-Borne Diseases.DOI: 10.1016/ j.crpvbd.2023.100113.
The graphic shows use of the controlled-release passive device on a military camping tent to safeguard the area from mosquitos. Credit: University of Florida
A gadget established at the University of Florida for the U.S. military offers protection from mosquitos for a prolonged duration and needs no skin, electrical energy, or heat contact.
Moneyed by the Department of Defense Deployed Warfighter Protection program, the controlled-release passive device was designed by Nagarajan Rajagopal, a PhD candidate and Dr. Christopher Batich in UFs Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. It just recently was tested effectively in a four-week semi-field research study at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Gainesville in a collaboration with Dr. Daniel Kline, Dr. Jerry Hogsette, and Adam Bowman from the USDAs Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology.
Results revealed the regulated release of the repellent transfluthrin worked in avoiding multiple species of mosquitos from entering the testing website. Transfluthrin is a natural insecticide thought about to be safe for human beings and animals.
