{"id":26251,"date":"2018-08-15T10:57:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T14:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=26251"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:31:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T14:31:54","slug":"nature-holds-secret-to-controlling-growing-mosquito-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/nature-holds-secret-to-controlling-growing-mosquito-population\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature Holds Secret to Controlling Growing Mosquito Population"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three Cornell student researchers have won a global competition with their UPod, an eco-friendly and low cost mosquito-control device<\/a> that functions like a carnivorous plant.<\/p>\n

The UPod was selected as one of eight project winners — out of more than 60 teams from 16 countries that entered this year\u2019s competition — of the Biomimicry Institute\u2019s Global Design Challenge, an international design competition that invites innovators to biomimic, or look to nature for design inspiration, to develop solutions to climate change.<\/p>\n

The team consisted of graduate students Anna Gannett, Joey Sun and Paulina Villacrece, who were advised by Kathleen Gibson<\/a>, an associate professor from the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in the College of Human Ecology.<\/p>\n

Climate change and mosquito-borne diseases<\/b><\/h2>\n

In the blazing summer of 2016, Zika, one of many mosquito-borne diseases, was no longer a problem just for some third world countries, but also right in the American soil.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first four local transmissions of Zika in the country in downtown Miami, Florida.<\/p>\n

The CDC has tracked<\/a> up to 5,716 Zika cases in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and 37,262 Zika cases in the U.S. territories.<\/p>\n

Although its symptoms are mild to most individuals, Zika infection in pregnant women can cause a birth defect in newborns, characterized by abnormally small heads and brain damage. Plus, in rare cases, Zika can also cause temporary paralysis in adults.<\/p>\n

Along with Zika, many mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever, cause millions of deaths every year worldwide, and more than half of the world\u2019s population still live in areas at risk of an infection.<\/p>\n

As current mosquito-control strategies are expensive, reactionary and actually harmful to people and the environment, the ever-rising temperature and precipitation due to climate change are only making things better for mosquitoes to expand exponentially.<\/p>\n

Inspired by nature<\/b><\/h2>\n

Realizing that current strategies are ineffective and unnatural, the Cornell student team wondered how nature is taking care of its increasing mosquito population.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo address these complex and interrelated issues, we started at the local level by seeing how the natural world regulates insect populations. We were inspired by a type of carnivorous plant known by the common name \u2018bladderwort,\u2019\u202f\u201d said Gannett, Sun and Villacreces.<\/p>\n

Bladderwort lives in lakes, streams and waterlogged soils, and creates a water vacuum through its trap bladders by pumping water out and sucking in small insect prey in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

Like its muse, the solar-powered UPod pulls water and larvae (baby insects) into a tightly-sealed water chamber through a trap door that functions through a smart sensor mechanism.<\/p>\n

Larvae are suffocated in the water chamber and then pumped out as new water and larvae are pulled in.<\/p>\n

Unlike other methods that are mostly reactionary, the UPod can prevent mosquitoes from overpopulating starting in their very habitats.<\/p>\n

Also, the UPod is environmentally friendly, self-sustaining, reusable and affordable.<\/p>\n