Drones Make a Special Delivery- Mosquitoes

Luis Fernando Garcia Uc

Facultad de Ingeniería
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
Mérida, Yucatán
lgarcia_@hotmail.es

Abstract—This is a review and a critic about the article with a

same name published in Spectrum IEEE. This is about the use of
drones in mosquitoes control and its impact. This is divided in 4
sections: the problem, solution, discussion and conclusion.
Moreover, an example of the use of the drone is mentioned in a
similar situation but in another country to show that the
development is not only concentrated in one place.

I. THE PROBLEM
The mosquito (Fig. 1), a tiny and the deadliest animal, is
guilty of 700 million people diseases around the world,
because spread some of the most dangerous illness as Zika and
Dengue.
The article mention that the problem is that the insects are Figure 1. Mosquito
expanding their range every day and is difficult to prevent
being bitten for they, so norther territories are being invaded
by new diseases. Many government agencies and nonprofit II. THE SOLUTION
organization have tried to solve this by spraying large areas WeRobotics, a organization funded by USAID, proposed
with insecticides, but this is expensive, the access to to use autonomous drones to deploy sterile mosquitoes, as we
marginalized areas is very restricted and mosquitoes develop
see in Fig. 2. Drones can replace conventional aircrafts as a
resistance to commonly used chemicals.
wy to manage mosquito population, solving a lot of problem
The United States Agency for International Development related to the treatment towards the insects. First, mosquitoes
(USAID) has created a method to fight them, catch are very fragile animals so put a lot of them in a box is a very
mosquitoes, expose male mosquitoes to radiation that renders big problem because they´re going to damage themselves
them sterile and release them into the wild. That sounds as a and drastic movements are prohibited. The fly of a dron can
good idea, but it has a very big challenge, in the developing be controlled to do soft movements around the target, what
world there are nonexistent roads or in a poor condition and would prevent physical damage to the insects and will be able
restrict the possible ways to release insects. to competee with wild mosquitoes.
Second, clumping inside of the container form a big III. DISCUSSION
collection of legs and wigs, so the trick is to keep inside a
Drones are the future technology, nowadays, they are
precooled container, as the main in drone. Using a rotating
completely in everywhere, and the pest control are not the
element with holes, mosquitoes can fall out of the canister to
exception. A very good way to reduce mosquito population is
a secondary canister to warm up to the outside temperature
mentioned in the article and the solution is innovative but a
for a few seconds.
bit futuristic, is early to talk about achievements in
Now, WeRobotics is testing a prototype in South and
mosquitoes control, despite its incredible development.
Central America with different kinds of mosquito. They said
WeRobotics are not the only agency developing this
“Our next step is running controlled tests, where we mark the
technology, FXDrones, argentine company, are testing a
insects, release them, and recapture them in traps to measure
similar prototype (Fig. 3) for pest monitoring and control and
whether they’re healthy or not”.
the additional target to control the proliferation of mosquito
Aedes aegypti in difficult access zones. However, due to its
power, makes it ideal for loading spray equipment and be
used in intensive crops, this gives us an idea of the versatility
of this equipment to perform different tasks.

Figure 2. Drone used to release mosquitoes into the wild

IV. CONCLUSION
The technological advance is a fact and to solve any
problem, nowadays, it is indispensable to resort to it. For
example, this article makes use of an artifact that is still in
development to apply to pest control. In addition, it giving us
an idea that in addition to achieving that goal can be used for
other areas because of its potential. It is to be expected that in
a few years we will see drones spraying our cities instead of
the classic trucks.
REFERENCES
[1] E. Ackerman, “Drones make a special delivery-mosquitoes”, Spectrum
IEEE, pp.7-9
[2] N. Luna,”Un drone argentino está casi listo para combatir plagas de
insectos”, La Nación, https://www.lanacion.com.ar/1993787-un-drone-
argentino-esta-casi-listo-para-combatir-plagas-de-insectos

Figure 3. Argentina drone to pest control