Reading time: 2 minutes – Spotted on Gizmodo
Human-mosquito relations have never been so tense. The arrival of tiger mosquitoes in our latitudes has only fueled the age-old war between these flying vampires and us. If it were just that, we would surely put up with it, but blood-sucking insects are also vectors of many viruses, which are fatal to humans.
In Florida, we decided enough was enough. Broward County (in the southeast Sunshine State) brought out the heavy artillery by sending drones on anti-mosquito missions, we learn from the online media Gizmodo.
Here, no explosive munitions or suicide attacks like in Ukraine. The devices will be used to “spray insecticides in hard-to-reach places”reports an article from the local newspaper South Florida Sun Sentinel, published Wednesday June 12.
The idea is therefore to go directly to the source, to the mosquito breeding grounds and to atomize their larvae before they hatch. Until now, teams (very human, they) were forced to put on boots and head out into the swamps of Florida… which is something we wouldn’t wish on anyone.
No more paddling pool
Their targets: mosquitoes of the type Aedes aegypti, the main vector of dengue fever, the Zika virus, as well as chikungunya and yellow fever, which are currently proliferating in Everglades National Park. Using drones saves time and does not send people splashing around with alligators, which is not insignificant.
Until today, larvae-killing agents could spend entire days covering areas inaccessible by road, knee-deep in mud, armed with machetes to cut their way through the lush vegetation.
Florida is only continuing a path already opened in 2013, when drones were used for reconnaissance purposes, already against mosquitoes. At the time, the devices were used to identify pools of stagnant water where swarms of blood-sucking insects lay eggs.
Other counties, notably in California, have also deployed drones to disperse insecticides, thus replacing humans in boots, but also larger, less precise and more polluting planes or helicopters.
