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For several decades there have been various incarnations of the idea of using lasers to zap flying insects, particularly mosquitoes. One of the systems in active development is the Photonic Fence from Intellectual Ventures Laboratory. Researchers from the laboratory recently published their findings on determining the optimal dosage to kill mosquitoes using the least amount of energy. One of the criticisms of their system has been that the areas in greatest need for mosquito eradication provide unreliable power, so their system would most likely need to operate by providing its own power.
Their research found that the optimal pulse duration for the lasers they are considering in their design is 25 ms. A significant difference between this research and their previous work is that this study was conducted on in-flight mosquitoes as opposed to previous work that used anesthetized specimens, which demonstrated their vision-based track and targeting system. An added bonus is the four slow-motion videos provided in the Supplemental Information section showing mosquitoes being zapped.
Keller, M.D., Norton, B.J., Farrar, D.J. et al. Optical tracking and laser-induced mortality of insects during flight, Sci Rep 10, 14795 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71824-y
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 21 2020, @12:28PM (3 children)
As always, real life isn't so simple. I have a gutter (designed/installed by previous owner), it can get clogged within a day after clearing due to debris falling on the roof from nearby trees (shall we cut down all the trees to reduce mosquito habitat now?) - I have been often tempted to remove the gutter, which would reduce my exposure to your hypothetical drone ticketing, but that would lead to water ponding along the house wall rather than effective shunting to the yard with better drainage. This is actually the problem when the gutter clogs: water spills over and ponds along the house/sidewalk. So: clear the gutter when I can, but it is most easily done while rain is falling since that washes the loose debris down - and gets the wife yelling at me about self endangerment from lightning...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday September 21 2020, @01:07PM (1 child)
Why can't you roof the gutter then?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 21 2020, @01:27PM
I've lived with a roofed gutter in another house - it still collects oak branches, leaves and acorns, but now they're up on the gutter roof instead of down inside the gutter, and also holding moisture that much closer to your roof decking. In other words, they may help some, sometimes, but they still need cleaning. The easier a gutter roof clears itself, it seems that it also shunts a significant proportion of the rainwater over its edge. Our problems don't come from trickle rains, they come from 4 inch+ per hour downpours.
What I could do to solve it would be to eliminate the downspout, just open the end and put a hard surface on the ground for the water to fall on. For now I clean it about 5-10 times a year, usually just at the downspout; just takes a minute with a short stepladder - if you're doing it while the gutter is full of water so it washes itself clean after you clear the clog.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:49PM
> clogged within a day after clearing
Not sure about your details, but we have cheap plastic gutter cover slipped up under the shingles. The outer edge of the cover clips over the outer edge of the gutter. The best kind we've found has round holes and plastic screening stuck to the bottom side to keep smaller stuff from getting through the holes. Very effective on the black-locust-tree leaves (small leaves) that make up most of our problem. The screening is small enough to block the grit that slowly comes off the shingles and used to build up fairly uniformly in the bottom of the gutter.
It's true that sheeting rain will wash over top and miss the gutter/downspout system, but we don't have those kinds of storms here very often.