A simple double microphone and DSP could track mosquiitos in your house and show you where they moved to last. Possibly I would attach aflash light and a shooting sound, just to give you the feeling you get a fair fight. Ultimately attach a vacume cleaner tube with a silencer (so your wife doesn't wake up), and catch the mosquito.
-- pashute, Jun 29 2002

Bug Radar http://www.halfbake...om/idea/Bug_20Radar
Same idea. [phoenix, Jun 30 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

No, it's a completely different idea. http://whyfiles.org/016skeeter/
Mosquito alert [pashute, Oct 01 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

mozzie zapper http://boingboing.n...of-gadget-that.html
it's real! [simonj, Apr 07 2010]

Found this :-( http://mosquito-com...tware.informer.com/
not exactly what I meant [pashute, Apr 22 2010]

Here's a compilation http://www.allmosqu...mosquito-games.html
of mosquito zapping games [pashute, Apr 22 2010]

Mosquito gun http://www.youtube....?v=MnKJzCUy9Tw&NR=1
Would save me the shock [pashute, Aug 16 2011]

... and, if you listen very carefully... http://www.youtube....93g&feature=related
[mouseposture, Aug 17 2011]

The TED talk mosquito tracker and laser gun http://www.youtube....watch?v=OM6E3f2lT14
[pashute, Oct 22 2014]

Already HalfBaked.

If you can track the thing, why not just zap it?
-- phoenix, Jun 30 2002


This idea is slightly different from the bug radar idea: instead of using radar it uses the (IMHO cleverer and more elegant) passive audio tracking. (I think you'd need more than two microphones though.)
-- wiml, Jun 30 2002


OK wiml, so a tripple microphone. It has to be very sensitive so that it catches the mosquito sounds. I think the difference between this and the radar pest control is apparent. And phoenix: The reason I don't zap it is twosome: 1. I suspect that we (men at least) actually enjoy the thought of having a fight with them. The problem is that we lose track of them, and then we are in real danger. and 2. It probably won't work 100% of the time, but will just be a mosquito tracking assistant, when you lose track of it while running after it.
-- pashute, Jul 01 2002


[pashute] Skip trying to track their sound. Mosquitoes here make bumping sounds on tent screens. The only way to go is with the racquet like 'zapper'.

You can't 'track' them until they leave their perch. You'll get tired of this. You still have to focus on them before they fly off as you aim whatever weapon you use. Any breeze that knocks them off their perch will disrupt your readings until you get a heading on them again. Sound tracking won't work well in your closets where they like to wait out if they can.

Use the zapper and look for them as house activity settles down. Air currents with the chemical trails are more stable. Turn off lights. Without their heat and turbulence mosquitoes have an easier time coming right to you. Just wave your racket like a magic wand and enjoy a satisfying sparkly zap.

The boogers were so proliferate here this summer, the zappers where always out of stock. I made one from a hand held strainer. The 9 volt battery and holder I used fit perfectly between the recessed contours of the handle as did the leftover square project switches. Two always-off switches give it a safety feature so accidental pressure won't burn your house down.

I was excited. The cup shape was an improvement, holding the carcasses until tossed in the garbage. The 9 volt had extra execution power and made the mosquitoes smoke and sparkle more. My children and I had fun hunting mosquitoes outside but it didn't last long enough.

I finally realized the woven mesh of the strainer was the cause of the battery drain and had fried the holders' connects too. I hadn't seen the commercial one since the year before.

The real zapper's grid is actually a one wire (6?) gauge loop that progresses from the handle, zig zagging from the inside frames edges, reaching the top then traveling back down through the frame and handle to contact the battery. (I'll link to it if I can find it-'course you may have already seen one by now...).
-- hollajam, Oct 01 2002


My kids still cherish the moment 7 years ago, when I invented a simple device to "vacuum" any mosquito off the wall without failure. It was a long newspaper wound into a pointy tube, which allowed me to reach any corner high or low. After several successful attempts (you give a short inward breath and the mosquito is pulled in, then hold it over a cup with some water and the mosquito falls into it) finally the big moment came. I gave too much of an inhale, and then ...(long silence). My kids looked at my shocked face, and still laugh every time they remember it.
-- pashute, Apr 22 2010


cue: final oboe solo from Peter and the Wolf <link>
-- mouseposture, Aug 17 2011


Maybe it plays that music getting more and more excited as you close in. It gives the satisfaction of both a hunt and a blood revenge without getting PETA mad, and without harming (well hardly harming, perhaps even helping) any wildlife.
-- pashute, Nov 11 2014



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