News From the New Millennium VII

I grew up in New Orleans, a city which has long been disputed territory between humans and mosquitos. At times during the 19th Century the mosquitos seemed to be winning, when yellow fever epidemics killed 41,000 people over the course of the century. Humans fought back with pesticides. I can clearly remember the diesel-oil scent of the mosquito spray trucks as they rumbled past on summer evenings, blanketing the city in pyrethum (or DDT, or whatever the heck it was).

How primitive that seems. Now Bill Gates, his henchman Nathan Myrhvold, and professional mad scientist Jordin Kare have come up with something much cooler for mosquito eradication. Lasers. They want to build drones equipped with tiny tracking systems and lasers to shoot down mosquitos. Like this, only smaller. Basically this is a James Bond villain plot -- if James Bond was an insect.

Words cannot express how much I want to have a flying robot in my house shooting mosquitos with a laser. I'd buy mosquito eggs, breed them, and fill the house with them, just to watch.

Comments

[Becca]

Frickin' laser beams!

[Thom H.]

As much as I dislike mosquitos, especially ones that carry nasty diseases, I always wonder what effect we have on the insectivore population when we decimate their food source.
But having a bug-killing laser inside the house, now that would be good. And it wouldn't have to be so species specific. We don't get many mosquitos in the house but lots of gnats, midges, moths and other assorted annoying buggies.