Patent Application
20170290318
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
International Search Report for International Patent Application No. PCT/US01/16170, Mar. 5, 2002 (7
Mosquitoes are known to be pests and worse. They spread malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis, West Nile disease, Chikungunya and the Zika virus. Over a million people worldwide die from malaria each year, and countless others suffer recurring consequences from contracting that disease, though their lives are spared. Dengue fever has a hemorrhagic strain that causes cellular collapse and bleeding, similar to the Ebola virus. Encephalitis is devastative, as is West Nile. Chikungunya, also propagated by mosquitoes, is burning its way through the Caribbean and has been reported in the United States. As of September, 2014 half a million cases of Chikungunya had occurred in the Dominican Republic alone. And now the Zika virus is in the news, with the disease ravaging South and Central America. It is being transmitted primarily by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which is a common type among our southern border states.
Several approaches exist for killing mosquitoes. Beyond spraying toxins generally and introducing oils or other surface water chemicals to lakes and stagnant waters to prevent breeding and kill larvae, there are devices that are sold to consumers.
Perhaps the oldest type of device is based on the concept of flypaper, a sticky substance coating a paper or other substrate, that will cause an attracted mosquito to become ensnared in a glue, unable to free itself. Several current commercial mosquito devices employ this idea, typically in conjunction with attractants such as light, soundwaves or gaseous compounds such as carbon dioxide (CO2), octanols (8-carbon alcohols) or other compounds.
One other type of mosquito device is commonly called a “Bug Zapper”, an electrically charged array of conductors held by a structure, so that mosquitoes and other insects become electrocuted as they bridge a pair of conductors. These often use an attractant to lure the insects to the device. Typically a light, often fluorescent and producing a certain percentage of its light in the ultra-violet range, is employed as the attractant, as are chemical compounds. This type of device has been on the market for decades.
Other types, of more recent origin, use a carbon dioxide generating system to lure mosquitoes to a vacuum orifice where they will be sucked in and trapped in a container, possibly electrocuted or disposed of in some other way.
Light waves, sound waves, carbon dioxide (CO2), octanol (1-octen-3-ol), nonanal (nonanaldehyde), sulcatone (6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one), and other chemical attractants have been used to attract mosquitoes in the many devices that have come to market. Each of these devices work. But “work” here is a relative term. Some are more effective than others, yet they all seem to suffer from a major drawback. They don't quickly eliminate mosquitoes in large numbers. And too, they are not easily scalable to huge proportion. The embodiments of the present invention can be designed to efficiently eliminate large numbers of flying insects, and they can be scaled up to large size for even greater effect.
The present author's embodiments solve problems involved with the elimination of flying insect pests in large numbers, from household to community levels. They utilize a novel approach in doing so. The embodiments, on a mosquito-for-mosquito basis are much less expensive than current approaches, and the embodiments are environmentally safe and pose no danger from fire or explosion.
Four patents issued to Durand et al: U.S. Pat. No. 8,973,299 (March 2015)—U.S. Pat. No. 6,892,492 (May 2005)—U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,005 (January 2005) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,140 (November 2004) concern the use of a combustible fuel burned to produce carbon dioxide which is then released into the outside environment as an attractant. The individual insects, upon arrival at the entrance of an inlet, are immediately sucked in to a confinement chamber. In at least one of these four patents a photo sensor is integral for detecting ambient light. Also claimed are an optical sensor, an imaging device for monitoring the accumulation of insects and a weather monitoring device.
The Durand patents involve a combustible fuel and the complicated and expensive hardware necessary for its use in the production of carbon dioxide. The system is bulky and heavy. The patents also call for monitoring devices, either to control the automatic production of CO2 at the mosquitoes' feeding times or control it according to the weather. The mosquito population is also electronically monitored, further adding to the expense. And too, the fuel tanks present a fire and explosion danger, and must be refilled periodically.
Another patent, one issued to Marka et al: U.S. Pat. No. 8,810,411 (August 2014) involves creating an optical barrier to deter the crossing of mosquitoes beyond the barrier's position in space. The optically generated barrier, though not a material object, can be configured to serve as a temporary confinement vessel. The barrier, in whichever form, is claimed as a deterrent to the freedom of movement of mosquitoes, not an attractant. The technology is advanced, and with the use of lasers and their automatic controllers, expensive. Though interesting in its technology approach, demonstrating ingenuity, the Marka patent doesn't easily allow for scalability to public venue size.
Three patents issued to Landwehr et al: U.S. Pat. No. 8,139,858 (March 2012)—U.S. Pat. No. 7,916,951 (March 2011) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,496,228 (February 2009) utilize a substrate or a sticky surface, and a camera, computer, histogram and internet combination to collect and categorize insect types. The substrate is not a staging surface for large numbers of insects and the system is not one for insect pest elimination.
The two patents issued to Bowden et al: U.S. Pat. No. 8,109,035 (February 2012) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,694,455 (April 2010) are for sequestration devices that allow the female mosquito to lay her eggs in a container of water by placing them through small holes in a platform which floats on the water. The platform's holes are of sufficient size for the pregnant female to access the water for egg-laying, but not for her offspring to vacate out through the platform after becoming adults, thus trapping the adult mosquitoes.
This device, though simple and inexpensive, is not readily scalable to very large sizes. And too, its operation is predicated on the female laying her eggs, which occurs after her blood meal. The present author's embodiments kill female mosquitoes that are in search of their blood meal, before they have taken blood from a human or an animal, possibly injecting a virus. And the present embodiments can kill the females in very large numbers per 24 hour period.
Three patents issued to Nelson et al: RE 40,646 (March 2009) . . . U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,123 (May 2003) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,215 (October 2002) are based on a digital signal processor, a digital to analog converter, an integrated circuit or an electronic memory, and a speaker, which together produce an attractive sound transmitted as vibrations to a resonator. The patents also provide for the use of heat and light as attractants. The resonator can be attached to or placed near a tube that has negative internal air pressure to draw insects through an inlet. A related method of attraction is that of a central sound generating device that propagates sound waves through hollow tubes leading to remote stations, at which the attracted mosquitoes are dispositioned. The Nelson devices can use a toxic or gluey substance applied to them or nearby, or other methods of controlling insect pests.
These patents don't provide a staging area where flying insects can congregate unmolestedly, and by this, form an attraction and increase their numbers until a disposition occurs. And they don't readily allow scalability to very large size and high efficiency.
A patent to Kollars, et al: U.S. Pat. No. 6,920,716 (July 2005) describes methods of attracting insect pests that involve the mixing over time of two or more chemical substances to produce carbon dioxide. This necessitates a technically involved operation, and probably an expensive one. Adhesive and unspecified trapping means are stated as methods of disposition once insects are attracted to the device.
The patent to Mah: U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,826 (October 2000) discloses a device that has an attractant light source suspended within an open upper chamber and also contains an electrical device for disabling and disorienting insects that enter the chamber and proceed to the electrically disabling device. It operates by disabling, dehydrating and killing flying insects, ostensibly one at a time, while the present author's embodiments dispose the insects by the hundreds and thousands at a time, and more, depending on scale.
The patent to Brenner et al: U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,238 (September 1998) is for a hand-held device that utilizes a variable suction intake function in conjunction with an air filter to remove foul exhaust odor. It is useful for manually going after insects that are located in particular places, such as the interior of waste tires, or other tight places soon after the mosquitoes' emergence from water. It won't however attract flying insects from distances, nor dispose them in great numbers. It doesn't work automatically, independent of human control like the present embodiments, is not scalable to large size, and it doesn't eliminate the females per se, which the present embodiments do, making them more efficient at terminating future generations of flying insects before they occur.
The above patents carry with them a common deficiency, one that exists throughout the field of flying insect control: The devices are not able to efficiently terminate insect pests in large number. They operate by seemingly attracting and terminating flying insect pests one at a time. Except for spraying toxics over large areas, or substances upon bodies of water, both of which are methods, not devices, and environmentally destabilizing, there are no available ways to automatically terminate large numbers of mosquitoes on a daily basis.
Further, the devices above exhibit the necessity of expense, of complicated technology, of dealing with bulkiness, and of storage and use that is safe from fire and explosion.
The field of insect eradication has been found by the present author to be in need of a novel approach. The present embodiments accomplish this task.
Having lived in Minnesota, I have been offered ample opportunity for acquaintance with mosquitoes. I have been had for lunch more than once. I have seen mosquitoes so thickly gathered in the air that their swirling plumes were visible from a half mile away. How many mosquitoes would you say are necessary to form a whirling conclave that is clearly visible from a half mile? Wouldn't it be in the high thousands?
The present embodiments grew from summertime observations. I would look out over the rear deck of our house and be struck by the number of mosquitoes that were staging at or hovering very near the lighted eave . . . the soffit underneath a roof's extension, typically paneled. There were thousands. Night after night I turned on a light aimed at the eave and they would soon come, largely disappearing when the light was turned off. I tried counting, but accuracy was difficult. Taking scaled best guesses I figured there were as many as 5,000. And this number at just one house!
After some nights had passed, observing the same thing, I went out on the deck with a canister type vacuum cleaner and stood there vacuuming them off of the eave for a while. They didn't seem to mind. They stirred only slightly as the vacuum, with all of its noise, continued to whittle down their numbers. I quit vacuuming after a while that night, wanting to see if mosquitoes would keep on visiting the eave every night in large numbers. They did. And every summer it's been the same kind of congregating.
With Zika currently terrorizing much of South and Central America, and having reached to the Caribbean before the major part of the 2016 mosquito season is here, people are justifiably alarmed. And it's only a matter of time . . . perhaps this mosquito season . . . until the virus plagues the mainland United States, especially along our southern states of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. Their neighbors to the immediate north, are in for a rough time should Zika be vectored there. And it would probably happen. The western world isn't alone in this. Southeast Asia is suffering from Zika, as is Africa. And there are malaria (which kills one million people a year), West Nile, Chicungunya, encephalitis, dengue fever and other illnesses vectored by mosquitoes.
It is a major object of the present embodiments to overcome the lack of ability of prior devices to eliminate large numbers of mosquitoes (and/or other flying insect pests) quickly and inexpensively.
Within this it is a further object to provide a type of anti-mosquito/anti-flying insect pest device that is a highly effective portable device for consumers in the yard or on the deck at home, at the cabin, even on picnics . . . yet the general concept of which can be extended to the manufacture of large structures, enabling the attraction and elimination of mosquitoes in the range of hundreds of thousands per 24 hour period. This latter would prove very useful for public parks, sports stadiums, golf courses, schools or other public venues, even whole villages. As to scalability, it is feasible to produce the present embodiments extending from tabletop devices to those many feet tall or hundreds of feet long.
The present embodiments can accomplish these objectives. They are capable of eliminating huge numbers of mosquitoes in a single 24 hour period, and when used throughout a mosquito season, consisting of several waves of newly hatched mosquitoes, the embodiments can severely dampen a local mosquito population by way of eliminating large numbers of females searching for blood meals from humans or animals, needed in order to provide future generations of mosquitoes. This leads directly to the objectives of both a more enjoyable current outdoor season and the steadily increasing benefit of succeeding seasons that are more mosquito-free.
And the lessening of a third world locality's mosquito population will have direct benefit to public health, impacting positively the life and resilience of communities, which are also objects of the embodiments.
The advantages of such embodiments over the prior art are easily noticeable. For one, there is a lack in the prior art of scalability. The present embodiments are extremely scalable, from tabletop to village size. The field of current devices is designed to eliminate flying insect pests little more than one at a time, no matter the attractant used. The present embodiments can eliminate flying insect pests by the many thousands and more at a time, depending on scale, and repeat that several times per day in the same location.
Many current devices, such as those that produce carbon dioxide to attract mosquitoes to an orifice at the device where there is negative air pressure, and on to further disposition, are bulky and technically complicated and expensive to produce. Plus with them, there is the danger of fire and explosion involved with the need of using combustible fuel stored in tanks to produce the CO2, and the tanks must be refilled periodically. And of course, CO2 has a bad name among environmentalists, so that many may not purchase that kind of mosquito device, perhaps not using anything to eliminate mosquitoes.
More than the safety and complexity advantages the present embodiments offer over gaseous, combustible fuel CO2 devices, the technology of the present embodiments is much simpler, more failure-proof and less expensive, especially since there is no danger of explosion or fire to be accounted for in either the design or manufacture. And fuel doesn't need to be replenished periodically. Too, a combustible fuel device cannot be safely used indoors, while the present embodiments can, with appropriate scaling, be quite easily and effectively used in houses, supermarkets, schools, factories and other buildings.
Further, the present embodiments offer the ability to attract and kill mosquitoes without the need of sticky or toxic substances, or of causing fried carcasses and their smells, or the need to clean burned remains from an electric grid work. Chemicals don't have to be mixed, either manually or automatically.
The present embodiments are quite different in operating principle from the prior art. And they have several advantages over prior art. 1) One or more of the embodiments are usable at scales suitable for an individual household up to a village. 2) One or more of the embodiments, or their derivatives, can be fastened together like a chain or a railroad track, either substantially horizontally or vertically. 3) One or more of the embodiments are less expensive to implement in terms of design and manufacture than prior art that uses an overall modern, technical approach. 4) The embodiments are environmentally friendly, not involving the production of CO2 (carbon dioxide). 5) The embodiments are safer since they don't require the mixing of chemicals, or any chemicals at all. 6) They don't leave a burned, smelly residue as electrification of insects does. 7) The embodiments are safer as to fire and explosion since no combustible gas or liquid is involved, as with the production of CO2 in a series of popular prior art devices. 8) The present embodiments are more effective. They will attract more flying insects than the prior art because the embodiments provide an surface area for the insects to gather to, remaining unmolested until a per-determined time of disposition. During this time of staging the insects themselves act as attractants for other insects. If you can attract them and keep them there, you can eradicate them in large numbers. The present embodiments do that.
No embodiment among those described is to be considered preferred. They each have a place in the market, and by adjusting their design size, can overlap another's typical use.
Except for
A first embodiment,
The embodiment has a vacuum wand 130, a collector assembly 110, a lower track 150 together with a reversible drive motor/helical pinion gear unit 140 and a lower carriage assembly 142. There is a linear helical gear rack 152 affixed inside the lower track 150. The lower track is permanently affixed to exterior wall 52. There is also an upper track 170 that is permanently affixed to exterior wall 52. Upper carriage assembly 160 and lower carriage assembly 142 support and guide the vacuum wand 130, holding it in vertical orientation as it moves along the upper and lower tracks.
Funnel tube 126 is joined to the air funnel 128, and passes down into collector assembly housing 112. The funnel tube is threaded at its lower end to receive a collector valve assembly 121, which is mated to collector 120, a mesh bag for holding captured flying insects. The air passes through the collector and then through protective grill 118, which lies between the collector 120 and the fan motor and blades 114, and serves to prevent collector shredding and release of contents should the collector accidentally separate from the valve assembly 121. The outgoing air 136 exits at the bottom of the collector assembly 110. Baffling or other airflow enhancement around the fan motor and blades 114 to channel air passage and increase the fan's efficiency is not shown, though it is contemplated.
During operation the rush of air from the draw of the fan 114 through the funnel tube 126 and into the valve assembly 121 causes the valve flap 122 to open against the resistance of the valve spring 123. This opening action allows inducted insects to be carried by the rush of air through the valve and into the collector 120. The air flow is strong enough to prevent insects from escaping back through the valve.
When the fan 114 shuts off automatically at some point, and the air flow stops, the valve flap 122 returns to its closed position because of the closing force of the spring 123, causing the insects to remain trapped in the collector 120.
This embodiment, as with each of the others, operates automatically. This is to say that the motive power and the fan are controlled automatically. They come on at pre-determined timing intervals, the drive motor moving the vacuum system along a direction until a point of reversal is reached. At that pre-determined point, determined either by a positioning device or a timer (neither of which is shown), and with the fan still operating, the vacuum system reverses its positional direction, ending up for that cycle at its beginning location, where the drive motor and fan turn off until the next pre-determined cycle begins. This can happen automatically several times a day if desired.
In using the first embodiment at a store or other pre-existing location with a window, the store's (or other structure's) already existing independent internal lighting is the attractant. Once an electronic timer (not shown) is set that controls the on-off operation of the embodiment up to several times per, there is only one thing for an end user to do: perhaps daily if desired, the user can check to see if the collector 120 . . . which is the mesh bag attached to the collector valve assembly 121 . . . contains enough trapped insects to warrant the user exchanging the existing collector for a new one.
The user installs a new collector 120 as needed by opening the collector assembly access door 113 and unscrewing the collector valve assembly 121 from the threaded funnel tube 126. The collector 120 is affixed to the valve assembly 121, so that the collector and valve assembly are removed as a unit. When a collector is seen to have sufficient insects in it, the valve assembly 121, with its collector 120, is unscrewed from the funnel tube 126 and a new one is installed. The changed out collector unit is then discarded.
A transparent access door could be incorporated, so that checking the collector for fullness would be simpler. An ambient light monitor could be included with the embodiment's design to control operation more closely, especially where daylight saving time may affect the operation or distance from the equator is a factor.
A second embodiment described,
Staging surface 200 is held in place by a lower frame 250 and an upper frame 260. These two frames also have a screw shaft 220 running between them. The upper frame is affixed to an upper pole 240 at the upper pole frame support 261, the upper pole being inserted to the upper frame support 261 and affixed in place. The upper pole 240 is secured at its lower end by being inserted to a pole sleeve 242 and seated upon a pole stop 244, which has been affixed to the interior of the pole sleeve 242. The upper pole is affixed to the pole sleeve by welding it in place.
The pole sleeve 242 is placed over a lower pole 248 which is anchored in the ground. The pole sleeve is held in place laterally by sleeve bearings 245 that are affixed within the pole sleeve 242 and allow the pole sleeve's free rotation upon installation of the pole sleeve over the lower pole 248 since the pole sleeve sits upon a freely rotating support bearing 246. The support bearing is affixed to the exterior of the lower pole 248 at a position that prevents the lower pole from contacting the pole stop 244 inside the pole sleeve. The support bearing 246 must be strong enough to carry the weight of the entire embodiment, extra the lower pole, and also allow rotation. Rotation of the embodiment about the axis of the lower pole 248 is necessary because of wind blowing against the staging surface 200. Without the ability to rotate, which lessens the force of the wind against the embodiment, a tall sail will have been created, and that could lead to the embodiment's destruction in a storm.
The sliding collar 239 is situated on the screw shaft 220 between two screw shaft gears 236 that have internal threads 237 that mate to external threads on the screw shaft 220. The screw shaft gears sandwich the sliding collar loosely so that the gears can be easily turned while in contact with the sliding collar 239.
A drive motor/gear reduction unit 232 is reversible and engages the two screw shaft gears 236 by way of two splined shafts 234. These shafts, each spinning in the same direction, cause the two screw shaft gears 236 to be turned in the same direction, so that the gears move up and down the screw shaft 220 in unison. Screw shaft keys 238, which are plugs that protrude through the sliding collar 239 and into a milled out zone in the screw shaft key slot 222, are welded into place in the sliding collar 239. The screw shaft keys 238 prevent the sliding collar from beginning to rotate about the screw shaft 220 as the sliding collar travels along the screw shaft.
The drive motor/gear reduction unit is held to a motor mounting plate 235 by motor straps 233 and a cradling system or other appropriate devices. The motor mounting plate is welded to the sliding collar 239.
Please see USING THE FIRST EMBODIMENT, with the addendum that in addition to the motive power and vacuum system being able to be set by the user and run automatically, the second embodiment's lighting is also controlled automatically and can be pre-determined by the user as to on-off times as best fit the user's needs.
A third embodiment,
There is a table vacuum carriage 306 that moves along two carriage support channels 324. The support channels are affixed to the underside of the table top 302 and are tall enough to allow the table vacuum carriage 306, which rides on wheels 322, to sweep underneath the flat panel 300. The wheels 322 are driven by a reversible drive motor/gear reduction unit 310. The vacuum carriage 306, has two air intake slots 308 in its top side and it utilizes an attached collector assembly 110 to power the vacuum and hold collected insects.
Please see USING THE FIRST EMBODIMENT, with the addendum that in addition to the motive power and vacuum system being able to be set by the user and run automatically, the third embodiment's flat panel lighting is also controlled automatically and can be pre-determined by the user as to on-off times as best fit the user's needs.
A fourth embodiment,
Soffit 58 is seen in
Soffit collector canister 430 houses collector 120 and its integral collector valve assembly 121. Protective grill 118 is installed to make sure that the collector and fingers stay out of the area of the fan motor and blades 114. The collector and valve assembly are installed by user entry through canister access door 432.
Please see USING THE FIRST EMBODIMENT, with the addenda that in this fourth embodiment a soffit collector canister 430 and its canister access door 432 have replaced the collector assembly 110 and the access door 113 of the first embodiment. And the present embodiment's attractant lighting, as with each embodiment—second through sixth—is controlled automatically at the user's discretion.
A fifth embodiment,
On top of the flexible surface 500 are clamping wheels 506. These are free to rotate and are affixed to a clamping lever 508 that pivots on a clamping lever pivot 510, which is a pin through a hole in the side plate 514 that allows the clamping lever to be raised and lowered. Each clamping wheel 506 is positioned directly above the wheel beneath it when in operation to provide proper stability and compressive force. A clamping lever spring 512 provides the force necessary for good contact at the four wheels.
As mentioned, the clamping wheels 506 squeeze down upon traction wheels 502 by way of the force provided by the clamping lever spring 512 acting upon the clamping lever 508. The lever, which has a fit to the clamping lever pivot 510 that allows for rotation of the lever, is lifted during the placement of the assembly 516 on the flexible staging surface 500. If the staging surface is laterally stiff, then the assembly can be placed on it at an end of the staging surface that has been temporarily disconnected from a supporting device.
Please see USING THE FIRST EMBODIMENT, with the addenda that here in this fifth embodiment the same soffit collector canister 430 as with the fourth embodiment, and its canister access door 432 (not numbered on drawings 11 and 12), have replaced the collector assembly 110 and the access door 113 of the first embodiment, and the present embodiment's attractant lighting is controlled automatically, as with the second through sixth embodiment.
A sixth embodiment,
Vacuum inlets 604 are placed on either side of the various staging surfaces, top and bottom, and open into a vacuum tube 606 that confines air flow 640 (
A drive motor/gear reduction unit 630 turns a drive gear 632 that is mated to a driven gear 634. The driven gear is affixed to the support column 602 by way of a hole in the gear's center.
At the left of the drawing assembly 610 shows one of two identical bearings, an upper ball bearing 614 used to hold the transparent support column 602 in place. The upper bearing is affixed to an upper mounting plate 616. The upper plate is affixed to the top of the base 646. There is a protective cover 612 affixed to support column 602 that seals the bearing area from contaminants from above. The cover skirts the top of the bearing and extends down to very close to the top of the base, keeping insects from getting underneath.
The other bearing, the lower ball bearing 614 of assembly 620 at the bottom-right of
There is an electronic controller 636 that sets the times for the embodiment to operate and recognizes the ambient light level for control purposes. Associated electrical wiring is displayed.
A collector 120 and its integral collector valve assembly 121 are removably attached to a funnel tube 126 at the base of the air funnel 128. A collector valve flap 122 is shown in the opened position, caused by the air flow drawn by the fan 114. Captured insects are brought through the valve assembly and into the collector as the air flow draws them. The insects are kept from going back up through the valve assembly by the incoming air flow. Once the fan stops the valve flap closes, sealing the insects in the collector.
A protective grill 118, which is below the level of the vacuum tube access door 642 (
The fan 114 is mounted in the vacuum tube 606 by way of fan support vanes 116 that are affixed to the interior of the tube. Outgoing air exits through an exhaust tube 644.
Please see USING THE FIRST EMBODIMENT, with the addenda that here a vacuum tube 606 and its vacuum tube access door 642 have replaced the collector assembly 110 and the access door 113 of the first embodiment, and this sixth embodiment's attractant lighting, as with each embodiment—second through sixth—is controlled automatically. It is set to come on and shut off at the user's discretion, as is the case also with the embodiment's rotation and vacuum.
The advantages of the present embodiments over the prior art have been explored in what has been written above. Not delving back into those per se, it seems good to mention the advantages broadly here. In doing that I'll say that the advantages fall into two categories: Health and Comfort.
As mentioned in the section DISCUSSING PRIOR ART GENERALLY and also the section BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION—OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES, mosquitoes cause an awful lot of death and misery around the world. If malaria doesn't kill the people afflicted, or make them blind, it at the least is the gift that keeps on giving. Recurrences are for life. And then there are dengue fever, Chikungunya, encephalitis, West Nile and now Zika. It's as though there are six horsemen of the apocalypse.
If a few devices of the present embodiments were stationed around and in villages, near water, and powered by solar cells charging batteries, and in the aggregate 1,000,000 mosquitoes or more were eliminated per 24 hour period, it wouldn't be long before the rates of disease in those locales would fall. That is one great advantage provided by these embodiments over the prior art. The large scale control of mosquito populations is certainly more feasible this way than with devices that attack the problem one mosquito at a time.
When I was in Vietnam everyone in the bush had a bottle of mosquito repellant containing DEET stuck in an elastic band around his helmet. It was either use the stuff or get taken prisoner by the mosquitoes. One advantage with the present embodiments is that now over time, as those pesky little disease and discomfort vectors are killed en masse, less poison will be needed to be applied to your skin to be absorbed. And too, less spraying of toxins should occur. That too is a long term advantage of the present embodiments.
And as to comfort: Mosquitoes damage an awful lot of picnics, outings, golf and soccer games, and more around the world, including sleep. They disrupt group gatherings of friends who want to sit around in the outdoors, peacefully enjoying themselves. And yard work? Forget it when the mosquitoes are out in force. The present embodiments can greatly help with these problems.
Thus the reader will see that at least one of the staging surface embodiments provides a more effective, scalable and economical device than what is known in the prior art. The reader will also see that one or more of the embodiments are safer to use and store, because of not using a combustible fuel, and that they are more environmentally friendly, not needing to produce carbon dioxide to operate. Too, the reader will see that by not leaving the remains of insects on any part of the embodiments as a burned, messy, electrocuted residue that serves as an incubator for germs until manually cleaned off, the embodiments produce a healthier, more germ-free environment local to the user.
While my above descriptions contain many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope, but rather as exemplification of several embodiments thereof. Other variations are possible. For example, the concept of “staging surface” can be broadened to that of a “staging zone”.
In this the freedom of movement of flying insects has been expanded. Insects would be free to fly in any direction within a volume of “staging space”. There may or may not be a surface designed as an element for them to be attracted to. For instance, they could be attracted and gather in the air, under the influence of a light shining in any direction, even downwardly. And when so gathered in a localized fashion, perhaps forming a plume or simply a swarm in the air, they could be confined by a mesh or membranous device that is either lowered or raised or otherwise placed about them as they fly, trapping them for further disposition. If you can attract them you can terminate them.
A further example of a staging zone embodiment is the use of an illuminating or illuminated pole to form a nuclei for insect plumes. A tall pole could contain lights along or within it, or have light shined upon it, to attract insects. The attracted insects could fly around within the proximity of the lighted pole, even above it. At an appropriate time a mesh or membranous device could be either dropped or raised about the insects, trapping them for further disposition.
Of course, light doesn't need to be the sole attractant for any of the embodiments. As given in the claims and prior art, other things work. Blood meal simulants, pheromones, acoustical waves, heat, even radio frequency or microwave energy . . . coherent or non-coherent . . . is contemplated as useful with any of the embodiments, even those of this concluding section.
As to the mechanisms used to eliminate, vacuum devices don't have to be employed. A group of insects can be incapacitated or terminated while voluntarily gathered at a surface or a zone in various ways which are contemplated by the present author. Though not as good for the environment as removing insects by vacuuming them, insects can be sprayed with toxic substances, such as the natural Bt toxin or an engineered analogue or derivative. There are also common yard sprays by companies such as Cutter and Spectracide that will cause death to flying insects, though perhaps not immediately. Sprays can be applied by automatic devices designed in conjunction with the staging surfaces or the 3-dimensional zones of the present embodiments, or their vacuum systems.
Another mechanism contemplated is acoustical overpressure, where sonic pressure waves impinge upon the insects, similar to the subjecting of kidney stones to fragmentation by a sonic resonator, though the insects, being made of soft tissue, wouldn't fragment per se, but they might be biologically damaged in other severe ways. A resonator or transponder, along with an engineered power source, could replace a vacuum system or work in conjunction with it. If the staging surface were largely reflective as far as the acoustical waves to be used, then the acoustical energy would have a greater effect on the insects. Using this application in 3-space, without the reflective boundary of a staging surface may still work.
And heating by microwave energy, either while insects are staging on or near a surface, or are flying in open air (3-space) would be very damaging to them. Also included in this is the use of laser beams. A laser wouldn't need to track an individual insect. That can be expensive. A laser of the appropriate wavelength could automatically scan an entire staging surface periodically, for instance by being aimed along the length of a staging surface, its beam skimming the length within a few millimeters of the surface, and then its beam being caused to sweep the surface, mowing down the insects in its path. A laser could also be moved along a longitudinal track spaced apart from the staging surface, scanning its destructive energy back and forth as the laser traverses the length of the surface.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62320610 | Apr 2016 | US |
