what wattage of laser necessary to kill mosquitoes (immediately)?

To craft a gadget that shoots mosquitoes with laser, there is the need to know the enemy's vulnerability. The most needed is the mosquito vulnerability to laser shooting. What wattage of laser is sufficient?

The configuration I think is, attracting mosquitoes with some infrared light (or, multivibrator), then shooting with laser. I might shoot with a continuous laser (after infrared path is broken, surely), but zip-zip-zip sort of (threshold activated shooting) is sensible, too.

I stated this previously @ yahoo answers, but no (serious) answer wa there.
See the question there, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090505022002AAnd31e

For a full, energy-harvesting mosquito-shooting gadget, a previous question might be related, too. That next question is about the malaria map (for energy harvesting, where necessary). http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090405004614AAsBwtL

Comments

[james34602]

I thing you should measure the distance of the mosquito and your laser emitter
100w can kill mosquito immediately in >20m
But you may get burn
200mW in 10cm was painful enough

[Kalrag]

I would say a good 1500W laser should stop them in their tracks or flight.

[dontkillpenguins]

that is military grade and can burn meatal

[TheIronHobo]

Mosquitos font eat blOod the females use it to propagate find a mosquito food put it in a box with one open end then find a 5 mw line laser pointing on several photocells which let electricity pass with direct light to the same switch that will trigger with no electricity like the opposite of agreed relay then directly and immediately further down the box would be a 3 watt line laser which is a laser with its beam narrowed into a line that will be attached to the deadmans electricity switch. So when the mosquito blocked the wimpy 5 mw line it would be blasted with 3 watts of simulated radiation. this all depends on the sensitivity of the photocells. You would have to put a Capacitor on the burning laser so the beam would remain on for about 5 seconds. Just pulled this outta my hat let me know what you think or how'd you make a computer program that can gun down Mosquitos .mine would work better with flies.

[emihackr97]

i will sugest 2000 milliwatts (2watt) that actually is really powerful. normal laser pointers are between 1 end 5 milliwatt and can still get you blind!

[myc1034]

remember that females are larger than males and they beat their wings faster (different frequency) than the males as well. i you can figure out the frequency of females(less females=less eggs=less mosquitoes) and use that as the basis of the targeting system.tho that will not solve the problem of civilian casualties if they land on people(which is the basis of this project). as for killing the mosquitoes you only need to vaporize their fragile wings which will take away their primary mod of transportation and make them more susceptible to predators.

[Cheathum14]

Funniest question ive seen all day :)

About a thousand watts should vaporize them for sure. Just make sure you dont point it at a mosquito thats on you cuz it might sting more than the mosquito itself.

[Dr.Bill]

Naaa. Just use a 500w C02 laser just to be sure hook it up to a computer pointing device with sonar sensing.

[matt ledding]

Wow. Practical ideas really do trickle down from military technology... ; ) Velcro, Duct tape and the backyard Star Wars Missile/bug Defence System.

[ferzenr]

<br /> matt ledding,<br /><br />Yes, that was the "star wars" concept, and unfortunately, that (adapting that to shooting mosquitoes) turns out to be the project thought by a few people (before me). That story is a "zeitgeistly" trouble -- believe it, or not. Good that, your (Sept.2) post is after I had finally written and published the report/article (on Aug.24) about that "zeitgeistly" theft.<br /> http://www.zilqarneyn.com/armageddon/zeitgeist-of-mosquito-shooting.htm<br /> ( The corresponding tweet is on http://twitter.com/zilqarneyn , on Aug.24,2009. )<br /><br /><br />Before laser, there was the good old circuit for inviting (female) mosquitoes. That DIY circuit-publishing article (from old mag, 1984) was telling that the mosquito would stay there, until starving. Thus, laser was optional from the start. But again, now I have extra thought (alternative to a laser), to crush the mosquitoes.<br /> http://www.islamos.net/iSlaMos--slamming-all-mosquitoes.htm<br />Produce (electro)magnetism, for slamming a wall (both metals).<br />BTW, "i" is for "internet." That is, for remotely operating. Not necessarily in your "backyard," but remotely killing mosquitoes in Africa, too. Big game.<br /><br /><br />Thus, not all of the thing was "of military root" (as far as I'm the point, but U.S. military staff (& their legacy work), work against mosquitoes, too).<br /><br /><br />BTW, in the future, I want to extend that to triatomas, too, if I might find a good method to invite triatomas.<br />http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090709042652AAkANXC<br /><br />

[AndyGadget]

One of THESE ought to do it.

[Dr.Bill]

NOW YOUR TALKING ! I GOTTA GET ME ONE !

[Dr.Bill]

NO. NO. 2. I gotta get me 2 .

[electrosam]

The basic to kill mosquito by Laser is the heat generated by laser radiation. I guess a laser of about 2W would be enough. But remember this could be harmful to us.

[Dr.Bill]

naaa. Got to make the laser powerful enough to not be dissipated by the atmosphere. 500 watts with a sonar pointing device attached

[ferzenr]

Surely, as I had told in the Yahoo question, if the thing is beyond 5mW, that will probably go into a box. Any way, that box will not be too nigh people, because mosquitoes will be coming there. Thus, placement is a job of optimizing. For optimal energy harvesting, and somewhat far from humans, probably a model plane will place that to a high place, or so.

[Bigev]

How would you aim it at their _tiny bug bodies?

[Dr.Bill]

The same way a bat aims itself at bugs.

[ferzenr]

Pinpointing the mosquito eyes (as that is on the head), might further optimize the shooting. But I'm not bothering about that a lot, for now. The detect, then shoot, is the method.

[ferzenr]

That is what I'm telling of, as the timing that the infrared path is broken. (Although to attract, bi ifrared is thinkable, too. The laser's path might overlap with a specific infrared, or any light source.)

[rickharris]

too high to be safe hence the commercial high voltage bug zapper type of approach.

[Dr.Bill]

The transformer off the bug zappers makes a good burglar deterrent

[ferzenr]

Commercial bug zappers are not good for mosquito-fighting. (But if you would replace their ultraviolet light with infrared, that might be workable.)

Their exploding the insects, is told to spray the microbes to the room
See the links @ http://home.howstuffworks.com/bug-zapper2.htm
like http://www.ent.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1996/6-14-1996/bugzapper.html

Laser kills by shoot-down method. Thereoff, I might think how to bury or cremate the corpse of the mosquitoes.

[rickharris]

Correct - bits of fly everywhere They are not thinking when they put them in food shops!

[matchett808]

hm...I dunno but i would say that you should probably build a machine to catch them then kill them as slow as possible say....by pulling the legs then wings off?? *{instert favourate makebeleive charecter here}* - I hate bugs

[mman1506]

any thing that would start to be hot on your finger so im thinking about 5w what about a torch that goes off when tripped because i found mosquito's dye with very little heat

[ferzenr]

I presume that, laser is probably the most energy-efficient. Your quote, 5 Watts, is a thousand times what is sufficient for a CD-ROM (for CD-R & DVD, about a few times more, thus hundreds of times less than 5W). This might be relevant to the laser efficiency. Isn't a torch working upon contact (feet first)? Or else, is that some "flame-up" torch? If only contact, the feet might get tortured, but the mosquito might fly. (Like touching a hot stove.) Flame-up, is wasting the energy -- the portion that surrounds, not touches, the mosquito, is warming. Other mosquitoes might run away. (Unless the torch is attractive, due to infrared.) If burning is not immediate, if takes a second or more, that might count torturous. Surely, the illnesses caused by the mosquitoes, cause pain, too. But if we might kill mosquitoes humanely, without torture, I would be happier. Religiously, in normal cases, (presumably other than self-defense, like fighting the mosquitoes), burning or drowning animals, is a sin, by Islam. Thus, probably I'm not the single who is concerned about the torture that would be. For world-wide networking, establishing such gadgetry, we need to reflect about such human-adoption concerns, too. Likewise, :-)) I would not think a method that involves pushing cows around, because that would bother Hindu people, thus, making the gadget less successful in India.

[mman1506]

ive found that most bugs die with very little heat hence an torch but to really work quick you probably need a laser that can instantly light a match. why i suggested it was once a flie went over a candle (not in) and immidentally died .you dont need to vapourize an mosquito to kill it

[ReCreate]

1.6 Gigawatts,It will Require a flux Cap :P Any Laser That Would Burn your finger immediately:),Say 1 Watt?,Tops? Maybe a DVD Burner or Blu ray Burner might work.