![Aedes aegypti mosquito on human skin. Link to photo information](/peth04/20041031225303im_/http://ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/aug00/k4705-9i.jpg) Aedes aegypti
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"Air Curtain" Blocks Unwanted Insect Pests
From Airplanes By Jim Core March 9,
2004
A system developed by Agricultural Research Service scientists
uses a "curtain of air" to prevent disease-carrying insects from boarding
airplanes.
Researchers at the ARS Center for
Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary
Entomology in Gainesville, Fla., developed a method for using high-velocity
"air curtains" in passenger walkways to provide a barrier against these problem
insects. Passenger walkways are the bridgelike structures that passengers enter
to board the airplane from the gate.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) sponsored a pilot study of the curtain
system with ARS scientists in Gainesville. Results of the study show that air
curtains can exclude 99 percent of flying insects (mosquitoes and flies),
according to Robert K. Vander Meer, acting research leader of the ARS
Mosquito and Fly
Research Unit. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture, DOT and several other government agencies demonstrated the
system today at Miami International
Airport. ARS is USDA's chief scientific research agency.
The estimated cost of the two vertically mounted air curtains is
about $3,000. The system provides a safer alternative to insecticidal methods
currently used.
Certain countries--including India, Australia, Jamaica, Grenada,
and Trinidad and Tobago--require airlines to ensure that aircraft are
insect-free before passengers get off the plane. The countries want to prevent
mosquitoes, flies and other insects that may spread diseases, such as malaria
and West Nile virus, from crossing their borders.
The curtain is made of air blown away from the passenger doors
by fans on either side of the walkway, at an air speed of at least 1 meter per
second. Insects cannot penetrate the barrier. Companies already manufacture
similar air curtains for other purposes, such as blocking heat from entering
rooms in commercial establishments. |