Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A18-144

Description

The Army needs a biodegradable vector control system that can be easily deployed by nontechnical personnel and by aircraft onto land and into bodies of water. To meet this Army need, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Biodegradable Mosquito Trap (BMT) system. It has a highly configurable design that allows it to be set up in different configurations to attract, trap, and kill mosquitoes. It can use a variety of attractants to lure in different types of mosquitoes through an opening. Its housing design makes it difficult for the trapped mosquitoes to escape and, thus, dead-trapping them inside the BMT. The BMT housing can be configured to use an attractant and/or toxicant (or pesticide). It can be modified for air deployment onto land, for hanging from vegetation or other structures, and for deployment into bodies of water with the capability of killing surrounding larvae while collecting and killing mosquitoes. In Phase I, POC will develop the BMT concept designs and fabricate numerous BMT prototypes for field testing. In Phase II, POC will use the comprehensive test results obtained in Phase I to further improve, develop, and test the BMT prototypes in laboratory and field environments.