Development and commercialization of a tent trap for the surveillance and control of disease-carrying flies

Due to the possible transmission of blood-borne diseases, biting insects, mosquitoes, midges, and sand flies pose increasing danger to deployed military personnel and humans in locations around the globe. Because of these disease dangers, the collection of specimens during entomological surveys needs to pose as little risk to the human bait and/or collectors as possible. The SkySight Technologies approach to creating and demonstrating a tent trap to capture biting flies and mosquitoes that come to bite a human resting inside is to modify a standard tent with the components necessary to convert it into a specimen collection device using human bait in a manner that does not endanger the human. To preserve the specimen alive and intact, the specimen never passes through the fan blades and a unique air flow and ducting system traps the specimens into the capture system created as the base tent is assembled. The proposed tent trap system is based on a standard, readily available tent, uses a specimen safe pull air system to circulate the human odor, poses no risk to the human bait, preserves the live specimen, and is easy and intuitive to erect.