Helicopter Borne Acoustic Larvicide Mosquito Control for Flooded Agricultural Croplands

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Control of mosquitoes from flooded croplands such as rice-lands is essential for the well being of rural Americans. Control of these mosquitoes has been a challenge for many reasons including; the high cost of pesticides, restrictions on many pesticides to be sprayed over water, their environmental impacts, and reduced effectiveness due to increased immunity of mosquitoes and larvae. New Mountain Innovations recently discovered Acoustic Larvicide, an environmentally friendly, cost effective, non-pesticide mosquito control technique. Application of this technology for wide area coverage such as rice-lands could provide a solution to mosquito infestation associated with flooded croplands. Direct acoustic measurements of the propagation environment of rice-lands will result in new absorption coefficients that can be applied to standard sonar models to predict the potential range of effectiveness of an array design. Non-Target studies of species in the environment will prove the benign nature of this technique. A preliminary design of a helicopter deployed acoustic array will be generated from a few conceptual candidates. Array performance will be assessed looking in particular at the practicality of helicopter interface, and the expected range performance. In addition, an operational analysis study will be conducted with cost-benefit-trades offs.