Student Design Ecological, Portable Bug Trap

Conventional insect traps may present health risks, besides the fact that they make noise or smell bad.

Old bug catchers usually blow bugs into thousands of tiny pieces potentially containing colonies of bacteria that could spread inside the room and possibly infect human residents. They also can blow up particles containing small bits of metal, which can affect the human body.

Studies performed at Kansas State University and the University of Wisconsin have proved that these particles can hang around in the air for four days or more.

The new design draws flies to a sticky glue strip in a disposable cartridge by using light. Florida-based Nacon Technologies, which will soon market a plug-in version of the trap, tapped the students to design the battery operated version to be used by the military, campers and others.

A group of University of Florida engineering students constructed the new trap that uses battery-powered LEDs flashing at different frequencies to attract house flies. They find their way toward the lights through an opening in the trap, and become immobilized on a sticky glue strip in a disposable plastic cartridge.

"The combination of the different frequencies of light and the ultraviolet wavelengths is what does it," said Hans Yeakel, a UF senior in industrial engineering. "They see that, and they want to come into the trap."

The company that took over the manufacturing of these fly traps has already begun producing them in China, and some major companies expressed an interest in the new applications.

The biggest names are Wal-Mart, Disney and McDonald's, the first having already installed two such traps in its largest store in Florida, to test the effectiveness of the new approach.

The current traps require an electrical grid connections, but when plugs will not be available, the clients will soon be able to use the battery-operated trap because it could be placed anywhere for maximum effectiveness.

These portable devices could be used by the military, campers, emergency responders and others. "Anyone who needs to be mobile could use it," he said.