For most people, mosquitoes are very unwelcome. They can also carry dangerous diseases like the zika virus and malaria. Dr. Roberto Perreira has invented a simple mosquito water trap that doesn’t contain pesticides. Born and raised in Brazil, Pereira had no interest in insects as a kid. He went into entomology “through the back door” in graduate school by focusing on diseases that kill insects. Naturally he was drawn to swampy Florida where he specializes in “urban entomology.”

TRANSCRIPT:

Intro: 0:01

Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade, a podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them. We'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Richard Miles: 0:38

Getting rid of mosquitoes, we can put a man on the moon, but we can't get those damn bugs from biting our legs. Help may be on the way. My guest today is Dr. Roberto Perreira a research scientist in urban entomology who has developed simple mosquito traps for which I at least would spend a lot of money on. So welcome, Dr. Perreira

Dr. Roberto Perreira: 0:56

Thank you.

Richard Miles: 0:57

So let's start by having you explain exactly how these traps work. A mosquito trap. What do you do with it and how does it work?

Dr. Roberto Perreira: 1:05

Well, the mosquitoes that we're targeting here are what we call container breeding mosquitoes. So they are used to breeding tree holes but in the urban areas they just look for any container of water to lay their eggs. So the females are looking for these containers to lay their eggs. So what we have is just a bottle, is a dark bottle and it will have some water in the bottom so it will attract the female mosquitoes and we are talking about the 80s mosquitoes, that ones that are transmitting Zika and other diseases and because we treat this bottle internally with the pesticide, the female mosquitoes will end up dying. If by any chance some mosquito eggs get laid inside that bottle, we also have a second pesticide that targets the larvae and they don't allow the larvae to develop into adults. It's a simple item.

Richard Miles: 2:03

Is there anything in the water itself in the bottle that attracts them or is it just simply water? We actually put like a tea bag that has some ground leaves inside that tea bag and that basically conditions the water gives a little smell that it makes it more attractive for the mosquitoes. The bottle is a dark container and it has water. So that's exactly what these mosquitoes are looking for.

Dr. Roberto Perreira: 2:30

And if you had a small yard or medium sized yard, how many of these would you have to put around your yard? Well, we always recommend not putting less than two. It doesn't matter how small your yard is, but actually a normal yard, uh, say in Gainesville would probably want to have three or four or five of these containers around just so that you offer enough competition in relation to whatever other containers or water containers are there in that yard.

Richard Miles: 2:59

And so based on how you've described this, I'm guessing is the advantage here that you don't have to do any spraying of the yard with