Commercialization of a novel compact wind tunnel for testing formulated insecticide products against mosquitoes

Key project goals are to benefit NC citizens impacted by mosquito-borne diseases and control mosquitoes that threaten local economies (e.g., tourism) and areas impacted by hurricanes/flooding. Here, we use innovative technology to solve a real NC problem. Mosquito field trials are time consuming, weather-dependent, expensive, and require multiple personnel. If our wind tunnel (patent pending) approach for testing insecticides is the same or better than a field trial, we believe this would be a game changer as it would allow agencies, organizations, and companies to test multiple products in a convenient and low cost setting. The primary outcomes will be finalizing the commercial design of our wind tunnel and determining if the results from our wind tunnel experiments are the same or better than field trials. Success at the end of the funding period includes launching a contract research organization that has multiple wind tunnels for testing. We will continue strong working relationships with NC mosquito control programs, NCDHHS, industry, and community partners. The fee-for-service business model developed here for our insecticide testing service would benefit NC economic development by employing local personnel for project management, customer service, marketing/sales, processing mosquitoes, testing, trend analyses, and reporting results.

Scholars @ ECU