Brazil fights Zika with 'sweaty' mosquito-killing billboard

Rio has taken a particularly novel approach to fighting Zika. Should other cities take note?

With the summer—and mosquito season—upon us, concerns about the Zika virus in the United States are rising. As of April 20, there were a total of 388 travel-associated Zika cases in the U.S., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects that number to rise. With no known cure, researchers are scrambling to develop a safe vaccine for the virus, which can cause birth defects and Guillain-Barré syndrome—a nervous system disorder. The World Health Organization has already identified the spread of Zika as a global health emergency, and in countries like Brazil, where there are active mosquito transmissions of Zika (it can also be spread through sexual contact), the need for protective measures is particularly immediate.

Enter the Mosquito Killer Billboard, a panel created by companies Posterscope and NBS to attract and kill the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which is known to carry the Zika virus. It works like this: A device in the billboard panel spreads a solution into the air that mimics human sweat—it's a mix of lactic acid and CO2. The scent, as well as fluorescent lights, draw in mosquitos from as far as 4 kilometers away. The bugs are then sucked up into the panel, where they die of dehydration.

A little gross? Sure. The billboard more or less functions as a giant, glowing, sweaty—and lethal—human. But its creators are encouraging other cities to replicate the panel, and have even made the blueprint available for free online.

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