Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (WAM)
Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre has announced the success of its pioneering model in mosquito control through smart traps. These traps represent a radical shift in the way mosquito populations are monitored, tracked, and managed.
This initiative comes in response to the growing challenges posed by climate change, urban expansion, increased travel, and the spread of pesticide-resistant mosquito strains.
The smart traps use advanced technology that mimics human body emissions, attracting female mosquitoes seeking blood by releasing carbon dioxide and using a chemical attractant that mimics human scent. Once the mosquitoes approach, they are drawn in by a fine fan and trapped inside a designated collection net, ensuring efficient monitoring without the use of internal chemicals.
The smart traps are equipped with precise sensors and advanced wireless data transmission systems, allowing for the immediate transmission of information including the number of captured mosquitoes, temperature, humidity, and time to a central cloud database. This data is analysed using artificial intelligence tools and interactive dashboards, enabling control teams to make informed and timely decisions based on the biological behaviour patterns of mosquitoes and environmental changes.
Environmental and public health experts have noted that these traps represent a qualitative leap in entomological epidemiology, providing for the first time the ability to track mosquito population development and analyse daily and seasonal activity patterns with unprecedented accuracy, including the impact of environmental factors such as high temperatures or varying humidity levels.
Since their introduction in Abu Dhabi in 2020, the smart trap network has recorded remarkable results. The efficiency of mosquito capture has increased by over 400 per cent, with the average number of mosquitoes captured in smart traps rising from 60 (in traditional traps) to more than 240 per smart trap, reflecting much higher targeting efficiency and enabling the creation of a rich database on the nature and locations of mosquito spread.
This technology has also contributed to a reduction in the number of recorded breeding sites by over 42 per cent further decreasing active mosquito breeding sites in 2024. This reduction would not have been possible without the precise information provided by the traps on peak activity times and spread locations.
One of the most notable features of these traps is that they not only monitor mosquitoes but also serve as an analytical tool to understand mosquito behavioural patterns over time. By tracking changes in mosquito numbers at specific sites over the week or month, control teams have been able to pinpoint peak hours with great accuracy and understand the relationship between rising temperatures and increased mosquito numbers, or between humidity and breeding effectiveness.
This type of analysis has opened new horizons in applied research on vector-borne diseases, particularly those associated with dengue fever, malaria, and the Zika virus, as it has become possible to predict outbreak risks based on insect dynamics.
The precision of the traps in identifying appropriate times and places for control has significantly reduced pesticide consumption. Statistics indicate a 31 per cent reduction in the amount of insecticides used between 2019 and 2024, decreasing from around 7.5 tonnes to just 5.3 tonnes. This reduction has positively impacted the environment, particularly by reducing exposure of non-target insects such as bees, butterflies, and beneficial arthropods to pesticides. This reduction has also contributed to enhancing biodiversity in urban and agricultural areas, with field research teams recording improvements in natural ecological balance due to reduced chemical pressure.
In addition to reducing pesticide use, the smart traps have contributed to a 28 per cent reduction in fuel consumption for vehicles used in spraying and monitoring operations, decreasing from 630,312 litres in 2019 to 452,000 litres in 2024. This has helped reduce emissions from fuel combustion, aligning with Abu Dhabi's strategic directions towards carbon neutrality and achieving sustainable development goals.
Moreover, over 94% of the components of these traps are made from recyclable materials, and they operate entirely on solar energy, making them one of the most environmentally friendly technologies in the vector control sector.
Since the beginning of experimental research in 2019 until today, Abu Dhabi has managed to build an integrated network of more than 920 solar-powered smart traps distributed across all areas of the emirate, including residential areas, farms, and industrial zones. This extensive network covers the entire geographical scope and provides immediate and continuous information, making it one of the most advanced and accurate mosquito monitoring networks in the world. The total cost of operating this network has reached around AED12 million over six years, reflecting high investment efficiency given its environmental, health, and economic outcomes.
