East Carolina University professors Dr. Stephanie Richards (Dept. of Health Education and Promotion, Environmental Health Program) and Dr. Sinan Sousan (Dept. of Public Health; Agromedicine Institute) had a paper titled “Development of Novel Compact Wind Tunnel for Testing Efficacy of Insecticide Formulated Products in Mosquitoes” published in Pest Management Science. ECU professor Dr. Avian White (Dept. of Health Education and Promotion, Environmental Health Program) and students Will Murray (ECU MSEH/MPH student), Raven Slade (ECU MSEH student), and Kaya Peyton (NC Central University) also participated in this study.

A novel compact wind tunnel was developed as a mitigation tool that can be used to apply insecticide formulated products used in mosquito control. The wind tunnel can test a subset of field mosquitoes (or other arthropods) as a proxy to determine if insecticides would be effective in killing mosquitoes in the environment. This protects public health, reduces the spraying of ineffective pesticides into the environment, and helps increase efficacy of mosquito control. Dr. Richards and Dr. Sousan have a pending patent and their innovation aims to solve the problems and costs associated with current testing approaches.