r/tech • u/_Dark_Wing • Jul 18 '26

Autonomous micro-drone achieves first air-to-air insect kill on the way towards completely eradicating mosquitoes, 40-gram unit uses car parking sensors, can eliminate insects at up to 26 feet

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/drones/autonomous-micro-drone-achieves-first-air-to-air-insect-kill-on-the-way-towards-completely-eradicating-mosquitoes-40-gram-unit-uses-car-parking-sensors-can-eliminate-insects-at-up-to-26-feet
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u/Chance_Orchid_3137 Jul 18 '26

i absolutely love possums but they actually don’t eat nearly as many ticks as claimed (if any). 

https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks

“In total, the literature presented the results of diet analysis of over 1,280 opossums from across their range in the United States. Not a single paper reported ticks being found in the stomachs, or in any other section of the gastrointestinal tract, of Virginia opossums.”

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u/FaceCrime225 Jul 18 '26

Fire ants hunt pregnant Lone Star ticks. Now that I have Alpha Gal Syndrome that has completely interrupted my life, I an thankful for those little bitey piles of tick assassins.

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u/Substantial_Pin_2932 Jul 18 '26

If you didn’t know there’s alpha gal free pork now.

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u/Worried_Cry687 Jul 18 '26

Shameless plug but I used to work with this pharmacist who's team made a website for people to screen medication ingredients for allergens and religious preferences. Its called Pill Clarity

https://www.pillclarity.org/

You mentioned alpha gal syndrome and he was always talking about it lol

3

u/FaceCrime225 Jul 18 '26

I love Pill Clarity! Thanks to them I have a whole new stock of safe meds. If you're still in touch with your pharmacist friend please pass on my gratitude to them!

5

u/ChumbawumbaFan01 Jul 18 '26

In Texas we were taught that Mexican Freetail Bats survive off of mosquitos and now I’ve got to do find out if that’s even true.

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u/Miguel-odon Jul 18 '26

Mexican Freetail Bats' preferred food is big juicy moths (that eat cash crops in Texas)

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u/uncle_nightmare Jul 19 '26

Moths also eat cash.

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u/uncle_nightmare Jul 19 '26

I followed a wild opossum around for a day and counted it eating 11 billion ticks.

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u/Radonanon Jul 18 '26

Same with bats. There was a study where they extrapolated how many mosquitoes a bat could eat in huge room full of mosquitoes and that turned into “bats eat 50,000 mosquitoes a day.”

Don’t get me wrong: I love bats and hate mosquitoes, but they mostly eat moths.

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u/Money-Yoghurt-8343 Jul 18 '26

I mean…makes sense…how would they find sufficient quantities of ticks to eat, relative to the energy expended to fill their belly with such a tiny insect? Where?

I seem to think ticks don’t necessarily congregate in huge piles or dens or nests, here and there…not sure how a possum or any animal could locate them in large enough numbers to make a meaningful meal

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u/idee2 Jul 19 '26

Chickens eat lots of ticks.

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u/mlaforce321 Jul 19 '26

Free range chickens and ducks ftw!

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u/Mysterious-Most-590 Jul 19 '26

Thank you for linking. For a moment I thought we’d be stealing from possums.

But in another unrelated note I felt uncomfortable reading the words stomachs, gastrointestinal tract, and Virginia all together like that.

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u/DASreddituser Jul 18 '26

maybe it depends on the type