HumBug has developed a novel mosquito survey system to detect and identify different species of mosquitoes by their flight tone using budget smartphones. The project has recently received funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation allowing us to further advance this innovative system in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our Randomised Controlled Trial has started in Kivukoni, Milola, Minepa and Mavimba thanks to our colleagues at IHI. We are studying if incentives improve local community collection of mosquito flight tones using MozzWear app.
Over 6900 mosquito flight tones have been recorded!
We have recorded over 6900 mosquito flight tones from 23 mosquito species and our database continues to grow. Our colleagues in DRC and Tanzania have been working very hard to achieve this objective.
Our Social Science team conducted community meetings in four villages of Kilombero valley. Dr Dam, Mrs Mponzi and Mrs Mwandyala met the community leaders and held focus group discussions to introduce the project to the participants.
Dr Sinka along with our collaborators from Tanzania and DRC have demonstrated for the first time in a rural community in Tanzania, that our HumBug Net allows us to passively record the flight tone of host seeking mosquitoes!
Comparison of HumBug Net with other survey methods
We are running a community trial comparing the performance of HumBug System to traditional mosquito sampling methods such as CDC-LTs and Human baited nets. We are also gathering feedback from the community as to how easy it is to run the HumBug System.
