microsoft trap can catch the right mosquitoes 90 percent of the time global healthcreditmichael stravato for the new york timesjune 19 2017dotted around houston hidden in overgrown backyards and piles of old tires are what look like 10 tiny models of hollywoods iconic capitol records buildingthey are full of recording gear but not to capture the vocals of frank sinatra or the beastie boysthese hightech devices catch mosquitoes though not in big batches like typical traps they catch them one by one each in its own compartment after inspecting each mosquitos wing beats to be sure its a species that researchers wantwe were the first to have these said mustapha debboun director of mosquito control for the harris county public health department i saw something on the internet about them and i said whoa can i get sometheyve been wonderful he added why would i want to collect a thousand nuisance mosquitoes if i can avoid itthe new traps made by microsoft overcome one of the most frustrating aspects of insect surveillance there are 56 species of mosquitoes in this buggy bayou city and conventional traps suck in nearly all of thementomologists want only a few diseasecarrying types including aedes aegypti which carries zika and dengue and culex quinquefasciatus which spreads west nile virusto find them scientists must freeze whole batches caught in the usual traps and tediously handsort them with tweezers under a microscopemaking matters worse most traps suck the insects through a fan and then whirl them around a mesh basket for hoursthe white scales get rubbed off so you lose the white lyre on the back that tells you its aegypti said pamela stark a county entomologist june bugs get pulled in and stomp around like cowsthe microsoft trap by contrast has 64 compartments arrayed like studio apartments in a skyscraperwhen an insect flies in it crosses an infrared beam that reads the pattern of the shadows thrown by its buzzing wings said ethan jackson a computer scientist who leads microsofts project premonition which created the trap with advice from mosquito experts at the bill and melinda gates foundationif its a species the county wants a clear plastic door shuts like a venus fly trap dr jackson said the trap can catch the right species almost 90 percent of the timeeach compartment also records and uploads to a website the time temperature humidity and ambient light data that records when each species hunts for blood which is a good time to spraythe first 30 prototypes of which houston has 10 cost several thousand dollars each dr jackson said but he hopes to get the price down below 300 so even poor countries where malaria and yellow fever kill thousands of victims could afford themselling traps is not the point he explained he has a far more ambitious goal to have thousands of them around the world gathering viral dna the way google street view gathers pictures for the value of the datahe was thinking about ebolas long