Seattle has spawned several high-tech efforts to combat Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases, from research on vaccines and drugs to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s vision of genetically engineering mosquitoes or infecting them with microscopic bugs to block viral transmission. But there’s also a low-tech battle under way, led in part by a local company that specializes in simple devices to trap and kill insects, usually without pesticides… “We’re certain these traps can kill mosquitoes,” said Karl Malamud-Roam, manager of the Public Health Pesticides Program at Rutgers University. “What we’re not sure of is if we can kill enough of them to be below the threshold of disease transmission.”
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