MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY Prevention of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) and House Flies (Diptera: Muscidae) from Entering Simulated Aircraft with Commercial Air Curtain Units

Commercially available air curtain units were used to create air barriers to prevent mosquitoes and house ßies from entering a simulated aircraft doorway together with passengers. Two assemblies of simulated passenger bridge and aircraft were constructed, and airßow measurements were recorded to conÞrm airßow characteristics for several combinations of commercial units. Three mosquito specieswere selected fordifferenthost-seekingcharacteristics, andhouseßieswere selected to represent a large, strong-ßying insect. Batches of 20 or 200 insects of four species were released into the passenger bridge just before 25 persons passed through the assembly, then insects that entered the aircraft cabin were recovered. Results showed that horizontal plus vertical or vertical-mounted air curtain units with the airßow directed at a 45 angle into the passenger bridge excluded 95Ð99% of themosquitoes and 95Ð100% of the house ßies, respectively. Airßowsweremeasured and estimated to be effective if the mean was 4 m/s in the critical area in the center of the converging airßows. The study validates the concept that air barriers can effectively prevent the passage of ßying insects into an aircraft.