this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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This is neat but also stupid. If a laser has enough power to fry a mosquito, it can also fry your retina.
Yes, I’m aware he added a safety system. That’s one layer of Swiss cheese in the safety system. It’ll work flawlessly until it doesn’t. How are potential reflections handled?
Meanwhile, God who deliberately gave us a spare eye for this exact reason
Do not look at laser with remaining eye...
Send two to: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
~~God~~Odin
Having lived in Florida, it's worth the risk.
Could run it similar to those disinfecting light bulbs (only when the room is not occupied)
How do you ensure that the room is empty, 100% of the time? Those disinfecting light bulbs don't have the same level of risk as this laser system.
Perhaps a second laser defense system can be installed to ensure people stay out of the original room?
I like the way you think. I think more of life's second-order problems should be solved with blinding lasers.
Secondary problem: how to implement the sharks
But if the laser is blind, how will it hit the mosquitoes?
Have it spray tear gas first. But wait, then the laser won't be able to penetrate the cloud. Maybe we could add a quadcopter drone to clear a path to the mosquito for the laser to fire. But then we'll need a system so the drone doesn't run into a human choking on tear gas, and the drone can't see because of the limited visibility, could we use infrared sensors I wonder? /s
This is a stupid system. I love engineers, but they tend to uh... overengineer things like this.
I think we're overthinking this a bit. I have one simple question. Hear me out. Can a mosquito survive a nuclear blast? I'll let you sit with that a minute.
"Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure" has always been my policy for spiders, mosquitoes and ticks, so I'm looking forward to World War 3 going nuclear. I'm just a bit concerned that the "from orbit" part implies I'm supposed to be up there when it happens, and while I understand the basic mechanics of how to get there, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the logistics after that point.
Or set fire to delicate fabrics, wallpaper, or other potentially flammable surfaces a mosquito might be near or on.
I don't think a reflection would be coherent enough to carry enough energy to cause damage.
Personally, I'd just wear laser goggles while the system was operating.
It doesn't need to be coherent, just needs enough joule. The prior commenter is right, if it can fry a mosquito even a reflection will damage eyes