Max kazemzadeh, mfa, phd (Work & Research)

This is a simple project to address the recent lantern fly infestation. I have a Tree of Heaven in my back yard that attracts numerous lantern flies. They live in the tree and the ivy that grows on its bark. The tree gives some shade to the deck in my back yard, however, lantern flies convert the sap from the tree to honeydue and spit it out which leaves my deck and everything on it sticky. This system attracts the lantern flies away from the tree to the back of the yard. I am working on an additional attachment that will trap the lantern flies next.
The system runs a tone at 60 Hz, then every once in a while elevates to 120 Hz and then 180 Hz then turns off for a moment to return to 60 Hz again.

The opposite option is also possible to re-employ the same system to repulse lantern flies and cause them to flee their chosen Tree of Heaven by programming the microcontroller to output a constantly shifting white-noise frequency sweep (e.g., rapidly cycling between 200 Hz and 1,000 Hz). This mechanical noise vibrates the tree bark enough to drown out the insects’ natural substrate-borne communication, making the tree undesirable for mating or feeding. [1, 2]

The above system was close in behaviour, however, the aluminum strip must adhere directly to the tree for the most effective outcome along with a trap. The below video shows that lantern flies are interested, but not fully attracted. The sound must resonate into the wood truck of the tree, which means phase 2 will apply sound to the aluminum strip mounted around the trunk of the tree. The sound will change a bit having 60 Hz for 30 seconds, followed by a shorter 3 second pulse of 120 Hz and 1 seconds of no sound.