Infrared Photoelectric Sensor Network Applied to Remote Arthropod Insects' Surveillance

This work presents a monitoring system trap to detect the presence of arthropod insects in a remote surveillance zone. Detections are made using sensor traps that are installed in twenty houses of an indigenous village of the Paraguayan Chaco in South America, where the insects that transmit Chagas disease are pressing to infest the area. Pheromone baits are used to ensure the attraction of Triatoma infestans. For detecting variations of the light due to insect intrusion, trap entrances have photoelectric infrared sensors. Once the insect is detected, the information is collected and transmitted to an Internet database storage server. More than 750 intrusions were detected during nine months, the highest number of detections occurred when the temperature ranged between 20 °C and 34 °C, relative humidity average less than 30% and the precipitation was less than 1.5 mm. This new result provides evidence of the T. infestans activity at different times of the day and month, and its relationship with certain environmental variables. These findings contribute to reorientate surveillance procedures, validate the monitoring system proposal and give important information on the vector's life activity.