Hillsborough County remains under a state of local emergency, extended through November 19, as it battles the largest dengue outbreak in its history. The Florida Department of Health’s latest weekly surveillance report shows 407 locally acquired dengue cases in the county this year, with 524 locally acquired cases statewide through October 31. Those are cases where people were infected by mosquitoes in Florida, not while traveling abroad.
Dengue causes high fever, severe headaches and intense muscle pain, and in serious cases can turn life-threatening. County officials say mosquito surveillance continues to detect active dengue virus in neighborhoods across the Tampa area, and mosquito control crews have ramped up both aerial and ground treatments to get the outbreak under control.
Against that backdrop, researchers at the University of South Florida have built an AI-powered mosquito trap they say can identify mosquito species with more than 98% accuracy in laboratory testing — a tool that could let health officials act on surveillance data in a single day instead of waiting two to three days for a specialist to examine captured insects under a microscope.
How the trap works
The device, developed by a USF-founded startup called Digitomy, can be hung from a low tree branch or set on the ground. A light or bait lures mosquitoes inside, where a small fan pulls them onto a sticky pad. Two built-in cameras photograph each insect, and AI compares the images against a large database to identify the species. The system can also determine whether a mosquito is male or female and whether it has recently fed on blood — information that matters because only female mosquitoes bite and spread disease.
The work traces back to 2018, led by Associate Professor Ryan Carney and Professor Sriram Chellappan. Their particular focus is Aedes aegypti, the species primarily responsible for spreading dengue in Florida. Of roughly 3,500 mosquito species worldwide, only certain ones carry specific diseases, so knowing which are present in a given area helps officials target their response.
One caveat: the trap identifies species capable of carrying disease, not whether a specific mosquito is actually infected with dengue. Confirming infection still requires lab testing.
From trap to dashboard
Digitomy can feed identification results into a mapping dashboard the same day, letting mosquito control teams see where dangerous species are turning up. That data has already been built into a private layer of the researchers’ Global Mosquito Observations Dashboard at mosquitodashboard.org, which also draws on more than half a million citizen science reports. The technology is also designed to work alongside an existing early warning system Carney developed for dengue and West Nile virus.
If multiple traps start flagging more Aedes aegypti in one neighborhood, officials could move to investigate and apply targeted control measures there rather than waiting for more residents to get sick.
Where it stands now
Digitomy has tested the system at USF and worked with the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in St. Johns County, which covers St. Augustine. Field validation with Hillsborough County — ground zero for the state’s outbreak — is in the works. The startup is partnering with USF’s Technology Transfer office to license its AI identification system to existing mosquito trap manufacturers, rather than building and selling its own hardware directly to the public.
The project received a $25,000 grant from the USF Research Foundation’s Bull Ring Accelerator in summer 2026 to help move licensing and commercialization forward. The team is also building an online education platform to train mosquito control professionals and the public to identify species using images and AI feedback. No consumer launch date or retail price has been announced.
What residents can do now
None of this changes the advice for people living in or traveling to Florida right now. Empty standing water from flowerpots and other containers, since mosquitoes can breed in small amounts of water. Use an EPA-registered insect repellent outdoors, and wear long sleeves and pants to cut down on exposed skin. Mosquito season in Florida doesn’t end when it does elsewhere in the country, and this year’s dengue outbreak is proof.
