Numerical Simulations of Experiments with Radio-Frequency Exposure of Aedes aegypti at 3.6 GHz

Yellow Fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) are vectors for diseases such as Dengue. This species is often found near humans, hence, they are exposed to anthropogenic radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs). It has been demonstrated that this exposure could have developmental effects in insects, however research on mosquitoes is limited. Therefore, an exposure experiment was designed using a frequency of 3.6 GHz (a 5G frequency) on Ae. Aegypti larvae. In order to correctly interpret these experiments, the insects’ dose needs to be determined.

Numerical simulations were conducted for this purpose. The larval stage is aquatic, therefore Petri dishes of 3.5 cm diameter were used wherein spheroids, representing the 3D models for the larvae, were placed in different positions in the Finite Difference Time Domain simulations. It was chosen to work with twelve incident plane waves with angles and polarizations along the main axis of the insect. The average of the absorbed electromagnetic power by the larvae, was taken for the four different instars (sizes) of the larva and at three different positions.

The simulations show that larvae breathing at the surface, will experience more power absorption compared to larvae eating near the bottom of the dish. The absorbed power by the larva, normalized to their volume, is similar for all instars at 3.6 GHz, however this changes at frequencies larger than 6 GHz, where the size becomes an important factor. The absorbed power by instar 3 at 3.6 GHz with an incident electric field of 61 V/m (ICNIRP limit) will be around 0.52 µW – 2.19 µW, depending on its position.

In the real experiments, multiple Petri dishes will be exposed simultaneously. Extra simulations were done with 168 dishes, these indicate that more absorption will happen at the corners of the exposed system, compared to the Petri dishes in the middle.