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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/BillGoats on 2026-06-02 11:59:55+00:00.
Summer is coming in Northern Norway, and with it a whole lot of mosquitos on certain days.
A few days ago while I was outside and cursing at them, I started wondering what about the current conditions made them so abundant. And then I realized I could probably set up some kind of "mosquito index" to determine when to bring a mosquito repellant when leaving the house.
After some discussion (and stern corrections) with Claude, it was determined that the behavior of Aedes communis is determined by
- Temperature
- Wind speed
- Illuminance
- Time of day
- Hours since last rain
- Season (obviously, but stops complex calculations when they're unnecessary)
I specifically asked Claude to look into the science and determine what factors affect their behavior and how, etc. Eventually, I ended up with a sensor that gives a 0-100 percentage of how ideal current conditions are for the mosquitos we have here.
So far it's been pretty good - but I've realized that the mosquitos we have around here don't really ~~fuck off~~ except when it's windy. So the index isn't as useful as I had hoped, but it was fun to set up and it'll be fun to see how it compares to lived experience.
So - what are some weird and/or unique sensors you've set up for yourself? I'm particularly interested in stuff that can be estimated based on sensors that are typically used differently.