Ever sat in your backyard and wondered why your 10 citronella candles and 100% deet spray seem to be doing SFA to keep away the mozzies?
Well, according to French scientist Simon Lillamand, the answer is simple: You’re doing it wrong.
Lillamand’s bio-tech company, Quista, has launched a device called the SmartBAM – essentially, a connected mosquito trap that mimics the carbon dioxide breathing thing us humans do (which also happens to attract mozzies).
The SmartBAM lures them in and traps them in its elaborate enclosure where they die a slow and deserved death.
Astoundingly, Quista claims the SmartBAM lowers mosquito levels at your home by 88 per cent.
“Repelling mosquitoes is a redundant exercise,” Lillamand said.
“A single mosquito may lay 200 eggs every 48 hours, so they have massive colonization potential.”
“Many are also resistant to the pesticides commonly used to repel them.”
The SmartBAM, meanwhile, aims to trap the little bastards and prevent them from laying further eggs, thus cutting off the reproductive cycle that renders many Aussie backyards uninhabitable through summer.
The connected aspect of the device is even more impressive.
The SmartBAM connects to a proprietary app that uses GPS to help you locate the best position in your garden to place the trap. Essentially, you use the app to log key data about your backyard and the environmental conditions. That data is sent back to Qista HQ where a real life lab-coat-wearing biologist interprets it and sends instruction back to the app.
The app can alert and inform you about the amount of mosquitoes caught, when to expect more mosquito activity than usual (eg. post rain… it tracks the local weather) and can tell you about the different species likely to be poking miniscule holes in your skin while you’re trying to eat your BBQ dinner.
Priced at $1,000 USD, cheap it ain’t. But if you really want to say Asta La Vista to the most annoying insect in the world, the SmartBAM might just be for you.
[ces18]
