They come to garden parties in the twilight – unin­vited. They buzz around the guests, alight on their exposed skin and suck their blood. But soon mosqui­toes will have nothing to cele­brate; the unin­vited guests will be no more than an unpleasant memory, at least if Simon Lilla­mand and Pierre Bellagambi have their way. They are the managing direc­tors of the French company Qista.

Once a female mosquito is attracted to the device, another fan sucks it in and catches it in a net. (Photo | Qista)

“Both of us come from the south of France where there are lots and lots of mosqui­toes,” says Lilla­mand. “We wanted to declare war on them, but with an ecolog­ical solu­tion.” The chem­ical solu­tions often used, such as insec­ti­cides, sprays or lotions, also kill other insects and disturb the balance of nature. Since the natural enemies of mosqui­toes are dying out, there are often even more of the nasty crea­tures.

Breathes like a human

To keep that from happening, Qista’s managing direc­tors devel­oped a mosquito trap that attracts female mosqui­toes on their hunt for prey by simu­lating human breathing. Using an axial fan, the device emits carbon dioxide and a scent called octenol. Once a female mosquito is attracted to the device, another fan sucks it in and catches it in a net. In this way, the unit fights mosqui­toes within a distance of 60 meters, reducing the nuisance by 88 percent.

“Our customers set up the mosquito traps outdoors in places like their yards, at swim­ming pools or on the terrace of a restau­rant.”

Simon Lilla­mand, Managing Director, Qista

So far there are five versions for the French market, designed for private or public use. “Our customers set up the mosquito traps outdoors in places like their yards, at swim­ming pools or on the terrace of a restau­rant,” says Lilla­mand. But even without mosqui­toes, quiet and relax­ation were still not to be had in these places because the fans previ­ously used in the unit were too loud. So the two men asked ebm-papst in France for help. “The sales manager visited us in Aix-en-Provence and looked at our product and our produc­tion facil­i­ties,” says Lilla­mand. “Together we found axial fans that meet our tech­nical spec­i­fi­ca­tions for air flow and pres­sure and also work very quietly.”

Future goal: curbing disease

The device has been on the market in France since 2015. More coun­tries are slated to benefit from it in the future; Simon Lilla­mand and Pierre Bellagambi plan to sell it throughout the EU and, from 2021, also in the US and Canada. And the Qista managing direc­tors are also looking for dealers to sell the product on Euro­pean islands like La Réunion, where tiger mosqui­toes often spread dengue fever or chikun­gunya. “We would also like to work with aid orga­ni­za­tions in the future,” says Lilla­mand. “Then we could signif­i­cantly reduce the like­li­hood of falling ill in those regions.”