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| Die mozzies DIE! The Ovillanta mixes old fashioned common sense with new chemistry to lure female mosquitoes to lay their eggs in one place for easy destruction. |
Researchers with the Grand Challenges Canada initiative have
combined mosquitoes’ love for old car tyres and their own chemical expertise to
design a highly-effective trap using two halves of an old tyre.
The rubber is ‘significantly more effective’ at attracting
mosquitos than plastic bottles or buckets. They call the trap the ovillanta, and
use the mosquitoes’ habit to release pheromones in water containing mozzi eggs
against the insects. Users mix water and a milk-based non-toxic solution,
developed at Sudbury’s Laurentian University to attract mosquitoes, and place
the mix in the trap with a twig or piece of paper for the female to lay the eggs
on. Ovillanta owners burn these once a week, but re-use the water, as more
pheremones attract more mozzies to make the trap increasingly effective.
