‘Farmer inventor’ makes traps to prevent mosquitoes from breeding

Mr. Khoe, 60 years old, did not finish 8th grade, but with a passion for invention, he invested time and effort for more than two years to create mosquito-catching equipment.

The idea originated in 2016, when he founded a company providing solar thermal drying solutions. When installing a drying system for customers, he realized that almost everywhere he faced mosquitoes, especially in the rainy season. Solutions using electric rackets, anti-mosquito incense or chemicals “are more or less unsafe, causing side effects for people susceptible to allergies such as the elderly and children”, he thought. In 2022, while opening the fan to clean, he discovered many mosquitoes flying from the cooling water tank. Removing the fan water container, he saw many larvae swimming in it. “I thought about making mosquito-catching tools from this discovery,” Mr. Khoe said.

Without professional knowledge, Mr. Khoe went online to learn about the biological behavior of mosquitoes. He realized that currently available solutions can only destroy adult mosquitoes, while their reproduction and population growth have not been taken care of or completely prevented. Realizing that mosquitoes have the ability to reproduce and lay eggs in stagnant water and dark places, he created a device to catch mosquitoes by preventing them from increasing in number through laying eggs.

He designed a cylindrical mosquito trap, made of 3D printed plastic. The product consists of two main parts: a place for mother mosquitoes to lay eggs and an area to contain larvae after hatching. When users pour water into the trap, the water will attract mother mosquitoes to lay eggs. The egg-laying area has a funnel-shaped structure with a gap at the bottom. In 3 – 4 weeks, the eggs will hatch into larvae and they will follow the opening to the storage area. Because there is no food and cannot escape because the entire area is sealed, the larvae will die after a few days, the body will fall to the bottom of the jar. When the mosquito trap has a lot of residue at the bottom, the user will clean it and pour water for further use. “The characteristic of mosquitoes is that they like to lay eggs in clean water, so this product is very suitable for catching mosquitoes,” Mr. Khoe said.

During the manufacturing process, he said designing the gap for the larvae to swim down to the storage area was the most difficult. The gap is not too small for larvae to squeeze through, but not too large for them to swim back to the egg-laying area. For about 6 months, he tested many gap sizes to find the optimal width. For the plastic frame, he ordered 3D printing to save costs when adjusting technical specifications. Actual testing shows that, after about 3 months, the device can catch 50 – 70 larvae and hundreds of eggs.

The 60-year-old inventor said he would give the product to each family to use for 1-3 months to evaluate. When donating the product, he will survey the location and surrounding environment and advise on the appropriate location to place the trap to achieve the highest efficiency. He plans to sell the product for 100,000 VND to serve people. “The government has repeatedly propagated that there is no mosquito larvae and no dengue fever. My product can contribute to achieving this goal,” Mr. Khoe said. Mr. Khoy’s mosquito trap product was granted a useful solution certificate by the Intellectual Property Office in early 2023.

Telling the story of quitting school when he was in 8th grade, he said, it was “a somewhat rash decision”. At that time, his academic performance was quite good. That school year, he got sick and had to go to the hospital for two weeks. When he was discharged from the hospital, he returned to school and had to receive a 2 from the teacher when he could not answer the lesson. He was so embarrassed and sad that he decided to quit school and work in many fields of business. “When I was born, I taught myself to survive and told myself to study more to make up for the time I missed school,” Mr. Khoe said.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khanh, 40 years old, residing in Binh Chanh district, assessed that the product priced at 100,000 VND is very affordable for people. When used for a long time, it can be cleaned and reused, safe for humans and the environment compared to traditional methods of killing mosquitoes.

Master Tran Phi Hung, parasite and insect expert, former lecturer at the Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Sciences, said that the mosquito trap the author is aiming for is the species that transmits dengue fever. blood for people. Dengue mosquitoes have the characteristic of being active during the day, preferring to lay eggs in small containers, in shade and darkness, consistent with the solution given by the author.

However, Mr. Hung said that in places with high density, it only takes one to two days for them to lay many eggs in containers with the above characteristics, not just in trap locations.

According to Mr. Hung, the author needs additional solutions to attract mosquitoes to lay eggs in his trap. “There needs to be a comparison of the author’s mosquito-catching container with other containers to better understand its effectiveness,” he said. Each species of mosquito will have different egg-laying habits. There are species of mosquitoes that lay eggs in still water, slow-moving water or fast-flowing water. There are species that like to breed in clean water, but there are also species that breed in dirty water, shady containers… Depending on the characteristics of each species, there can be a suitable trap method.

Experts say that in addition to this method, you can use light mosquito traps to attract them at night. Natural methods of trapping mosquitoes are usually safe, but Master Hung believes that for mosquitoes in particular or harmful insects in general, chemical eradication methods are considered the fastest and cheapest. However, using chemicals will have effects on nature and humans, so they need to be used in reasonable doses.