Producer’s Blog: Getting anti-mosquito tech from the lab to the field

The mosquito has been called the most dangerous animal on Earth because of the deadly diseases they transmit. Each year, these blood-eating pests threaten the lives of millions. Malaria alone kills over a million people a year, of which 70 percent are children under the age of five. And there have been few effective technological advancements developed to battle this problem, the latest being DEET, a chemical compound developed by the U.S. Army in the 1950s but later found to be toxic to some humans and livestock.  

One promising new technology on the horizon was developed by a team of scientists at the University of California at Riverside. They discovered a number of non-toxic food grade compounds that cloaked humans in an invisible chemical plume. You see, drawn to our carbon dioxide, mosquitoes identify their human targets through a highly sensitive olfactory system. Female mosquitoes then feast on our blood as a nutritious meal for their eggs. The discoveries at UC Riverside blocked those olfactory receptors from sensing our carbon dioxide trail.

ieCrowd, a Riverside-based company, licensed the technology, and the subsequent investment provided the necessary funding to perform extensive laboratory testing, thereby identifying the strongest of the many compounds. In a controlled lab environment, the compound performed impressively, actually hiding human skin from hungry mosquitoes. For commercial distribution, the company applies their compound to a small adhesive square known as the Kite Patch, which is then worn on clothing.

ieCrowd has moved the product from the laboratory phase into field testing in one of the most mosquito infested regions of the world—Uganda. There, they will perform over 6 million hours of testing on a population that desperately needs such a potentially lifesaving development. Depending on the effectiveness of this massive field test, ieCrowd plans to seek EPA approval and move to global distribution for the Kite Patch.

To learn more about ieCrowd and the Kite Patch's mosquito-blocking technology, watch "TechKnow," Sunday 7:30ET/4:30PT.