Pranav Agarwal has developed a solar-powered device that aerates the surface of stagnant water in order to prevent mosquitos from laying their eggs and therefore from proliferating.
Mosquitos like to lay their eggs in stagnant or still water -- the females need the surface of the water to be still in order to deposit up to 400 eggs at a time and the larvae need to stay in contact with the surface of the water in order to breathe. The Solar Scare Mosquito aims to curb the spread of mosquito-carried diseases such as malaria and dengue by disrupting the insects' breeding grounds. It works by sitting on the surface of the water and generating air bubbles at regular intervals to produce ripples in a radius of up to two metres.
The device -- which Agarwal built for less than $10 (£6) -- features a bubble aerator, an air pump and a solar charger. It floats on the water and runs at regular intervals in order to disrupt the surface of the water and kill off mosquito larvae. In tests, the tool managed to reduce mosquito populations in a small pool to almost nothing within a week. Agarwal has outlined how to build the device in a blog post.
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