A cause des mosquitoes, this summer, some tourists had to cut short their holidays on the shores of the Mediterranean. In certain regions of France, the infestation still continues today, despite the mosquito eradications sometimes put in place. A nuisance that pushed a couple of the Toulouse conurbation to look for all the unimaginable and possible solutions to get rid of these obstacles to living outside.
Finding that the prices of mosquito traps on the market were far from accessible to all budgets, Marie Salomon and Emmanuel Liais decided to create their own device, christened LAMI, the intelligent mosquito repellent. At first, they thought of renting these terminals of a new kind. Finally, they took another option: share their manufacturing instructions in open data. Or, for those who do not have the soul of a handyman, offer it for sale at a reasonable price of 379 euros.
“We put ourselves in the shoes of Mr. and Mrs. Everybody and we developed our own terminal, the least expensive and the lightest possible. We have developed a gel that will develop CO2 and that you can make in your kitchen, which means you don’t have a CO2 canister, which imitates human breathing. One of the added values is the power supply to the terminal thanks to a solar panel. It allows the terminal to be moved anywhere and, as it can be unclipped, it can be moved anywhere without changing the location of the terminal,” explains Marie Salomon, who works in the pharmaceutical sector.
600 people downloaded their leaflet
It was her spouse, an engineer by trade, who developed the device, using recycled products to manufacture it, such as the aquarium pipe used to connect the container where the CO2 gel is located. Their technology is therefore autonomous, ecological, design, and above all democratic, because it is accessible to everyone in “Do It Yourself” mode.
Since their launch this summer, more than 600 people have downloaded their instructions for free. Like Jérôme Regny, who lives not far from Saint-Etienne. For several years, it has been invaded by mosquitoes. After pruning his land, redoing his gutter gutters, he invested some time ago 400 euros in a terminal.
Nothing worked. So, when he heard regarding the LAMI device on social networks, he decided to take out his tools to make it himself. “I didn’t want to pay 400 euros once more. And what is interesting in their system is the solar panel that will allow me to put it everywhere on my land. Their instructions are not complicated and well detailed, for the moment I have bought a few parts for 140 euros and I use recycled materials, ”explains this handyman.
Also experienced in Cameroon
On average, it takes a long day to make it. For the time being, a few individuals not versed in in-house manufacturing have placed their pre-order with the structure created by the young couple from Salvetat-Saint-Gilles (Haute-Garonne), a village where an autochthonous case of dengue was recorded earlier this month.
“The proliferation of mosquitoes is still a public health problem. We believe that the more households there are equipped, the more the nuisances will decrease”, recalls Marie Salomon, happy that the FabLab Low-Tech in Yaoundé, Cameroon, has started working on their mosquito trap thanks to their construction plan. released for free. There, mosquitoes are a vector for malaria, which kills many people every year. Thanks to the collection of electronic waste, these Cameroonian “makers” intend to replicate the terminal in several copies to make it an effective tool in the fight once morest this scourge.
