A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

This is great to see but also reveals some failures around patents: Intellectual Ventures patented the idea a couple decades ago, did a TED Talk, decided it wasn’t as cost-effective for malaria prevention as bednets and apparently sat on it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123680870885500701

I wanted to buy one back then and still do, and it always seemed short-sighted that they didn’t sell them here for quality of life improvements and use that to get volume and R&D to drive down the cost to use them in public health campaigns. It feels like we lost a lot by not having patents be a “use, license, or lose it” situatio

It would be much better for all if the mosquito saliva vaccine would just come out already. It causes the immune system to blindly attack everything they carry, and stops nearly all of it. I've read that as a fun side effect it causes mosquito bites to not itch. If the diseases and itching go away, mosquitoes can stick around as food for other critters as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone who is bothered by mosquitos should look into how to build a “bucket of doom”.

Basically you deliberately create the best mosquito breeding habitat in your yard (stagnant water), then spike it with a a bacterial larvicide to kill the larvae at the source.

Since mosquitoes don’t travel long distances, you end up creating a small mosquito free zone around your trap where they were never able to breed. It’s extremely effective

I’d love this for house flies.

Related:

China’s AI-powered laser mosquito zapper goes viral after crowdfunding success - https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3358508/c... - June 27th, 2026

(Photo Matrix Lab is building a device based off of the concept previously patented by Intellectual Ventures)

This bug-zapper has laser-guided precision - https://www.wired.com/story/intellectual-ventures-bug-zapper... - June 23rd, 2017