Reducing Pressure on our Eco-system
Being eco-friendly is important but we don’t have to tell you that our eco-system is under enormous pressure from us human beings. A report from 2009 estimates that we use a total of 5.6 billion pounds (2.8 billion kg) of pesticides per year worldwide and most of these pesticides are used in agriculture. But also mosquito control companies make use of pesticides, mainly in the form of ‘misting’ and ‘spraying’. They are therefore not always eco-friendly. One problem of these methods is an increase in resistance against the pesticides used, resulting in increasingly heavier doses needed to reach the desired effect.
As Biogents we wanted to make a difference and the objective was to develop and engineer a mosquito trap without toxins and simultaneously a trap that would not eliminate an entire species. This objective was reached with our unique and patented “counter-flow-principle” which you kind find in all of our mosquito traps. Here you can read how our traps work.
Outdoors
Relatively new is the idea to catch mosquitoes outdoors, before they enter your accommodation. By placing our traps close to breeding sites and running the traps 24/7, the best results are accomplished. The outdoors is unlike your (bed)room and it will take some time before mosquito populations get reduced.
It is the combination of the unique design and specific attractants that make our traps so effective against mosquitoes but don’t target other useful insects like butterflies, dragonflies, houseflies and lady bugs. In case you do find one of these insects in your trap, it means that by mistake they flew too close to the intake funnel and unintentionally got sucked in. Purposely we have not added any UV-lights to our traps. UV-lights attract not only mosquitoes but also any other kind of useful pollinating insects.
Dehydration
The mosquitoes that are caught by our traps die of dehydration. Therefore they could be used as fish food or simply be composted. Because dead mosquitoes have not been exposed to insecticides there is no harm for humans, animals or the environment. Our attractants that enter the environment are per day similar to those of a average person while resting. Being more eco-friendly than this is extremely difficult.
So how eco-friendly is the use of CO2 in our traps?
Agreed, we people should reduce the emission of CO2. But when we take a closer look at our traps and the CO2 usage we can draw the following conclusions:
– The amount of CO2 used per 24 hours is less than the exhaling of an adult in the same time span (about 700gr/24 hours). Under bad mosquito conditions we advice 500gr/24 hours of CO2 usage. Once the mosquito populations go down this can be reduced to about 200gr/24 hours. These emissions are extremely low.
– The CO2 you buy in cylinders is always a by-product from the petrochemical industry or the gas industry and is as such climate neutral.
– The CO2 we use is the same CO2 used in the food and beverage industry. So if you are really worried about the CO2 in our traps you can drink a few draft beers less!
The fans that power our traps have a very low electricity usage as the fans are only 4 Watt. This can be compared to the electricity consumption of your sound system in standby-mode.