Product Promises New Age of Mosquito Prevention
With summer comes heat as well as those pesky insects but the new Kite Patch can fix one of those problems. Kite Patch is a square you stick on your clothing or bag to make you practically invisible to mosquitoes.
According to the product's Chief Scientist Michele Brown, the patch uses non-toxic compounds to block a mosquito's ability to find people through carbon dioxide.
Mosquitoes use the CO2 in a human's breath to track and feed on them. The Kite Patch found a non-toxic way to block this particular ability of the insect; counteracting nature with natural ingredients rather than harsh sprays.
Olfactor Laboratories and the University of California at Riverside paired up to create this unique technology with help from benefactors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The patch is designed to be durable and affordable everywhere and it is certainly more convenient than using bug spray. "The patch is made of materials that are both flexible enough and lightweight," Grey Frandsen, co-founder of Kite, told ABC News, "in addition to being able to contain the active ingredients."
As a bonus, Kite Patch is a product with a cause: To prevent the spread of diseases like Malaria and West Nile through insects such as mosquitoes. Plans are even in the works to create more products similar to Kite Patch.
The Indiegogo campaign associated with Kite Patch has raised twice their original goal of $75,000 to send as many patches as they can to Uganda, where malaria rates are over 60 percent.
"Our mission is to transform innovations into solutions for global challenges and we believe the best way to do that is to make sure our products will meet the needs of people most in need… it's part of the company's DNA," Frandsen said.
The Kite Patch is awaiting regulatory approval but is expected to distribute worldwide around 14 months from now.