EAST GREENWICH, R.I. -- Bruce Wigton was swatting mosquitoes during a fishing trip in 1990 when he began to plot his revenge against the bloodsucking bugs.
Nine years later, Wigton has come up with the Mosquito Magnet, a device that lures mosquitoes to what they think is a hemoglobin snack, but instead sucks them into a bag where they die.American Biophysics, which has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in developing the product, is selling the Mosquito Magnet to resorts in Florida and the Caribbean.
The next step is completing the design of a smaller, cheaper unit that "the average person can get into his back yard," said Wigton, chairman and director of research and development at the East Greenwich-based company.
Mosquitoes may be the most despised insect on earth. Not just an annoyance to anglers who enjoy the outdoors, they can be deadly. Around the world, more than a million deaths a year are attributed to malaria, which is transmitted by mosquito bite, says the World Health Organization.
The main weapons against mosquitoes are pesticides. Others have used electric bug zappers, but with little effect.
Zappers have declined in popularity over the years as researchers have pronounced them useless for controlling mosquitoes. Instead, they fry moths and other benign bugs.
Pesticides and bug sprays are more effective, but some question their long-term health effects to humans.
Enter the Mosquito Magnet, which Wigton says only harms nasty, bloodsucking bugs.
The Mosquito Magnet is fueled by a propane tank like those attached to a gas grill. A patented device in the Mosquito Magnet creates a catalytic reaction -- essentially combustion without a flame -- that converts the propane into carbon dioxide and warm water vapor in proportions similar to those in human breath.
This process generates a small electrical charge that powers the machine's fan, which blows out the carbon dioxide, and its vacuum.
As the gasses waft out, female mosquitoes (males do not bite) are duped into thinking they are in the vicinity of human blood.
A tiny vacuum siphons mosquitoes into a bag, where they die. As the egg-laying females are cleaned from an area, the population drops, says Raymond Iannetta, president and chief executive officer of American Biophysics.
So far, the company has produced only large, industrial-strength units -- which sell for $1,295. They have gotten accolades for killing not just mosquitoes, but also sand flies -- called no-see-ums because they're too small to see.
Smaller backyard models are to hit the market in late summer, with a price tag of about $495.
Robert Morgan, chairman of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Fla., has bought several machines and ordered more for friends and neighbors.
In the first month and a half, Morgan said he had collected a bag with more than a million of the tiny bugs.
American Biophysics had sales of about $225,000 in 1998 and hopes to generate revenues of about $8 million this year, said Iannetta, who ran and sold several startups before joining the company in July.
American Biophysics has a lot riding on the success of the Mosquito Magnet. But Iannetta has motives other than profit.
"I hate mosquitoes," he said. "Kill them all."