DIY mosquito killing device

A useful mosquito killing device by Johannes Vogl.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: Gadgets

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

BijouxBoy

All good with me. Proceed!
Anonymous

There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded mosquito.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcACaW9vwg4&feature=related
Anonymous

I dunno, IMO you can never beat the old fashioned elephant gun…
Anonymous

I use a 2 component version (lighter and spray bottle) of this to get rid of wasp nests. One quick flame will burn their wings, and you can safely access and destroy the nest (don’t try burning the whole nest as you may set your place on fire!).
WalterBillington

Will this be allowed on aircraft under the new TSA rules?
TokenFrenchDude

Well that doesn’t look safe at all.
jessemoya

Hm. A handheld flamethrower in bed? What could go wrong!
- Shelby Davis
  
  Ah, but if combined with that under-the-bed gunrack featured on BB a few weeks ago? Genius.
Kerov

Darwin Award material.

Bonus points if you can use it to rocket-propel the bed into the sheer face off a cliff two miles away.
Anonymous

love the from-bed application shown above. I believe that flames and mattresses have traditionally not been friends.
MrScience

So similar to my own solution to the Fruit Fly Menace of ’09! I tried everything, getting rid of any food stuffs, the “humane cone method” that had worked before, various bait for the traps… but they all kept coming. I’ve seen them before, but this time there were hundreds (no hyperbole).

We had a Costco-sized bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol, so I had the bright idea of spraying half of it onto all kitchen surfaces; the vapors were overpowering to the point where I had to stop and vacate to the next floor of the house, and it turns out the little buggers can survive on alcohol vapor (though I just found this fascinating paper from 1935, which reveals I just needed to saturate the kitchen with alcohol vapors for ‘only’ 20 minutes).

In the end, I grabbed a wind-resistant candle lighter and went to town, spraying jets of flame on any cluster I could find. Not only have they vanished (it appears that, among the survivors, none wish to congregate for long), but it was amazingly satisfying. Except for the cleanup of the hundreds of burnt, fragile corpses. O-o

Oh, and the wife did find out that I had discovered the flamability index of her window plants. Between you and me, though, I think they were a source of cool moisture and humidity. So it was probably for the best.
- Anonymous
  
  @ MrScience: What isn’t more satisfying than burning buzzing insects out of your domicile? The Darwin Award is given to those not intelligent enough to keep the flames away from curtains. I am going to make one of these. Better living through pyrotechnics, that is my motto.
- Anonymous
  
  hehe cool read, esp the articles o.O
randalll

At least there’s an arm to it, so you’re not holding the can when it blows up.
lifesart

Put the gun down, put the gun down!
davide405

Video! I want video of this device in action!
zyodei

It’s cool, but I’m not sure it’s quite as much fun as this:

http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/116842/1447754/0/1246593447/Electronic_Mosquito_Bat_CE_RoHS_certified.jpg

Just the loud *CRACK*, the sparks that shoot out of their legs, idea of nonchalantly electrocuting the little buggers to death..maybe not quite as elegant, but at least as much fun :)
Anonymous

The DIY Mosquito Killing device creates an opportunity to market fire retardant sprays. Users of the device need to coat the curtains and other flammable materials in the vicinity with a flame retardant. Hahaha….
Anonymous

how do i make one, can someone post instructions? I just need help on the lighter trigger part
Jonathan

The pillow leaning against the space heater really fits the theme.
stosh machek

mosquito -over-killing device is more like it
Anonymous

Burning unknown aerosols and their propellants – then going back to sleep – what could go wrong with that toxic nightmare.
Anonymous

Used a can of WD 40 and a lighter for Texas cockroaches. Very effective, but left big soot blooms on the kitchen cabinets. After a while, the visual effect was pleasing.
Felton

And if that doesn’t work, he could hang a bug zapper in a place where they’re likely to breed – say, over the tub. No problem.
Felton

Kidding aside, the device could be pretty useful in the hands of someone with a survival instinct.
apoxia

I’ll stick with my automatic pyrethrum sprayer. If that device entered my house, my partner would have the house burnt down in under 20 minutes.
redhawk2007

Hey, I could use that thing to get the squirrels out of my attic!

(And to think I was ready to use an assault rifle).
Anonymous

OMFG can you imagine the carbon footprint of that thing?

What a perfect and stylish way to burn a hole in the ozone layer.
- Chris Tucker
  
  Yes, I can imagine the carbon footprint of this thing.
  
  About equal to one milisecond operation of a jet engine on a passenger jet.
  
  Two, maybe three cigarettes and the matches/cheap butane lighter used to light them.
  
  The total to and from exhaust of the car delivering a Domino’s pizza.
  
  1% of 1% of the total energy used to put a can of PBR in a hipster’s hand at a bar in Allston (a neighborhood overrun with hipsters in Boston.)
  
  1% of 1% of 1% of the oil burned to bring the stupid little hat on said hipster’s head all the way from China to the local Urban Outfitter’s.
  
  Any more imagining you’d like done, Anonymous?
  
  Rates on request!
erzatsen

i fail to see how this device “catches” mosquitos. unless the -fÃ¤nger in the name (artist’s page) was used to mean “hunter”? or would that have been jaeger?
or does it mean “catches them on fire” perhaps?

and by that, i suppose it could be a curtain catcher, or a bedsheet catcher, or a wavy black hair catcher, too.

and, tut tut, no instructable.
(sure, i could probably figure it out from the picture, but the artist probably worked a few kinks out on his own that i don’t need to repeat)
- grimc
  
  They’re pretty easy to catch when they’re dead.
Anonymous

get rid of mosquitos by following this serious mosquito “killing” tutorial:
http://izobrazba.naspletu.com/mosquito/index.html

one of these days we ll be friends
Anonymous

Nice. When I was working in a burn unit (I am an ICU doc), the saying was that the amount of body surface area burned is inversely proportional to the victim’s IQ… This guy is headed for a 90% burn, I’d say.
Walt Guyll

As mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide the fun never stops.
Anonymous

if he was a master he would use chopsticks !
AirPillo

Flame is a timid solution.

There is no problem that cannot be solved with a suitable application of explosives.
ackpht

A remarkable woman I knew ages ago used a CO2 pellet gun -sans pellets- to blow the wings off of flies. She did this with a cool focus that was a bit unsettling.

She also taught me how to mix cement, and how to string wires in drift chambers. I miss her.
- Anonymous
  
  I knew that girl! She moved to the Isles of Langerhans to become a scribe.
Anonymous

What a great cigar lighter too.