Insecticide sprays offer only short-term benefit against mosquitos
Many common means of combating malaria have proven difficult to promote: mosquito nets are unpopular, due to the fact that they make hot nights even more unbearable; insecticidal sprays can be expensive and only provide a temporary benefit. It is also incredibly difficult to organize large-scale projects twice a year to spray entire villages. Locals often complain of the smell and resist future spraying projects.
Solution: Embed mosquito repellents into housepaint
With the help of chemical giants like BASF, Bayer, and Dow, Inesfly has developed a micro-encapsulation process that embeds insecticides into colorful housepaint. In addition to bringing a splash of color to otherwise drab corrugated metal, the paint slowly releases its repellent over the course of two to four years, keeping mosquitos and other disease-carrying insects at bay. The paint has been deemed safe for humans in independently-conducted tests, and was originally tested against Chagas Disease-carrying bedbugs in Bolivia. Inesfly recently received approval to construct a manufacturing plant in Ghana that will employ 500 workers and produce enough paint to supply homes in 15 countries, including Spain and Germany.
“We spend all this time talking about medicines and diseases when the primary problem for half the planet is that their homes are sick,” says Inesfly founder, Pilar Mateo.
Get Involved
- Do work in an area affected by insect-born diseases? Contact Inesfly
- Share this idea
Read More
- BusinessWeek | A house paint reduces bug-born diseases
- World Health Organization | A guide to house spraying with residual insecticides
- Mother Nature Network | A splash of disease-busting color: Chemist develops insecticidal house paint
- Bolivia’s Extra | Un brochazo de esperanza contra el chaga
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