My roommate and I are still working on Tornyol, our mosquito killing drone! It uses ultrasonic sonar to detect mosquitoes, and missile control theory to ram into mosquitoes and grind them in its propellers.

Our target platform is a 40 grams tinywhoop so it’s safe to fly everywhere and makes almost no noise :). A Roomba for mosquitoes!

The main plus compared to traditional systems is that a drone can cover an enormous surface in a short time compared to static systems or man-portable insecticide spraying. Our goal is to be competitive with ITNs against Malaria.

Some links :

https://hackaday.com/2025/03/25/supercon-2024-killing-mosqui...

https://manifund.org/projects/build-anti-mosqu

Please make sure it is specific to mosquitos and does not attack other insects.

Insect populations worldwide are experiencing significant declines in both abundance and diversity, with several studies reporting reductions ranging from 40% to 75% over recent decades. Estimates suggest that 5%–10% of all insect species have disappeared in the last 150 years, and some global meta-analyses indicate terrestrial insect populations are declining by close to 9% per decade.

Ha so cool, would love one for in my bedroom ;-)

I know of a Dutch company doing something similar. Focusses on pest detecting/mitigation in greenhouses atm: https://www.pats-drones.com/

Hadn't seen this before, this is awesome! I lived in Cameroon and Kenya briefly doing some consulting work and mosquitos still wreak havoc across the continent (and now living in DC I wouldn't mind having one of these in the summer for my place). I'm curious if you're also thinking about defense applications -- I would imagine that a super low cost drone that could help take out a shahed or other Russian drone that are wreaking havoc on Ukraine would be quite valuable

Holy wow, if this works well, I’d like to order a dozen!

Very cool idea. What is your estimated price? This could work well in many African countries if the price is low.

Props to you for not using a UV light to attract moths and calling it a mosquito killer.

No to discourage you ,but how do you handle a real world cluttered room where mosquito's will be able to shelter in the clutter, under table, drawers etc.

This is an interesting idea. One thing that might help targeting is to have some sort of chemical that attracts the mosquitoes. In that way you can bring your target to you.

I guess you already researched this topic: would laser turret work for killing mosquitos? And if no, why not? Seems more reliable.

I watched your talk, very interesting! Super inventive idea, I hope it works out.

Is the name a word play with "torgnole" at all, or does it mean something?

Very interesting idea! I wonder if a political campaign one day will be to start a program that eradicates mosquitos via drone fleets, not just in the context of malaria protection but also in just nuisance reduction. There are similar programs in place in certain metro areas that already do mosquito control (using chemicals of varying toxicity), so it's not as wild of an idea as it probably sounds.

My friend once came up with a joke idea for a solar powered ransomware drone that would fly to a random roof and jam wifi signal until someone paid it to leave.

Super interesting project! What stage are you at currently? What are the main open challenges that you are facing?

Super cool. I made myself laugh thinking it would ram into someone's nose while they are snoring at night.

You built what I ofte. imagined should exist (for flies).

Sounds cool but doesn't that send mosquito bits flying in all directions?

Any problems with the blades getting dirty?

Arm it with salt or sand munitions.

The missile knows where it is...

please make something for miggie's - there are currently no specialised products for this baddie

There's an awful lot of complex navigation, signal processing and trigonometry required here, good luck.

What's the fidelity of the sonar in detection of flying mosquitoes?

This is incredible. What is the background you needed to even have intuition on how to build something like this?

How does this compare in reducing mosquito populations over something braindead like putting some yard waste and water in a bucket for a few days and either adding mosquito dunks or pouring the larvae out?

Or is this more like a stand-in for bug spray/smoke?

Duuuude! Give me this. Please. We have these mosquito bats/racquets that I've to use every day in a futile attempt to keep my family safe. I need something like what you're building. I looked up even laser mosquito killers.

Surface level thinking, ecological disaster in the making. Birds and bats and other bugs eat mosquitoes to live. Killing all the mosquitoes is like the Chinese killing all the sparrows. We do not understand, and we do not want to understand, the deep consequences of our actions.

People who think we can reengineer and shape ecology by eliminating key species are here on the dunning Kruger curve.

Better option, if you really want to fight malaria go fight that directly, leave mosquitoes out of it.