{"id":2047723,"date":"2026-07-15T14:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047723"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:41:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:41:22","slug":"new-startup-is-building-mini-drones-to-wage-a-war-of-total-destruction-on-mosquitos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047723","title":{"rendered":"New Startup Is Building Mini Drones to Wage a War of Total Destruction on Mosquitos"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Tornyol-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Human beings have long been at war with mosquitos, and it\u2019s not at all clear we\u2019ve been winning. <\/span><\/p>\n

Malaria alone\u2014just one of many deadly mosquito-borne illnesses\u2014kills <\/span>over 600,000 people<\/span> every year, most of them very young children. Until now, all we\u2019ve had were short-term solutions, like public inoculations, insecticides, traps, and (usually futile) hand-swatting. But a French tech startup called Tornyol is saying enough is enough: Let\u2019s turn this never-ending war of attrition into a full-blown, mechanized campaign to eradicate our winged foes from the face of the Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Founded last year and backed by Y Combinator, the company has built a tiny\u2014weighing in at just forty grams\u2014drone that uses ultrasonic sonar to autonomously locate and track mosquitoes\u2019 unique wingbeat frequency. They\u2019re able to do this in such a way that they can distinguish mosquitoes from non-harmful insects, such as bees, according to the company\u2019s website. Once they\u2019ve locked onto the target like a heat-seeking missile, they swoop in and obliterate the mosquito in one of their four tiny propellers. The micro-drones can patrol an area of up to five acres, Tornyol claims, and fly for up to three minutes at a time before automatically returning to a charging station.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

First we zip ping pong balls, then butterflies and we’ll end with mosquitoes pic.twitter.com\/Oi4H40z7Uv<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Toussaint (@alextoussss) June 17, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The company\u2019s online \u201cmanifesto\u201d reads like a slide from a VC pitch deck assembled by the Angel of Insectoid Death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBecause these drones are so small, inexpensive and yet very fast, we\u2019ll be capable of killing mosquitoes at an unprecedented scale and cost,\u201d the company writes, adding that the ultimate goal is to go after the unborn children of full-grown mosquitoes. \u201cIn the end, we\u2019ll have a very high-definition map of the mosquito breeding cycle. We\u2019ll know where mosquitoes get blood, where they go to hatch eggs, and where they take nectar. That data will let us be even more effective, focusing our action where it\u2019s needed most. Factoring that in, we believe we\u2019ll be able to completely eradicate mosquitoes from areas where humans live.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Tuesday, the company\u2019s CEO, Alex Toussaint, posted a video on X showing what he describes as the company\u2019s first successful \u201cair-to-air kill.\u201d A drone is shown hovering in the corner of an enclosed space, while Toussaint releases a moth nearby, then runs for cover. The drone immediately zips over to the hapless moth and chases it down in a fun-sized dogfight. Then the moth simply\u2026 explodes, reduced to a cloud of powdered wing material, amid triumphant shouts from the humans offscreen.<\/span><\/p>\n

For most people, this is a use of AI they could actually support. It\u2019s worth remembering, however, that humanity also has an abysmal track record when it comes to imposing our will over nature; when we try to eliminate some kind of pest, ecosystems tend to bite us back in ways that are difficult, if not impossible to predict. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, otherwise known as DDT, is an infamous example. The synthetic insecticide was widely used throughout the 1940s, with tremendous efficacy; it was widely believed at the time to be a huge boon for agriculture. In the ensuing decades, it was revealed that it also had some devastating side effects, including poisoning bird populations that fed on the targeted insects. It was banned in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, the eradication of mosquitoes\u2014even if it\u2019s carried out without the use of toxic chemicals\u2014could result in some harmful downstream ecological impacts. They\u2019re an important part of the diet of other species, such as mosquitofish and some lizards, which means those animals would need to search elsewhere to balance out their food supply, or starve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tornyol\u2019s approach for the time being seems to be: Kill mosquitoes now, worry about any possible ecological disequilibrium later.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

READ MORE: Study Finds Lakes Are Still Filled With DDT 50 Years After It Was Banned<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

Human beings have long been at war with mosquitos, and it\u2019s not at all clear we\u2019ve been winning. <\/span><\/p>\n

Malaria alone\u2014just one of many deadly mosquito-borne illnesses\u2014kills <\/span>over 600,000 people<\/span> every year, most of them very young children. Until now, all we\u2019ve had were short-term solutions, like public inoculations, insecticides, traps, and (usually futile) hand-swatting. But a French tech startup called Tornyol is saying enough is enough: Let\u2019s turn this never-ending war of attrition into a full-blown, mechanized campaign to eradicate our winged foes from the face of the Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Founded last year and backed by Y Combinator, the company has built a tiny\u2014weighing in at just forty grams\u2014drone that uses ultrasonic sonar to autonomously locate and track mosquitoes\u2019 unique wingbeat frequency. They\u2019re able to do this in such a way that they can distinguish mosquitoes from non-harmful insects, such as bees, according to the company\u2019s website. Once they\u2019ve locked onto the target like a heat-seeking missile, they swoop in and obliterate the mosquito in one of their four tiny propellers. The micro-drones can patrol an area of up to five acres, Tornyol claims, and fly for up to three minutes at a time before automatically returning to a charging station.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

First we zip ping pong balls, then butterflies and we’ll end with mosquitoes pic.twitter.com\/Oi4H40z7Uv<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Toussaint (@alextoussss) June 17, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The company\u2019s online \u201cmanifesto\u201d reads like a slide from a VC pitch deck assembled by the Angel of Insectoid Death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBecause these drones are so small, inexpensive and yet very fast, we\u2019ll be capable of killing mosquitoes at an unprecedented scale and cost,\u201d the company writes, adding that the ultimate goal is to go after the unborn children of full-grown mosquitoes. \u201cIn the end, we\u2019ll have a very high-definition map of the mosquito breeding cycle. We\u2019ll know where mosquitoes get blood, where they go to hatch eggs, and where they take nectar. That data will let us be even more effective, focusing our action where it\u2019s needed most. Factoring that in, we believe we\u2019ll be able to completely eradicate mosquitoes from areas where humans live.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Tuesday, the company\u2019s CEO, Alex Toussaint, posted a video on X showing what he describes as the company\u2019s first successful \u201cair-to-air kill.\u201d A drone is shown hovering in the corner of an enclosed space, while Toussaint releases a moth nearby, then runs for cover. The drone immediately zips over to the hapless moth and chases it down in a fun-sized dogfight. Then the moth simply\u2026 explodes, reduced to a cloud of powdered wing material, amid triumphant shouts from the humans offscreen.<\/span><\/p>\n

For most people, this is a use of AI they could actually support. It\u2019s worth remembering, however, that humanity also has an abysmal track record when it comes to imposing our will over nature; when we try to eliminate some kind of pest, ecosystems tend to bite us back in ways that are difficult, if not impossible to predict. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, otherwise known as DDT, is an infamous example. The synthetic insecticide was widely used throughout the 1940s, with tremendous efficacy; it was widely believed at the time to be a huge boon for agriculture. In the ensuing decades, it was revealed that it also had some devastating side effects, including poisoning bird populations that fed on the targeted insects. It was banned in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, the eradication of mosquitoes\u2014even if it\u2019s carried out without the use of toxic chemicals\u2014could result in some harmful downstream ecological impacts. They\u2019re an important part of the diet of other species, such as mosquitofish and some lizards, which means those animals would need to search elsewhere to balance out their food supply, or starve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tornyol\u2019s approach for the time being seems to be: Kill mosquitoes now, worry about any possible ecological disequilibrium later.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

READ MORE: Study Finds Lakes Are Still Filled With DDT 50 Years After It Was Banned<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/new-startup-is-building-mini-drones-to-wage-a-war-of-total-destruction-on-mosquitos-2000785790″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Tornyol-1200×675.jpg”] Human beings have long been at war with mosquitos, and it\u2019s not at all clear we\u2019ve been winning. Malaria alone\u2014just one of many deadly mosquito-borne illnesses\u2014kills over 600,000 people every year, most of them very young children. Until now, all we\u2019ve had were short-term solutions, like public inoculations, insecticides, traps, and (usually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-2047723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2047723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2047723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2047723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2047723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}