Scrap tires put the brakes on mosquitos

Lyon, France - Rubber granulate from used tires is being used in a new device to prevent mosquitos from breeding in gutters containing stagnant-water.

The product was developed by Aedes System, based in New Caledonia – a French territory in the southwest Pacific Ocean, prone to outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases.

The gutter-filter device, called Aglostic, exploits the fact that the mosquitoes that bits a person is usually ‘home-grown’: they mostly hatch in stagnant water and fly within a radius of 25 metres from their larval site.

Aeses System selected rubber granulate as the filtration materials, as it was porous enough to let the rainwater pass through while blocking mosquitos.

The requirement was also for a rot-proof material that posed no risks to human health or the environment and could agglomerate easily, noted French tire recycling group Aliapur.

As technical partner on the project, Aliapur engaged the Technology Transfer Centre of Le Mans (FTTC) to carry out a detailed study on all aspects of the device and to validate its performance and safety.

The FTTC study, it said, encompassed the size of aggregates used, the choice of binder, the strength of the device and filtration performance, as well as the health and environmental safety status of the filtered water.