Better mosquito trap takes extra year to build

By Scott Welton

Special to Business Today

SIKESTON --It took two years to take an idea for a better mosquito trap and make that into a viable product for the market, according to its co-inventor, but the wait was worth it.

Dr. Ed Masters of Ticks or Mosquitoes LLC in Sikeston said he had hoped to go to market last year with the Biter Fighter. But between additional research, and marketing preparation, it ended up taking another full year.

"We have a much better product than we would have had last year," he said. "Now we're ready."

In the early 1990s, Masters conducted tick research with the trap's co-inventor, Dr. Tom Kollars, an internationally recognized mosquito and tick scientist.

With a method using a chemical dish and water drip to produce carbon dioxide, which attracts ticks and mosquitoes, the team tweaked the trap to make it irresistible to pests in other ways. "There is nothing about this trap that was random," Masters said.

Instead of colors that look good in the yard, they carefully researched colors that mosquitoes liked. The trap collects light during the day and releases it at dusk. Viewed through the upper hood's ovals, the light can resemble eyes.

The ovals also create the illusion of motion at far distances, which attracts mosquitoes, without doing so up close, which can be a deterrent.

Where possible, the company has used local resources to produce the Biter Fighter, according to David Matthews, director of operations.

"This is exactly how you turn an idea into jobs in this area," said Jordan Masters of Ticks or Mosquitoes.

Consolidated Plastics of Bloomfield, which has been working with the inventors since the prototypes, is producing the plastic parts.

The chemicals are from St. Louis and mixed in Fredericktown. The boxes and packaging are from Humbolt, Tenn., and brochures and assembly sheets were printed in Sikeston.

"We partnered with DeWitt here in Sikeston for distribution," said Jordan Masters. DeWitt Company is a retailer of landscaping and outdoor products.

Even the capital is local, with 90 percent of the company's funding coming from investors in the Cape Girardeau and Sikeston areas.

One local user, Carolyn Chambers, is already pleased with the product. "It's easy to change everything," she said. "I'm very happy with it."

Chambers said her family is usually driven inside by the bugs, but has high hopes for outdoor activities this year. "I hope it keeps us outside all summer."

Everything from chiggers and no-see-'ums to biting and even ordinary houseflies are drawn to the sticky surfaces and trapped.

While not designed to do so, the chemical reaction that produces the mosquito- and tick-attracting carbon dioxide also releases enough ammonia to attract flies, "which was just blind luck," Ed Masters said.

One of the high school students conducting experiments using the trap caught over 600 flies in two days at a horse stable. So far, the trap is available locally at Feeders Supply, Ag-Mart and the Outlet Mall in Sikeston and at all Buchheit locations. It is also available direct from the company's Web site, www.biterfighter.com.

While production has been kept local, the product is expected do well all over the globe.

Describing mosquitoes as a "worldwide problem," Matthews said Tick or Mosquitoes LLC is already preparing a shipment for Italy.

In many places mosquitoes are more than just a nuisance. "Mosquitoes kill, on an average, two to three million people per year," Ed Masters said.

In addition to the West Nile virus and malaria, which is the biggest killer, mosquitoes carry diseases such as dengue fever, also known as "bonebreak fever" due to the painful convulsions it causes. In any given year even with wars going on, "mosquitoes by far kill more people than bullets," Ed Masters said.

"I honestly believe we'll do more good with this mosquito trap than I have my whole life as a doctor as far as alleviating human misery," he added.

Scott Welton is a staff writer at the Standard Democrat in Sikeston.