Inhabitants of the humid and tropical regions of Southeast Asia would be quite familiar with the Aedes mosquito, a pest that is capable of spreading several dangerous diseases such as dengue fever, Zika fever, Mayaro, chikungunya and other disease agents. According to statistics, every year between 50 and 528 million people are infected by the dengue virus and more than 10,000 people succumb to the disease. Various methods of controlling the aedes mosquito have been carried out such as larviciding and fogging, but these approaches usually leave behind negative consequences on the environment or on human health. Wanting to attack aedes mosquitoes directly at the source – their eggs – a Malaysian technology startup, MN Empire, was established by Dato’ Sri Marcus Lee Andrew with the goal of eliminating these pests in a sustainable manner without causing harm to humans or the environment.
The enterprising startup, which counts among its team members experienced entrepreneurs with the technical know-how and skills to build and develop innovative mosquito eliminator products, sought to create their own unique Aedes Aid (AA) solution, a carefully formulated and harmless (to humans) organic liquid that is capable of attacking mosquito eggs directly, thus rendering them unable to hatch. According to MN Empire, a year-long test carried out by the Institute of Medical Research, which is part of the Ministry of Health Malaysia, demonstrated that the solution was able to effectively lower the number of dengue cases at the control environment.
Their proprietary AA solution is stored inside three mosquito eliminator devices – one for indoor use while the other two are for outdoors – in which all three devices are capable of luring female aedes mosquitoes to lay their eggs inside the solution-filled devices, thus destroying the mosquitoes’ biological life cycle by rendering them unable to hatch into adult mosquitoes. What’s more, these female mosquitoes will then become the carriers for the liquid solution and disperse the AA solution in whatever other water sources they come into contact with, thus ensuring that potential aedes breeding grounds are controlled and widening the area of dengue prevention. All three of the devices are designed to be aesthetically pleasing to suit modern tastes, and their two outdoor devices, InVoltorn and InUltron, both boast an impressive effective area of coverage of up to 10,000 square feet and 3,000 square feet, respectively.
MN Empire noted that the startup managed to sell more than 25,000 of its devices in 2018, generating approximately US$1 million in revenue and indicating that there is indeed market demand for their unique solution and sustainable approach to controlling and eliminating aedes mosquitoes. It has also begun exporting its devices overseas to India and Singapore. Nevertheless, the company still faces an uphill battle in enlightening the general public regarding the significance of dengue prevention, as most are still rather ignorant about the dangers of dengue fever and are unaware of the existence of safe and sustainable preventive methods like their very own AA solution. Still, the plucky startup is doing its best to spread awareness to the public through public events and social media.
MN Empire, the Malaysian tech startup, intends to make their brand a household name in the near future with their unique and sustainable AA solution and range of products that can control and eliminate aedes mosquito population without harming humans or the environment. While the notion of completely and utterly wiping out the pests and its related diseases is perhaps wishful thinking, with innovative and sustainable solutions like those offered by MN Empire, the world is one step closer to being a dengue-free place.
