“When our house-help fell ill and was diagnosed with malaria, I visited her home, which is located in an area that is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I couldn’t help but think about how several people there were at the risk of acquiring malaria, and may not have the means to get treatment at a private hospital or have the money to invest in preventive measures that effectively keep the mosquitoes at bay. So, I decided to find a solution,” says 16-year-old Ananya Bhatia, a Class 12 student from the ATL at Salwan Public School, New Delhi.

Under the guidance of Dr Shilpa Raghuvanshi Chauhan, Ananya and her team members, Ridhi Kalia and Sehej Soni, began their research to develop a solution which would be unique, practical, cost-efficient and accessible.

“We came up with the idea of using cigarette butt waste to make engineered larvicidal cakes. Shilpa Ma’am who had researched on nicotine told us how it had larvicidal properties that could kill mosquitoes,” explains Ananya.

After various trials and errors, the team managed to create the perfect combination to create Mos-bite, a larvicidal cake.

When added to stagnant water, it starts fermenting and produces carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide attracts mosquitoes and acts as bait. In 24 hours, unlike other mosquito repellents, it kills both the adult mosquitoes as well as larvae, using nicotine’s larvicidal properties.

It can be put in your cooler, a flower pot, or a puddle of stagnant water and it will start working its magic in 24 hours.

The product was tested at the National Institute of Malarial Research on Anopheles mosquitoes, and it was successful.

Ananya acknowledges the critical role that ATL and NITI Aayog played in this journey.

“They provided the much-required edge to our project, where we went beyond the eight-period timetable in school, looked for out of the box solutions and built them successfully!”