The Mosquito Killing System resulted from 17 years of research and testing by Mr. Alvin Wilbanks.  This project evolved from nightly rituals of having to free the house of mosquitoes upon returning home from work in order for his newborn daughter, Tiffany, to have a good nights rest without being eaten by a mosquito in the house.  Mr. Wilbanks was concerned about applying repellents to his child because of the effects that he experienced from his own personal use.  A warming sensation was experienced where he applied the repellants on himself.  He was also concerned about the dangers of his child ingesting the repellant and getting it into her eyes.

Mr. Wilbanks began researching the alternative products available on the market for protection or repelling of the pests that contained no pesticides.  To his amazement, he discovered that there were no such products available.  He knew there had to be a better way to control mosquitoes without the use of chemicals.  So, he asked himself the question, “What attracts the mosquito to us?”  His conclusion was that the mosquito was seeking blood, so he placed some blood on a slide as an experiment to view the mosquito’s behavior.  To his surprise, the mosquito was not attracted to the blood. He then tried to determine what other factors attract them to us.  Was it heat, moisture, body scents/pheromones, motion or breathing?  He then began to test other items that might attract the mosquito such as chicken or beef livers and even catfish type baits.  All these experiments had poor results.  There was no increase in the capture/kill ration thus eliminating the fact that blood products alone attract the insect.  Mr. Wilbanks then purchased a bug light with the misconception that they attracted mosquitoes.  After examining the dead insects that were caught, he realized that bug lights did not attract mosquitoes either.

He then began his studies to determine why the mosquito bites, the breeding behavior and habits of the insect.  The research into certain behavioral patterns of the insect was conducted at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AR.  Mr. Wilbanks was able to locate books and documents covering Entomology and more specifically the study of mosquitoes at the university library.  Mr. Wilbanks then started experimenting with the bug light he purchased to modify it to attract mosquitoes.  He removed the lights from the unit and replaced them with a heating element, which seemed to have some attractant features.

The next 2 to 4 years of research and testing revealed that mosquitoes preferred cattle, chicken, pets and other animals to humans.  He then began to determine the highest and lowest temperatures in which mosquitoes were attracted to this device.  He them modified his test unit to cycle in the temperature ranges previously identified in order to mimic these various animals.  The tests revealed the more species of mosquitoes were attracted to the unit but not captured.  Mr. Wilbanks then spent the next 3 years determining what temperature range was most effective and the correct size of the nit in order to achieve the most efficient product.  He developed various units ranging in size from a Coke can to a 55-gallon drum and determined the optimal elevation necessary to attract the largest number of mosquitoes.  Hundreds of tests were performed in order to determine the best performance to Mr. Wilbanks' satisfaction.

He then started working with the air flow or wind design for the unit, which aided in attracting mosquitoes to the unit.  He observed that the mosquitoes were curious about the device and the majority were females.  Adding the wind design to the unit increased the attractiveness and kill rate by up to 90 percent.  This increase in the capture and kill ratio were at an acceptable level to justify more experiments in order to perfect the wind design elements of the unit.  Other tests were performed to determine the effectiveness of the unit under other conditions.  One test included adding moisture to the design.  Since mosquitoes lay their eggs in water, it made sense to incorporate moisture as a test to determine the level of attraction of the unit under these conditions.  No significant difference was observed during this study.  He then added motion to the test unit to determine if the mosquitoes were more attracted to his test devices in a fixed position versus linear movement.  He then determined from the motion studies that more mosquitoes were attracted to the unit that moved in comparison with the fixed unit.  He found that the best results were obtained when the test unit moved 12 inches, paused for a period of 5 seconds then returned to it’s original position.  Mr. Wilbanks had now concluded from his studies that heat, size and motion elevation were all determining factors.  Armed with these facts, his testing and experiments moved to a second level to perfect the operation of the device. 

He then determined that the mosquitoes were detecting the electrical fields (Corona), which is a warning to the mosquitoes and was preventing further investigations.  He tried glue boards, sticky paper, and other attractants to try to overcome this obstacle but found nothing that actually worked.  Mr. Wilbanks then decided to alter the unit in order to conceal the electrical fields, but yet attract the mosquito and process the insect through the system thus killing them inside the unit.  This added other variables such as correct voltage, wind flow and other factors that had to be perfected in the design of the Mosquito Killing System (MKS).