How many times have you doused yourself in Deet only to find itchy bites all over your feet the next morning anyway?
Recent studies have shown that Deet, one of the most widely used insect repellants in the world, may be losing its effectiveness.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of luck—a new wearable patch known as Kite may be the solution.
Apparently it works for up to 48 hours, and doesn’t rely on all of the chemicals that most bug sprays use. Instead, the non-toxic product blocks the mosquito’s ability to track humans through the carbon dioxide they release.
When developing the patch, the team behind it wanted to ensure their product was kid-friendly. Other major focuses for the group included making the patch affordable and easy to use. After all, shouldn’t everyone have the chance to be bug free?
“We really wanted to make sure that our technology could reach the masses,” Torrey Tayenaka, creative lead at Kite, told Forbes. “We hope to make a huge impact on mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile virus.”
So while they may have not had cottagers in mind for this one, it doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from it in the future, right?
Now that it’s been successfully crowd-funded, field tests will soon be conducted on the patch, as it moves closer to hitting the market.
For more information about the patch and the people behind it, head to kitepatch.com.
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