A startup has launched a “mosquito-specific” micro-drone! But it may be 10 times louder than a mosquito

Using a drone to swat mosquitoes sounds like an idea some engineer came up with after too much to drink, but there really are people taking Y Combinator funding and building it seriously. French startup Tornyol is developing an autonomous micro-drone weighing only 40 grams, packing an ultrasonic phased-array sonar made of 380 microphones into its body. It identifies the mosquito’s species and sex based on the Doppler effect when the mosquito flaps its wings. Once locked on, it directly knocks the mosquito out of the air using a propeller. The team’s goal is to physically eliminate mosquitoes from human residential areas without relying on any chemical agents.
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Key takeaways

• French startup Tornyol backed by YC builds a 40-gram micro-drone that hunts mosquitoes using an ultrasonic phased-array sonar with 380 microphones.
• The drone uses the Doppler effect from the mosquito’s wing flaps to identify species and sex; once locked, it strikes the target in midair with one of its propellers, with no chemical agents used throughout.
• The team recently completed its first “air-to-air kill,” dropping a moth, but has been questioned because the operating noise could be up to ten times that of the mosquito.

The deadliest animal in the world isn’t a shark or a venomous snake—it’s the mosquito. A group of French engineers decided to stop relying on mosquito coils and sprays and instead go to war with drones head-on. Their startup, Tornyol, received support from Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator and built a fully autonomous micro-drone weighing just 40 grams, designed specifically to hunt mosquitoes in the air.

380 microphones, catching mosquitoes by wing-sound

The core of the drone is an ultrasonic phased-array sonar with 380 microphones inside. The operating principle is actually easy to understand: the drone first emits ultrasonic pulse signals, then uses that entire array of microphones to receive the echoes that bounce back.

The key is the mosquito’s wings. Every time a mosquito flaps, it causes the echo to produce an irregular Doppler effect—tiny variations in the sound-wave frequency. The system stitches these changes into a unique 2D image. Not only can it recognize whether it’s a mosquito, it can even distinguish the mosquito’s species and sex. After all, only female mosquitoes that bite are worth targeting—this carefully selected logic is far more particular than indiscriminate spraying.

Propellers as a flyswatter; just knocked down the first moth

Once the target is locked, Tornyol’s attack method is simple and brutal. It carries no weapon—using one of four small propellers, it charges at high speed and shreds the insect in flight. The whole process doesn’t require chemical agents; it physically knocks mosquitoes out of the air.

This sounds easy to do but is actually hard. The development team only recently announced a milestone: their autonomous micro-drone completed its first “air-to-air kill,” knocking down a moth while flying. There’s still a ways to go from moths to mosquitoes—mosquitoes are smaller and more agile—but this strike proves that the entire identification-and-interception workflow really works.

Without any chemical agents, directly physically eliminate mosquitoes from human living areas.

However, the ideal is rich, and reality is a bit noisy. If you want to get rid of that mosquito buzzing by your ear for a quieter environment, but you have to put a drone in the room that may buzz more than ten times as loudly, how usable that is for users is probably the toughest question Tornyol will need to answer next.

FAQ

How does Tornyol’s drone distinguish and knock down mosquitoes?

It emits ultrasonic pulse signals, and uses a phased-array sonar made of 380 microphones to receive the echoes. The Doppler effect produced by the mosquito’s wing flaps forms a unique 2D image, which is used to identify species and sex; once locked, it uses one of its four propellers to strike and knock down the target at high speed.

Is this mosquito-killing drone really practical?

The team has only just completed tests for its first aerial kill against a moth so far, and there’s still a way to go before mass production. The biggest controversy is noise: the propeller sound of a 40-gram drone may be several times louder than the mosquito it’s trying to eliminate, raising doubts about its practicality.