These killer drones are declaring war on mosquitoes

When you think about the deadliest creatures on Earth, you probably think about lions, tigers, and bears... oh my.

But Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people annually through diseases like West Nile, Zika, and malaria.

As mosquito populations and illnesses rise in the US and worldwide, we face costly and somewhat outdated prevention methods.

It's time for them to buzz off. Tornyol, a France-based company, has a mosquito-hunting palm-sized drone set to hit the US market in 2027.

An idea worth scratching

It started with napkin math from founder Alex Toussaint — the kind that gives serious Good Will Hunting vibes — questioning whether a drone can lead to mosquito eradication. Though he claimed it was a "stupid idea," the math worked. How do you like them apples?

In 2024, Toussaint received a $28k grant from Manifund, a philanthropic platform that funds unusual, risky projects. Now joined by co-founder Clovis Piedallu, Tornyol was accepted into the Y-Combinator Fall 2025 Batch – a startup accelerator based in San Francisco.

This support helped their drone idea take flight... literally. So, what did this funding actually build?

Drone Specs:

• Weight: 40 grams, palm-sized
  
• Detection: Ultrasonic phased array sonar (like car parking sensors) paired with smartphone-grade microphones that listen to the distinct mosquito wingbeat — telling it apart from other flying insects
  
• The hunt: The drone rams the target mid-air, patrolling 5 acres per device
  
• Power: 3 minutes of flight per charge, ~30-minute recharge
  
• Set-up: No installation needed — just set your zone on the charging base

Napkin to no-fly zone

It has been a short amount of time since the concept was conceived, but progress has been sky-high.

• Succeeded in the first-ever air kill of an insect — a moth taken down mid-flight
  
• Raised $500k in seed round, backed by Y-Combinator and VC firms
  
• $50 monthly subscription — reservations open for a refundable $100 project
  
• Aiming to hit US markets in 2027

Even with the momentum, Tornyol still has some hurdles ahead — from short battery life to US regulatory approval, scalability and deliverability, and skepticism about whether they can outperform traditional methods.

As Toussaint put it on Tornyol's Y-Combinator page, the goal is to "lower the cost of mosquito control by 100x, eradicate vector-borne illnesses, and save lives.