Ma Boîte à Moustique, a Toulouse-based company, has been making gardens more enjoyable in the summer! Last year, their mosquito trap attracted nearly a thousand customers, which is ten times more than in 2022. With the spread of the tiger mosquito throughout France, professionals and individuals are looking for innovative solutions to enjoy summer evenings outdoors. Since 2021, Ma Boîte à Moustique, located in Balma (Haute-Garonne), has been focusing on this niche market by designing a trap disguised as a planter that is 100% made in France, both ecological and effective. Based on biomimicry, the trap mimics human presence with a low emission of bio-based CO2 and an attractive scent to attract and trap mosquitoes. The device can cover an area of about 750 m² with a radius of 15 meters.
«The idea came to me seven years ago when I arrived in Toulouse after several years in the Paris region,» says Romain Tiberghien, co-founder of Ma Boîte à Moustique with Guillaume Lombart. «We were bothered by mosquitoes in the garden, my wife was pregnant with our third child, so I was looking for solutions, but the existing ones were not very effective. Alongside my work at Airbus, I started thinking about a first product that would be eco-friendly and effective.»
The Toulouse entrepreneurs offer a range dedicated to professionals and communities called Urban, sold by 120 retailers (pest control specialists, landscapers, and installation specialists), and are also launching a new brand for individuals, Wiliv, with a trap available in hardware stores, garden centers, and on several online sales sites. «Today, our product is a bit expensive, it required many hours of research and development and technology, so we were targeting professionals like communities, restaurateurs, and tourism actors,» explains Romain Tiberghien. «However, 50% of our customers are individuals, so we are also developing solutions for them.»
Ma Boîte à Moustique has chosen to produce its traps in France at various sites: an assembly site in Tullins (Isère), assembly by a partner in Castres (Tarn), capture nets from a company in Lyon, electronic cards and epoxy-coated steel casings from a company in Grenoble, and gas from the Pyrenees and Lorraine. For this spring, the Toulouse-based company has already received orders for over 2,000 traps and aims to install 3,000 this year. In addition to providing relief from mosquitoes, Ma Boîte à Moustique is also creating jobs and contributing to the local economy with its made in France products.