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Fans Provide Chemical-Free, Odor-Free Shield From Mosquitos

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Are you thinking of entertaining outside but worried about getting eaten alive by mosquitos? A local businessman has figured out a nearly effortless way to keep mosquitoes away, with no chemicals or fumes of any kind.

Frank Swift's epiphany about deterring mosquitoes had an unlikely origin.

"It was the sort of thing that you pick up being in the restaurant equipment business," he said. "You learn a lot from being in other people's kitchens."

Swift is a third generation owner of the 100-year-old Swift Food Equipment. Among their products, the air curtain, which restaurants use to keep bugs from flying into the kitchen every time the door opens. It's really just a fan that forces air down; Swift deduced a regular fan would keep bugs off people in its path.

"If there's wind on you, there's wind on the bugs and the bugs will stay away from you," Swift explains.

It's not just the wind. The fan disperses the body heat and carbon dioxide that attract mosquitos. Swift is happy to share his discovery.

"I tested it in the field. I put a fan outside and it worked."

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