Critic of bogus mosquito eradicator being sued
Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2022 7:58 pm
A couple of years ago a biologist named Colin Purrington wrote a review of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator, a "black tube filled with water, sucrose, salt, and yeast" that is supposed to attract mosquitoes and kill them. It's marketed to people in the US as a way of reducing mosquito numbers around their properties and appear to be very popular, with the company claiming $100 million in sales annually and spawning other equally useless competitors. As well as writing his blogpost, Colin notified the the EPA, the FTC and and pesticide regulators in all 50 states. They have done f.ck-all to ban these useless devices.
Meanwhile, the makers of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator have sued Colin for defamation in an obvious SLAPP suit. He's already spent around $90,000 in legal fees and it's going to cost a lot more before this is over. He's written a twitter thread explaining the situation and it's really alarming. He has a gofundme which could really do with boosting.
The company is scamming people - there's a class action against them accusing them of fraud, false advertising and deceptive practices - and the device has been banned in several states, yet the company is able to financially ruin this guy for pointing out the obvious. We've seen other companies try to silence critics like this and we've seen skeptics rally round to ensure the companies don't succeed. I'm really hoping we can do something this time too.
Meanwhile, the makers of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator have sued Colin for defamation in an obvious SLAPP suit. He's already spent around $90,000 in legal fees and it's going to cost a lot more before this is over. He's written a twitter thread explaining the situation and it's really alarming. He has a gofundme which could really do with boosting.
The company is scamming people - there's a class action against them accusing them of fraud, false advertising and deceptive practices - and the device has been banned in several states, yet the company is able to financially ruin this guy for pointing out the obvious. We've seen other companies try to silence critics like this and we've seen skeptics rally round to ensure the companies don't succeed. I'm really hoping we can do something this time too.