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Weeks of rain = Mosquitos >>> bought an electric Mosquito Trap

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
We have been having heavy rains and lots of standing water.

Weather has been a bit too cool most days to relax outside so I've not been bitten but clearly we have conditions in place to have a horrid year for mosquitos. Actually with woods on the west and north sides of my home, every year is pretty much a bad year for mosquitos for us.

Last year I used a spray that worked pretty well, its a hose end sprayer product and it lasts for about of month in controlling the pests. But with a new puppy I'm a bit hesitant to expose a 9 week old floppy dog who likes to bite grass, flowers, etc to whatever chemicals are in the spray.

This year I opted to buy this trap, paid $89 for it from Sams Club >>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...iveASIN=B008CN8L0I&linkCode=as2&tag=jdteta-20

Put it together until yesterday mid-afternoon. Checked it today, after it had been on for less than 18 hours, and there were a couple hundred mosquitos trapped inside. Apparently the key is to let these run day & night because you are trying to break the breeding cycle of the mosquitos. It says it may take more than a week to begin to get good results.

FWIW, it is nearly silent, it does NOT 'zap' the bugs. It traps them and dehydrates them. There is a slight fan sound if you get close to the trap but you have to be very close to hear it.

To make my trap more 'attractive' to mosquitoes I hung an "Octenol Mosquito Attractant" inside my trap.

And with my trap there is a screw on screen area that holds all the captured bugs while they die. It is below the suction fan. So I hung the attractant lure from the bottom of the fan with the assumption that the fan would blow over the attractant and spread its smell out through the screen. That is my theory and I'm sticking with it. Besides it was an easy place to hang the attractant so, being a lazy man, I took the easy method.

I purchased the attractant at Menards. I think it was Black Flag brand but tossed out the package so I'm not positive. Cost for the attractant was maybe $7 and should last about 4 weeks before I need to replace it.


As for the spray that I used LAST year, it was a CUTTER brand product. It worked very well but you need to spray everything. And get the spray into the plants, bushes, under the leaves, etc because that is where mosquitoes shelter from wind. If you do NOT have kids/pets to worry about and want to control mosquitoes then I would recommend this CUTTER stuff.

BECAUSE of the new puppy I'm a little worried about the chemicals so I bought an eco-friendly product this year. Probably just as toxic? Cost twice as much! But I feel better about using it, likely just ignorant?


In any case, photos below of the new electric mosquito trap ... the CUTTER yard spray that I highly recommend ... and the new eco-stuff that I have not used yet because of rainy conditions.
 

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waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
We are on the St Joe River. But we have our friends that keep all the bugs and spiders away and off the building and the boat - thousands of swallows.

They do an awesome job.

Kinda neat sitting on the dock and these little guys kamikaze pilots buzz your head as they go after flying insects. At dusk they come out in great big clouds of swallows. Very cool watching them do their aerial show as a group.

Can you somehow attract these little dive bombers to your property/area?
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
... thousands of swallows.

They do an awesome job.
...
Can you somehow attract these little dive bombers to your property/area?

We have bats. Lots of bats. But with the woods and the water (slow streams on the north and west) we have more mosquitos than the bats can control, especially when we have this much rain and there are flooded farm fields.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
You'll have to let us know if that light continues to work. I am badly in need of something as, like you it's been fairly wet in East Texas and the little buggers are swarming.

About once or twice a year I spray the whole yard with about 100 gallons of insecticide. I don't like doing it but, on the other hand, you have to do something or you'll be eaten alive. The rest of the time I use a Black Flag fogger all round the house that gives some relief for a couple of days. You just have to keep on keeping on with it.

I was always told that UV light didn't attract mosquitoes. You needed something that put out carbon dioxide or a an "attractant" to lure them in. Please give me an update after it's been working for a while.

For the record we have swifts, Martins and bats and they can't keep up but they do get FAT.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
You'll have to let us know if that light continues to work.

...

I was always told that UV light didn't attract mosquitoes. You needed something that put out carbon dioxide or a an "attractant" to lure them in. Please give me an update after it's been working for a while...

Clearly just a very short time frame, so not a good time to judge, but it is catching them before they bite me. I popped open the trap again and it has hundreds and hundreds of mosquitos inside.

I cannot tell you if it is the UV light or if it is the attractant that I added??? What I can tell you is that I have been outside with the new puppy very frequently. Morning, noon and night. So far I have not been bitten (well maybe by the puppy) but not by a mosquito.

So just a preliminary observation ... it seems to work.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
FWIW it has been about a week since my last report.

I have not been bitten by a mosquito in the area where the Mosquito Trap sits. And by area I mean the entire yard area which is bordered by woods on one side, the house, the pool & hillside and then my workshop/garage on the far side. That area is roughly 65' by 150' of fenced yard. I've been buzzed by a few but so far I'm bite free.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Melensdad, I took your advice and drove to Sam's and got the mosquito trap. I also took your advice on using mosquito attractant.

It's been up and running for about 5 days now and it seems to be working. After the first night I just had to check it. I took off the bottom and about 20 bugs flew out, mainly moths and beetles. I didn't so much send them to the cemetery as stick them in jail overnight. There were quite a few mosquitoes in there though. I didn't count them but I'd guess that there were 20 or 30. These days, before I open it, I give it a quick squirt of bug killer. Since then, I haven't lost one but the number of mossies in the basement is decreasing. I'll have to move it around and find the best place to set it.

The rain is supposed to quit after today so maybe they will stop eating me.

So far I'm pleased. Thank you Bob.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
ETF glad yours is also showing results.

My wife and I were actually talking about getting one for the other side of our house where we have a dining patio and that is surrounded on 3 sides by trees/woods/planting and therefore is a mosquito haven.
 

MNwr786

Active member
I recently ordered 16oz of lemon eucalyptus essential oil thinking it was the same thing used in deet-free lemon eucalyptus OFF!, nope., not that lucky, shoulda did my homework. All was not lost though.... I spent all night cyclizing the citronellal to PMD (the ingredient OFF and others claim to be lemon eucalyptus oil) and all I can say is DAMN! I became invisible to our mosquitoes!

If you have tried using lemon eucalyptus oil in a homemade recipe and wonder why it only lasts 25 minutes, that's why. Do the process below and it lasts much longer! 50% by volume essential oil and 50% by volume of 7% citric acid solution are heated with stirring at 50°C for 15 hours, allowed to cool and separate, and the top layer of PMD-rich oil, after separation, is mixed with 91% isopropyl alcohol to achieve a 20% solution of PMD in alcohol and then put in a spray bottle. Other essential oils can then be added in small quantity, but I like adding just a little squirt of baby oil. It is a smelly and time consuming process and probably not worth the hassle when it can be bought pre-made, but that's how to make lemon eucalyptus oil work for hours rather than minutes! For $24 per 16 ounce bottle that makes nearly half a gallon, it's a little cheaper than the name brand stuff. The water/citric acid layer can be saved and reused in the next batch too.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Just be careful with essential oils if you have pets. Many of the essential oils are toxic if they get ingested or are applied (even accidentally) on the skin of pets.
 

MNwr786

Active member
Just be careful with essential oils if you have pets. Many of the essential oils are toxic if they get ingested or are applied (even accidentally) on the skin of pets.
I used to spray the property with permethrin using my leaf blower, but after finding out how toxic that is to cats, I quit using it. Deet didn't work for my girlfriend, so I went this route.. I did read that about cats and oils too, it seems cats are incompatible with many substances.. We even tore the lilies out of the flower garden.
 
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