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Question: I've Got A Mosquito Problem


Gilbert

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One reason the bug zapper does not work the mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide such as your breath. When I was little we were on a fishing trip my mom had me get in trunk of the car to sleep I was covered in bites. I assume cause with the lid closed a little it had high carbon dioxide. But that big fan idea seems like a good one. Rick

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Landed on a vid on youtube the other day. Still rusty here in regards to posting a link.  Type in "how to make a mosquito trap with yeast and brown sugar." Don't know how effective it will be, but it is an easy experiment to try.  

 

There are some instructions floating around on how to build a mosquito trap out of a two liter bottle, basically you cut the top off, turn it upside down, then make a concoction of brown sugar, yeast, and water.  Mosquitoes are supposed to smell the carbon dioxide from the yeast eating the sugar, fly in to get a bite, then can't get back out.  Well, it's doesn't work.  Don't waste your time.  I tried it and only caught like 2-3 bugs that weren't really pests.  

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The ONLY thing that works is the sprayer system, that is according to UT and A&M. There is a contraption that burns lp to attract then in area of your yard and then sucks then in. Unfortunately this apparently only works on Eastern mosquitos and not the ones we have in Texas.

The yellow bands are worthless.

If you can get a fan in there it will help, otherwise it is sprayer or a can of OFF. DEET is the only thing proven to work to keep them off of you. West Nile was a big problem up in Oldtimer's part of Texas. My Cousin's daughter in law got it near Denton, 22 years old, it almost killed her. At one point they were going to aerial spray, I am not sure if they had to do that.

Pretty much everything else is a complete waist of time according to the entomologists.

Travis

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Third gereration goldprospecting/mining, im an expert in all things repelant, because over my 40+ years, iv tried everything from 100% Deet to Old school Kerosen.

The prefered and by far best smelling is Natural oil based also, trust me this is THE CHIT.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Repel-Lemon-Eucalyptus-Pump/16561283

I am going to give this a try, I hope it works. Apparently different mosquitos react differently to different things. Citronella has little to no effect here.

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The ONLY thing that works is the sprayer system, that is according to UT and A&M. There is a contraption that burns lp to attract then in area of your yard and then sucks then in. Unfortunately this apparently only works on Eastern mosquitos and not the ones we have in Texas.

 

For some reason I can't picture the 47 square miles of Disney World that they built on swamp land having these contraptions every 100 feet, but apparently these are in fact utilized.  Whatever they use is awesome.  

 

http://www.intercot.com/discussion/archive/index.php?t-49126.html

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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Citronella works but only for about 6 inches away from the candles or oil lamps it seems! 

I think the only reason the small bucket candles work for me in the bar is there are 4 of them hanging from poles down the center. There are two ceiling fans out there which we run when it's hot and this circulates the citronella smell to the whole area. I'm just guessing because one of my favorite times to sit out there is the late evening and at night which is when mosquitos seem to be the worst usually.  I can definitely tell the difference with the candles lit, they seem to work, In this situation at least.

 

I didn't really expect the candles to work for mosquito's, the candles were original put out there because they light up the ceiling nicely and I don't have to turn on other lighting, I wanted a nice low light. The candles are hanging from the bars support poles and are about 7' in the air, so you don't see the flame just the reflected light on the roof. They work great for the light I wanted and turned out to really to help with mosquito's.

Edited by dtel
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Placed my industrial fan on the porch and no more mosquitos, wife hates looking at it though.

 

Also ordered one of those Thermacells dodads that Brian posted. Hopefully that will work good enough, thanks for the help guys.

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Hi Dee,

It's nothing special, just a big-asss fan that sits on a telescoping pedestal. I purchased it at Home Depot about 4 years ago. It does not auto-cycle or auto-rotate, it's much too big. But the fan head does pivot up or down, and left or right. I use it to generate a breeze and circulate the air in the garage when I'm working on a project or just tinkering with one of the cars. The blade dia. is a good 36" and has 3 speeds. When it's on high, it's kinda noisy, but darn thing blows like a hurricane.

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One reason the bug zapper does not work the mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide such as your breath. When I was little we were on a fishing trip my mom had me get in trunk of the car to sleep I was covered in bites. I assume cause with the lid closed a little it had high carbon dioxide. But that big fan idea seems like a good one. Rick

:o

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There have been some great suggestions, and I have been reading with great interest. You suthanas sure do know your mosquitos!

 

I have bats everywhere where I live. I don't live in the south, but I have a pond and a creek running past the house. The bats live behind my shutters. I've been bitten maybe 10 times in the 24 years I've lived here. I also see purple martins flying about during the day. I have used the floating biscuits too on other properties, and that stuff works well.

 

Oil poisons ecosystems, but I have put a drop or oil on small water puddles like tires and old equipment etc., which breaks the surface tension of the water. The mosquito has to land on the water to lay it's eggs. It relies on that surface tension to accomplish this.

 

If you have mosquitos, you have standing water. It could be a dixie cup in the shrubs. Look around!

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FWIW the bug zappers actually do work, quite well infact, at least the ones that have glowing lights.

 

My parents had a big one on their back porch for years until it finally croaked. Big old industrial sized unit my mom ordered through my dads store. I use to have to clean it out, and there would be thousands of dead mosquitos, flies, junebugs and pompoms. It was rectangular in shape, about 18" tall x12" wide x about 36" long. It hung from the ceiling with small chains. The unit had this removable 18" wide bottom catch-tray. Empting the catch-tray was easy, but I hated having to wipe that nasty maze of shock wires. The wire would have cooked bugs, and bug parts on them, and it just smelled gawd awful. Those shock wires were a bytch the keep clean, because of all the bugs that thing would attract.

 

They'd leave it on 24/7, but the night time was when  it got really interesting. Lots of mini-lightening bolts and that zapping/sizzling sound with the smell of roasted insects.

 

If I were to ever buy one for my home, I'd keep it away from the house, because those things attract the insects like nobody's business. Even the Gecko's would hang out on the porch looking for easy pickings, there was plenty of gecko shyt all over the walls.

Edited by Gilbert
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