To my knowledge there’s no stagnant water on my property, I’ve run water through all my ptraps, and I’m careful to not leave doors open. Yet at any given time there’s at least 3 in my house. I can’t sleep, i can’t sit on the couch, i can’t exist in the fear of being sucked dry.
The breaking point is when i watched my dog get bit on her head. I’m ready to do whatever it takes and then some. I will kill a man if it saves me from these demons. Any ideas?
Look up how to make a carbon dioxide trap for mosquitoes. They are strongly attracted to CO2.
Watch out! Generating CO2 in enclosed spaces might turn into a health hazard without monitoring it.
CO2 is also “heavy” and tends to sink, so watch out for pets as it could be deadly for them - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Dogs
Ah that’s right! It is CO2. My mind remembered it as propane for some reason.
Please don’t make a propane trap
It’s a clean burning fuel I tell you hwat
The propaganda from King of the Hill has made for sub-prime cookouts for all my life up until a few months ago.
Believing propane was the superior heating element of the cookout, because of Hank Hill, I never tried a charcoal grill. But when I went to other folks cookouts, it tasted so good. A little sweet and smokiness charred into the meat, “How did they do that?!” I contemplated late into many nights.
I switched to Charcoal after a friendly suggestion, and the difference is mind-blowing. If you’re cooking with propane, you might as well be cooking on a stove.
To be fair, there was an episode of KotH where Bobby and Peggy discover that charcoal was actually superior to propane when it came to taste. It was a whole big thing and hilarious to watch them try to keep it a secret from Hank lol
In the business we just call that a “bomb” (hard B)
which B is hard?
The middle one
There are traps which are called mosquito magnets and they hook up to a propane tank to burn a small pilot light which produces CO2 to attract mosquitos and pull them into a bag via a fan.
You want to place them at the edge of your property though not close to your deck because they attract mosquitos in order to kill them.
I have tried these. They are expensive to run as you need to burn through a tank of propane each month. They do catch some mosquitoes, but they make little overall difference.
Still looking for a working solution.
Okay then go with the electric ones. I had the propane trap and while it worked well the constant propane tank refill was a drag and I certainly couldn’t afford multiple.
Enter Dynatrap + Mods.
Dynatrap uses an electric light and fan. It works medium but if you put the octenol attractant in the catch basket it really turbocharged it. Want to kill more? Hang a “bug ball” under the trap covered with Tanglefoot spray. Any mosquito that lands on the ball dies there because they are stuck. The ball will be thoroughly disgusting looking quickly but very effective.
I’ve spent many years combating.
The Bt mosquito dunks help for any standing water ( have gutters?)
Encourage swallows, bats, frogs too.
Good luck!
Thanks! I have a dynatrap, I’m going to try this mod!
- Fly screens (Unrealistic solution but I wanted to mention it)
- Get a Pet Frog that eats them
- Get lots of Spiders making Webs. Be aware that the Pet frog might eat the spiders
- Flood one of your rooms and make a little swamp where you can plant canivourus plants. The issue is that the swamp will breed more mosquito than it kills but the frog will feel right at home
- Make a small campfire in your bedroom before you go to sleep. It is known that smoke scares them away. Make sure to keep the windows and door closed so no new mosquito get inside. This is probably the most effective as you won’t get stung for the rest of you life
- Catch some mosquitos and suck the blood out of them. The other mosquitos will see their wrongdoings and change their ways
Fly screens (Unrealistic solution but I wanted to mention it)
Can I ask why you consider that an unrealistic solution? In my experience the plant based products (lotions/patches etc) are ineffective but I haven’t tried fly screens yet.
It more of a joke because its the only real solution in my list. They are limited to your house but from my experience there’s no way normal mosquitos can go through them. I think mosquitos don’t really give a fuck about smells (at least not enough) and the problem is that they dont spread that well.
1.mosquito net for doors and windows - ultimate solution
2.mosquito badminton. - great for few of them, you can just zap them with it.
Nuclear weapons might work
I am allied with spiders against mosquitoes and bedbugs. I don’t take down their webs (unless they’re in the way) and they eat hundreds of the fuckers. They’re also fun to watch sometimes.
I wish we could talk to spiders. I’d write an agreement with one that says, as long as it doesn’t crawl on me, it can live in the house. I’ll even build it a little shelf to protect from fan wind.
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I would like to invasive species your huntsman we moved here and they have roaches in all the garages in the neighborhood (the place used to be an orchard, and before that like all of the americas an indian burial ground)
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I would also include a clause that says I never have to see it ever. It can basically be a roommate that lives in the basement and has their own entrance in the garage.
We can’t write those agreements, but evolution could do it for us. I know that we kill an insignificant amount of them compared to how many are in the wild, but maybe certain spiders in urban areas could be under enough evolutionary strain to actually get better at staying out of our way.
Not sure if this is good or bad news for our great (10^6) grandchildren. On the one hand, maybe they’ll see less spiders. On the other hand, urban-camo spiders sounds horrifying.
Get a couple of buckets of water and place them around your yard. Drop a “Misquote Dunks” tablet in each bucket. Follow the package instructions for refreshing the dunks every so often.
Mosquito dunks work by “poisoning” what looks to the mosquito like an ideal spot to lay eggs; a pale of still water. But the mosquito dunk bacteria kills the mosquito larvae before they hatch.
It’s a more “long term” solution as it doesn’t actively take care of the current mosquito population but it prevents them from breeding.
There is also a type of fish called the misquitofish that you can put in a small pond, such as a wash basin or feeding trough. They feed on the mosquito larvae and are fairly self sufficient. I know people who use them to control mosquito populations in their gardens and they rarely have to do any kind of maintenance.
Can you buy a million sterilized mosquitos and release them into your environment? It’s a long term solution but they can compete the fertile mosquitos to death.
If you are inside, set up an oscillating fan. They can’t fly well in windy conditions.
Was watching a video where one place they rest is under the leaves of plants. Yiu can buy mosquitoe killer spray, but be sure to get underneath the leaves.
As others have mentioned, standing water is bad. They can survive and thus breed in a LOT smaller volume of water than people realize.
This is real.
We setup a largish fan outside near our fire pit, attached to an inverter powered by a power tool battery.
It dramatically reduced the mosquitos. A few will still make but for the most past it solved the issue.
The smoke from the fire pit also helps in keeping them away.
One can also plant lavender and catnip and some other plants which mosquitos don’t like.
Not serious, but amusing: https://hackaday.com/2023/07/10/gas-powered-fly-swatter-slightly-over-engineered/
I counter with friggin Lasers! https://youtu.be/fH_x3kpG8Z4
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/fH_x3kpG8Z4
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Get a bug zapper with a UV bulb, even if its branded for outdoor use it’ll work fine inside.
Mosquitoes aren’t attracted to light. You’re only killing moths and other insects with that, maybe some mosquito but not all.
Things that actually attracts mosquitoes:
-Standing Water.
-Carbon Dioxide.
-Strong Fragrances.
-Overgrown Vegetation.
I made this simulation to show how effective attraction to a bug light can be an emergent property of a mosquito’s navigation and confinement, even though they are not attracted to light innately.
See my mastodon post.
Thanks for sending me in this direction, its been fun!
Maybe it depends on the kind, because when we let mosquitos in and use the bug zapper, we dont get bit. It would have to be quite the luck if it was not attracting them one way or another. It certainly works on almost everything that flies and harasses you at night. It sounds like a controlled experiment is in order.
Check your gutters to make sure they’re clear and there’s no standing water in them. It’s easy to miss it up there.
I tried the propane powered foggers. Useless.
