Speaking of mosquitoes.....

[Rich Z]

Anyone else seeing a HUGE population of them this year? It's been pretty dry around here, but the mosquito population is unreal. Got all three Mosquito Magnets working and they are about filled. And we STILL see a cloud of mosquitoes around each trap right around dusk! I've afraid all the skeeters in the catch bags is going to choke off the air flow in the newest one here....

This is one of the capture bags after ONLY 24 hours of starting it up:



That bag is now just about COMPLETELY filled up.

Things would be pretty gruesome around here if it weren't for those mosquito traps running 24/7.

And I have NO idea where they are coming from, either. As far as I can tell there is no standing water or moist areas anywhere nearby for the larva to develop.

[ynkedad]

I haven't seen nor heard of these nets before.
Where did you get them, where do you place them and how do they work?
They seem to work great and i'd like to try them out.

~Ray

[85vette]

I agree, I've lived in my present house for ten years and I don't remember them being this bad!

[Rich Z]

Well, I've been using these things for years now. Here's a link to the main site for these devices -> http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/

Here's a photo of the results after only a few days when I set up my very first one:



That is a 16 ounce deli cup overflowing with dead mosquitos! I don't know how many are in there, but it's a LOT of them bloodsuckers~

In a nutshell they run off of a 20lb propane tank, which you have to replace about every 3 weeks or so. There is a fine mesh cloth net (such as in seen in the photo above) that captures the mosquitoes that are sucked up into the unit. This thing converts propane to CO2, which attracts mosquitos. It also uses a scent block which must duplicate the smell of perspiration or something, and helps increase the catch rate.

The devices work VERY well, but they aren't perfect. The propane lines will sometimes clog and have to be cleared using an adapter and a CO2 cartridge. And like everything else made by man, things will sometimes break on them. But the customer service from the company (American Biophysics) is top notch. They have GIVEN me literally thousands of dollars of replacements over the years to keep me happy. I had an older one giving me problems recently and they just sent me a newer replacement, free of charge. I didn't even have to send back the old one.

And the newer models have one feature that is literally a Godsend compared to the older models. With the older ones, you had to stand there holding the propane valve button open for about 3 minutes while the unit started and got heated up. Well, let me tell you, the reason you are using this thing in the first place is because you have a severe mosquito problem. Three minutes standing while mosquitos are buzzing all around you is VERY hard to take. The new units, however, fixed this design deficiency have a "press and run like hell" button. Just press the start button, and get the heck out of there!

Anyway, if you have a mosquito problem, these things will be the ticket to recovering your outside activities again. No joke. With more and more pathogens becoming transcontinental and transmitted via mosquitoes (West Nile virus, for example), these things could be worth their weight in gold to you. I have all three of mine running 24/7 with spare filled propane tanks lined up waiting to swap out when any one of them runs dry. Speaking of which, the secret to having fewer problems with the units is to keep them constantly running. The ONLY times I had severe problems was when the propane tank ran dry, and I waited weeks to put a new one in place. Monitor them every day and replace them immediately and you will greatly minimize your problems.

Why every propane dealer in the state of Florida doesn't sell these things as a sideline business completely boggles my mind.........

[ganna001]

i drove from pompano to naples right after a complete wax job.
when i got to naples my front end was the dying ground for no less than 300 mosquitos.. and those suckers really stick to the paint!

too me a good 10 minutes to get them off.

[CHASZ51]

Seems we see more and more around my part of FL! Its been years since we had a real hard freeze, this last winter the lowest temp was on only 37.

We dont ever see temps in the low 20's or high teens like we did in the 70's and 80's!

[Rich Z]

I don't think the freezes would help much. The area of the world where mosquitoes are the MOST common is in the arctic tundra. During the summer thaws, the mosqitoes have been noted to be so bad that they could actually kill cattle. Not so much sucking the blood, but clogging the nostrils.

Now, THAT is bad!

So if arctic winter temperatures don't kill them all off, I doubt some minor freezes in Florida will help much.

Besides, the freezes would also kill off the mosquito predators as well........

I've just removed capture bags from two of the mosquito magnets a few days ago. The number of mosquitos captured is unreal. I'll have to dump them in something and snap a photo of them. This place would be pretty unbearable to be outside if all those damned bloodsuckers were still alive out there. I STILL cannot track down a source of moisture for the larva anywhere near by............

[Kap142]

For a gator to travel far enough north to eat and I'm totally in favor

Ken

[naples]

I once had a 73 year old guy that was born is South Florida tell me "give a man a gun and drop him off in the middle of the everglades at night in the summer and he will kill himself before the night is over"