Mosquito Traps 101

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” Benjamin Franklin

Male mosquitoes do not bite. The real risk is from female mosquitoes who bite when in search of blood to provide protein for their eggs. Scientific research over the past 50 years has shown that female mosquitoes find their prey using a combination of sensory cues including light, shape, color, heat, vibration, sweat and other by-products of human activity. Using that research and with the benefit of extensive field testing (including tests by the United States Department of Agriculture in Gainesville, Florida EnviroSafe Technologies NZ Ltd has developed one of the world’s most advanced mosquito traps: the Mega-Catch™ ULTRA mosquito trap While traps won’t permanently eliminate mosquitoes in the area, and no responsible manufacturer should claim otherwise, they are an effective tool, known to interrupt the breeding cycle thereby significantly decreasing mosquito numbers.

Mosquito Control Tips for the Constant Gardener

It’s summer and time to get out into the garden and deal to those pests that are attacking your prized plants and crops.  But what about the pests that attack you?  Yes, that’s right mosquitoes!  Unfortunately along with summer comes the buzz AND bite of mosquitoes – and usually in large numbers.  While male mosquitoes are actually sensitive vegetarians, living on nectar and plant juices; beware the female mosquito – she’s after your blood.

Female mosquitoes need the protein found in blood to develop their eggs, and they love to feed on warm blooded creatures, especially humans.  Selecting their next meal is relatively easy for these bloodthirsty biters who use receptors to spot movement, and can detect the smell of CO2 in a person’s breath from as far away as 50 meters.  Activities like gardening that make us sweat and breathe more heavily also make us prime targets.

Repel the Invaders – Spray it On!
Savvy gardeners have been planting geraniums in their gardens and window boxes for centuries, using the natural properties of the flowers to repel bugs. Data now exists that proves the use of geraniums is more than a tradition passed down from generation to generation. Geraniol, a powerful ingredient extracted from geranium oil through a unique refining process, does indeed provide a natural – and extremely effective – insect repellent.  

According to laboratory and field studies by the University of Florida in Gainesville, Geraniol has been proven effective in repelling a wide variety of insects, including mosquitoes, house flies, stable flies, horn flies, cockroaches, fire ants, fleas, gnats, dog ticks, lone star ticks, and no-see-ums.  A range of products including sprays, wristbands and wipes is now available and sold under the BugBand brand.

Light Up
Citronella is another well-known natural mosquito repellent and in addition to lotions and sprays, the oils from the plant are extracted and used to make candles. Unlike a number of mosquito devices which are placed around the perimeter of a yard to attract and kill mosquitoes, candles keep them away from you.  Place candles surrounding the area you want to protect; on your patio, balcony or deck….just make sure to put the citronella candle upwind of you.  And a simple rule of thumb – if you can smell the candle it’s doing its job, if you can’t, light another. One of the newest mosquito repelling candles on the market from Bite-Lite™ contains citronella together with the pleasant aroma of lemongrass and spearmint. 

Foggers and Sprays
Yard foggers and sprays are another way to rid your yard of mosquitoes; however the use of insecticides in agriculture has often been implicated as contributing to resistance in mosquito populations (CDC)   Plus they only create a temporary fix and typically they’re not mosquito-specific; killing everything including bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects.

In fact a lot of our summer bugs are actually good for the garden, because they form part of the food chain. For instance many are pollinators, and pollinate our flowers and crops. So if you do spray insecticides, you may end up killing a lot of the beneficial bugs you actually want (and need) out there.

Spraying garlic to keep insects away is not something new; farmers have been doing it for generations.  Mosquito Barrier is a strong liquid garlic spray made from very potent or ‘super garlic’ cloves.  Since mosquitoes are soft-bodied insects, the garlic juice can be very toxic to them in increased concentrations.  However the juice is not harmful to humans, pets or plants – but to mosquitoes it can be deadly.

Attract and Kill
Mosquito traps are quickly becoming a gardener’s best friend.  It’s possible to trap literally thousands of mosquitoes in these mosquito machines without harming the environment, your children, or your pets.  Mega-Catch™ make some of best mosquito traps on the market, they’re eco-friendly and don’t require the use of harmful chemicals, fogs or sprays to kill mosquitoes.  They work by mimicking the smell and characteristics of prey, fooling mosquitoes into sensing a blood meal close at hand.  When mosquitoes get near, a powerful fan sweeps them into the trap’s catch container where they die.  These remarkable traps are an affordable and effective solution for getting rid of mosquitoes on a large scale, for a long period of time.  Because one thing that makes a pest a pest is that they’re really good at re-invading an area; so to get rid of mosquitoes you need to think long term solutions. 

Another way to control mosquitoes is to stop them in the larval stage. Mosquito dunks have proven their worth in eliminating mosquitoes by killing mosquito larvae before they can mature into biting adults.  Float a dunk in the water garden, pond or rain barrel, and every other place water accumulates around your home. 

Choose a mosquito dunk that contains natural Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis (B.t.i.).   This is a bacterium toxic to mosquito and black and psychodid fly larvae but completely non-toxic and safe for pets and family.

Don’t Be a Blood Bank
Mosquitoes have well documented color preferences, so gardening gear should comprise of light colors as opposed to dark. And cover up as much skin as possible; wear  long sleeves and pants, shoes and socks instead of sandals and wear a hat to keep mosquito bites off the warm, top part of your head.

Combining these tips with other sensible mosquito control strategies around your home, plus a mosquito trap or two should make for a family-friendly backyard and provide the best overall protection for the constant gardener amongst you.

Not every kind of mosquito carries every kind of disease, however a single bite from the right mosquito at the right time, and you’re infected.  Prevention…the best protection!  Because according to University of Florida entomologist Jerry Butler, “By reducing the feeding rates just a little, you reduce the probability of transmission of diseases greatly“. 

Mosquitoes love to feed on humans, and selecting their next meal is relatively easy for these high tech hunters with compound eyes capable of spotting the slightest movements and receptors so sensitive, they can detect the smell of CO2 in a person’s breath from as far away as 400 meters.  Lucky for us, those same abilities also tend to lead them straight into mosquito traps.

However any effective mosquito control program should first start with a thorough inspection of the potential battlefield; your yard!   Check for and eliminate any standing water anywhere, in both the obvious and not so obvious places.

1. Eliminate Breeding Sites
If it can hold water for more than a few days, it can breed mosquitoes, and female mosquitoes can lay their eggs in as little as an inch of water. Just one mosquito can produce 1,200 young and a five-gallon bucket of water has the potential to produce enough mosquitoes to invade an entire city block in a residential community.

• Toys – Make sure the kids pick up after themselves, rain will fill toy trucks, teacup sets, even frisbees left lying in the grass. The same for old-fashioned tire swings, which collect stagnating rainwater, or any old tire left laying in the yard.
• Tarps – Any kind of plastic or nylon cover, whether it is draped over a stack of firewood or a boat, will eventually begin to sag and develop pockets where water can collect. Tighten them where you can and check them frequently.
• Yard equipment – An upright wheelbarrow, an empty flowerpot, even an abandoned shovel or spade can hold water long enough to develop mosquito larvae. Store equipment inside, or turn it over so that rain will run off.
• Birdbaths and paddling pools – Take a hose to the birdbath at least once a week during warm weather to keep the water from stagnating. Turn the kids’ pool over and stand it up against a wall when they aren’t using it. If you have a swimming pool, make sure you clean and service it regularly.
• Puddles – If you have low spots in the yard where water gathers and is slow to drain and  the water stands for more than a week at a time, you’ll get mosquitoes.  Fill in the spots, install drainage pipes, or change the landscaping to keep the water away.
• Rain gutters – Water can back up and become stagnant when the gutters get clogged with debris.  Check the gutters regularly, especially after heavy leaf fall. Also, keep the yard raked. Overturned leaves hold water, and mosquitoes love to breed in them as well.

During the day mosquitoes like to rest in warm, moist vegetation so make sure you keep the grass mown and the bushes trimmed.

2. Personal Protection
When you do go outside, try to keep as much of your skin covered as possible by wearing long sleeves and long pants.  Avoid dark or bright colors that will attract the Read more…

Thanks to Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight, vampires are hot and popular.  However there is one little bloodsucker that will never be welcome; our old foe and original vampire – the mosquito! 

In the animal world, blood-feeding insects and mammals really do exist. Many insects like ticks and fleas as well as mosquitoes, feed on blood. Protein, the building blocks of all cells, is found in blood, and it is the protein in blood that mosquitoes require before they can produce and lay a batch of eggs.

However, human beings are not the only blood hosts that mosquitoes attack. These bloodthirsty insects are also known to feed on horses, cows, cats and dogs, as well as birds, lizards, fish, bats and even caterpillars for a blood meal. 

While mosquito bites are typically just itchy and annoying, it’s the potential to make us sick we fear the most. Mosquito-borne diseases are among the world’s leading causes of illness and death today. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 300 million clinical cases each year are attributable to mosquito-borne illnesses. Some of the more deadly diseases include; malaria, West Nile virus, chikungunya fever and dengue fever.   In countries where disease is rampant, mosquitoes are regarded as public enemy Number One.

Global warming, climate change and international air travel have all aided and abetted the mosquitoes’ global march and triggered a worldwide outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases. “Many diseases are ‘highly sensitive’ to climates and climate temperatures, and malaria and dengue fever can be expected to spread to new areas.”  John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and disaster relief told WorldNetDaily, (Dec.17 2009).

In 2009 the threat of swine flu sparked a panic and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic.  Read more…

“When talking about climate change, we are not talking about something which is a future threat. We are not talking about something which may or may not happen in 50 years time, or 20 years time. We are talking about something which is happening now in terms of the effects of climate change on peoples’ lives now…” John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and disaster relief told WorldNetDaily, (Dec.17 2009).

Climate is an important factor in all sorts of things that our health depends on. The Global Humanitarian Forum claims that 300,000 people are already dying each year because of climate change induced malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria as well as extreme weather events. Rice yields are known to decline by 10 percent for each additional 1 degree celsius rise in temperature, and salmonella bacteria like hotter weather as do mosquitoes.

Predictions are that hotter summers and milder winters will lead to an increase in mosquito-borne diseases. “Many diseases are ‘highly sensitive’ to climates and climate temperatures, and malaria and dengue fever can be expected to spread to new areas.” says Holmes.

Dengue fever occurs mostly in tropical and subtropical countries in Asia and Latin America but also affects countries like Australia (Queensland) and the United States (Puerto Rico, Texas-Mexico border, Hawaii and the US-affiliated Pacific Islands). In 2008 and 2009, severe dengue epidemics were reported in Mexico, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. And in early 2009, Queensland experienced its worst dengue outbreak in 50 years with more than 1000 people infected and one woman killed. The spread throughout regional cities including Cairns and Townsville was so rampant, experts held a dengue summit, summoning experts from all over the world.

Dengue is spread by two mosquito species; the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). Both these mosquitoes are aggressive daytime biters and lay their eggs on the sides of any water-filled containers. However the Asian tiger is more cold-tolerant than Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and can spread more easily. The Asian tiger mosquito is a disease bearer or ‘vector’ of over 30 arboviruses including West Nile virus, various strains of encephalitis and Chikungunya fever, making it the most significant nuisance mosquito worldwide.

Because there are still no vaccines to protect against many mosquito-borne diseases, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advise that preventing the bite is the best protection. Read more…

The Mega-Catch™ 3000 combo lure has been developed to provide even better capture rates of targeted species like the Asian Tiger, a vicious day-time biter, and recognized laboratory vector of over 30 arboviruses including West Nile virus and Dengue fever.

Testimonial
“Just wanted to update you; the Mega-Catch™ 3000 seemed to get about 50% more than with no lure.  Thanks for all your help & this ultra mosquito catcher is the BEST – it works REALLY well…thanks again”.
Ron Jones,
SC. USA.

University of Florida mosquito researchers are watching with a wary eye as dengue makes a return to the state after more than 50 years. Twenty cases of locally transmitted dengue have already been confirmed in Key West.  And Monroe County officials have issued a health alert and launched an education campaign urging residents to eliminate water sources in and around their homes where mosquitoes can breed.

 The last big dengue epidemic in Florida in 1934 left more than 25,000 Floridians ill, which is why health officials are currently urging residents to take appropriate precautions now. 

Read more about home  mosquito control and how to get  rid of those possible breeding sites to avoid a yard full of biting insects and reduce the risk from the diseases they carry.

Find out how to treat the bite as well as what  to do to reduce the number of biting incidences and the risk of mosquito-borne diseases for you and your family.

PREVENTION:

Start by devising an effective DIY mosquito control program which incorporates a proven trapping system to reduce mosquito numbers, personal protection in the form of repellents, and a proactive approach to reducing and eliminating mosquito breeding sites around your property.

Elimination
The first step in reducing mosquitoes on your property is to identify and eliminate all sources of standing water including low spots, ditches, and gutters. 

Mosquitoes will breed in anything that holds water, including many everyday items such as a child’s toy, plant saucers, buckets, garbage can lids and pet food dishes.  All easily overlooked items!  

During the day, mosquitoes love to rest in tall grass or amongst shrubs in a moist, shady spot. Keeping the grass short and bushes trimmed deprives them of a resting place. Rake up any fallen leaves as well.   An overturned leaf can hold enough water for a mosquito’s eggs, as well as give them a place to wait out the day.

Trapping
Let science help solve your mosquito problems.  Today’s mosquito traps are smaller, more effective and surprisingly affordable!  A consumer favorite, the Mega Catch™ Ultra has outperformed many competing traps in independent tests, thanks to its unique, propane-free, CO₂ system.   Combining proven mosquito-attracting science in a simple to operate, user friendly design the Ultra gives coverage of up to 1.5 acres and is designed to operate with or without Mega-Catch’s™ patented ‘Variable Quantity Slow CO₂ Gas Release System’. 

The optional CO₂ system has been designed to enhance trap performance by increasing the range and capture rates (by as much as 300-400%) of a wider variety of mosquito species and other biting insects.
                    
Repellents
Bear in mind that repellents do not protect all users equally. The effectiveness of a repellent depends on the mosquito species that is biting as well as the age, sex, level of activity, and attractiveness (to mosquitoes that is) of the human using the repellent.

In general, mosquito repellents work by masking the chemical cues that invite mosquitoes to dine.  Read more…

Top Ten Tips for Barbecue Bliss:

1.         If you want to avoid an onslaught of mosquito bites at your next outdoor gathering, try relaxing on the nearest deck chair.  Mosquitoes sense movement and head towards it.  When you pant from exertion, the smell of carbon dioxide (C02) from heavy breathing draws them even closer.  Mosquitoes can smell their dinner from an impressive distance of up to 50 meters which doesn’t bode well for people emitting large quantities of C02.

2.         Lactic acid (secreted by sweat glands) is another mosquito favorite, and is one of the reasons why those people who work up a sweat, waving their arms about to defend themselves will become even more of a target.

 3.         Diet.  Larger people tend to give off more carbon dioxide.  This is also why mosquitoes typically prefer munching on adults to small children.

4.         Family planning.  Pregnant women are also at increased risk as they produce a greater-than-normal amount of exhaled C02.  So if you want to spend your summer outdoors put your pregnancy on hold ‘til winter or fall.

5.         Some mosquitoes home in on the fragrances in soaps, shampoos and colognes – replace your usual eau de parfum with some eau de Repellent instead.  Deet, Cutter Advanced (Picaridin) and Repel are all endorsed by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control.

6.         Spray a little permethrin onto your clothing – it’s primarily a fast-acting insecticide and has some repellent activity as well.  (However, never apply permethrin directly to the skin)

 7.         If you or your guests are blonde– consider a hat. Read more…

Q.  If they don’t fly south for the winter, where do mosquitoes go?

A. Mosquitoes, like all insects, are cold-blooded creatures. As a result, they are incapable of regulating body heat and their temperature is dependent upon their surroundings. Mosquitoes are known to function best at 80^o F, become lethargic at 60^o F and cannot  function below 50^o F.  Not all mosquitoes die from the cold and over-winter in various guises: 

• Some species of mosquitoes overwinter as adult females in a state of diapause (a hibernation-like state of arrested development), hiding out in barns, tree holes, basements, attics, etc. anywhere they can get out of the wind. 
  Typically, the female mosquito mates before the onset of winter, refusing to take a blood meal, instead feeding only on sugar.  Their ovaries stop working, so their eggs will not mature.  And they store plenty of fat to sustain them over winter. In spring when the temperatures rise, the female emerges from hibernation, seeks out a blood meal and lays the eggs that produce the next generation of adults.
• Certain mosquito species lay winter hardy eggs able to survive extreme weather, such as cold, ice, and drought.  Typically in late summer or fall, the female lays her eggs in areas where the ground is moist.  In spring, when temperatures begin to rise and moisture is produced by spring rains and melting snow and ice, these eggs will hatch, progressing through larval, pupal, and finally adult stages to begin the cycle all over again.
• And other species of mosquitoes can survive winter in the larval stage.  All mosquito larvae require water, even in winter.  As the water temperature drops, it induces a state of diapause in the mosquito larvae. Development only resumes when the water warms up again.

Winter Mosquito Control
Winter is a great time to institute some DIY home mosquito control.  We all know mosquitoes need still, stagnant water to breed.   Read more…

Mosquitoes love your family and your pets.  In addition to being a nuisance, mosquitoes are known to transmit diseases such as West Nile virus and Heartworm in cats and dogs.

The FDA has traditionally advised keeping your pet indoors around dawn and dusk, because that’s when many mosquito species feed. However that advice is no longer enough to protect your pet. The Asian Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is an aggressive daytime biter and it carries both West Nile virus and heartworm parasites.  So each time your pet is outside in mosquito territory, it is a sitting target for hungry female mosquitoes seeking a blood meal. 

West Nile virus along with the age-old, ever adaptable mosquito, is probably here to stay so ongoing precautions are essential.  The same thing that protects you against mosquito diseases also protects your pets. Prevention! 

• Eliminate breeding sites
• Use mosquito repellents, and
• Decrease exposure

Eliminate Breeding Sites
Change the water in birdbaths and paddling pools weekly and clean debris from rain gutters.  Eliminating standing water and long grasses will also help create an inhospitable environment for mosquitoes, encouraging them to go elsewhere

Repellents for Pets
There are a number of mosquito repellents available for pets, however as no repellent is 100% effective, heartworm preventatives should still be used.  When choosing a mosquito repellent for your cat or dog, bear in mind that certain chemicals may be harmful or even fatal to your pets.  Human repellents containing DEET have been known to poison cats and should never be used on them. Read more…