Mosquito Traps 101

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.  Meanwhile, another global public-health threat proliferated virtually ignored: dengue fever. Forty years ago, the disease struck only nine countries; it is now endemic in more than 100. While the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that swine flu had killed 11,749 people as of December 2009, the WHO reported that “explosive outbreaks” of dengue hospitalized half a million people last year.  Globally, 2.5 billion people live in areas where dengue viruses can be transmitted. Dengue is carried 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. 

Because there are still no vaccines to protect against many mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend preventing the bite as the best protection and advise taking the following precautions:

• Wear long pants and shirts and spray exposed skin all over with insect repellents like DEET before leaving the house,
• Limit outdoor activity around dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active,
• Place mosquito netting over infant strollers and carriers,
• Keep bushes trimmed and grass mown around the home; and
• Use screens and mosquito netting to keep mosquitoes outside. 

Another way to reduce backyard biting incidences and the potential for disease transmission is to decrease the number of mosquitoes, using mosquito traps.  

The best mosquito traps employ a wide range of stimuli to attract mosquitoes.  This is an important factor in the case of daytime biters like the yellow fever and Asian tiger mosquitoes who rely not only on visual, but chemical and other cues to find their targets. 

Unfortunately there is no single solution that will rid you entirely of the little bloodsuckers.  Mosquitoes evolve over time to adapt to the climatic environment and against any chemicals used to control them, and the emergence of insecticide-resistant strains of mosquitoes has become an increasing problem worldwide.  However a good mosquito trap can be a pretty effective weapon to use in an open space like a backyard – because the best method of controlling mosquitoes is to stop them breeding. And two of the most effective methods of achieving this are:

(a)    removing all of their most popular breeding sites – standing water, however little, anywhere; and

(b)   daily trapping during the season – to interrupt breeding cycles, reducing mosquito populations.

So to keep the biters at bay, prevention is by far the best protection, wherever you live, because somewhere in the world it’s summer and those vampires of the insect world are out to get you.  While there’s no risk of turning into a vampire yourself overnight; it only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to contract a serious, sometimes fatal disease.