Interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm willing to try anything (and have)!

A few years ago, the big box stores starting selling some plant that is supposed to deter mosquitoes, so of course I got some. Worked great for the plant, but unless I hold it in my lap, not so much for us. :D Same with candles, etc.

Every time I water my patio pots, hundreds of mosquitoes swarm out. I can't figure out why, as I let them dry out between waterings.

Great article. I'd love to have a couple of these traps, but don't have an old tire, and if I did it is not an easy thing to cut and drill them. Even though the article said there's something about the rubber that attracts them let's put our heads together and figure out something else we can use to make mosquito traps. Maybe just a gallon jug.

How we manage standing water makes a huge difference in the mosquito population. I read where they can go from larva to mosquito in a week in less than a half cup of water.

Dog water containers and bird baths are an easy breeding spot if you just add water without emptying the container. Plant saucers are another. I put a few drops of dish washing soap (Dawn, etc.) in all the the saucers every couple of weeks. I was spraying a thin layer of WD40 in them, but Linda of Central Texas Gardener said when she was here that soap was friendlier to the environment. Rain barrels and buckets used to catch and save rain water can breed hundreds of thousands.

I hope mosquito traps is an idea that catches on.

Yeah. It's a great idea but its implementation for the small garden owner seems cumbersome.

Maybe I should try with a relatively small and dark container? At the same time, I'm thinking the reason they use a big size container is to attract a significant bigger number of mosquitoes (?)

Omar

I would suppose that any container which holds the stagnant water can work in a person's yard. The tires just give off some chemical or whatever that would draw the mosquito to it, but not having the tire, a container of water should still work to some degree.

However, if you do want to get a tire, you can certainly ask for them on freecycle sites. Worst case, buy a used tire from those little tire shops for about $30-50. You should be able to make 2 ovillantas (the mosquito trap's name) from one tire, if I read the instructions correctly.

I have to agree with MizGG though. I don't think I have large pools of standing water in my yard. I will admit there may be some shallow water in planter dishes. But yet, my yard seems to have tons of mosquitoes around when I step outside.

This made me laugh... if I built one of those traps, I'd have something new I wanted to get rid of: that tire!

Carol in Jacksonville

Speaking of the tires, today I just saw on my local Craigslist free section that someone is giving away tires. So yes, if someone really insists on trying this out, there are certainly ways to get those tires for free.

Yes, the idea of a trap is good, but it's not the most decorative piece in the world. Perhaps use this tire cutter to make it and hang it in an out of the way place, or paint it to be pretty ... :-)

How does creating places for mosquito deposit eggs, larva to hatch then draining it before they mature reduce population?????? As if building and monitoring tires were not time consuming enough,they tell you to strain the water. And tax payers are funding this. Someone please explain this if you can so that I understand.

The way I see it is that it reduces the population since the mosquito is going to lay her eggs somewhere and if attracted to something in the tire she will lay them there -- where they can be disposed of -- rather than in or under something that you can't find to dispose of, or in the yard next door where there is no vigilance in eliminating water sources which breed them.

Yes, a little bit of a hassle, but seeing the ever increasing number of diseases that mosquitoes carry it may be worth the effort for citizens to take this kind of responsibility. It's kind of like releasing thousands of sterile male mosquitoes (or other insects such as bot flies) which is another method used to reduce the number of pesky insects. How could releasing more insects even if sterile possible help? The female is going to mate and better she mate with a sterile mosquito/fly than a fertile one. Over time the population is reduced. This method pretty much eliminated bot fly -- correction: screw worms, not bot flies -- infestation in cattle in parts of Texas.

Basically, it breaks their life cycle. If you purge the trap, say, every 5-7 days, their population should be decimated after a couple of weeks.

Omar

The county worker who sets mosquito traps to sample what diseases might be inside of them showed to me the trap that he uses and the way to attract them. Inside of the water -holding container he puts a few rotting leaves to get the stench going in the water as the bacteria multiply. The bugs are drawn to the stench. One simple at-home trap is to do the same thing in a water container out in the yard, and just empty out the water with squiggly skeeters in it every few days. I have done this. It attracts them, they lay eggs. The eggs hatch. They dry up when tossed on the ground.... My current mosquito trap is more enjoyable. I use a light colored plastic drum with the top cut off, and it gets filled from rain via the gutter. After a while algae grows on the inside along the barrel sides. I bought some oxygen-producing mossy grass and included that. I bought some orange fish ( falsely named "gold" fish) and put them inside. They eat the algae and probably some of the mossy stuff. Mosquitos lay eggs in the barrel water, and when they become squigglies the orange fish eat them. I have added some minnows to the mix. The water smells slightly "sweet" instead of the stench from the leaves in the other trap. I toss in some bugs every now and then, as well as worms that get accidently shoveled in two when digging. When it rains, roof runoff pours into the barrel to help. An outdoor aquarium.

Roselee I was born on a Texas farm and been around livestock since. I clearly remember WWII planes droping sterile screwworm flies in the early 60s but never heard of doing it for bots. I've attended several meetings addressing bot,parasite and pest control led by county agents. The long prescribed method for controling bots in cattle is pour on insecticides. Where did you get your information about sterile insects pretty much eliminating cattle grubs in Texas and when was this supposed to have happened? I need to talk to my county agent if he's failing to keep us up to date.

Klem, I'm sorry. It was screw worms. I was going from memory and bot flies came to mind.

Coping, I like your trap. Let the fish do the work.