This is interesting and looks like it was a fun project, but it looks a little complicated to be practical for me personally. I currently just put a screen over a large fan and open a bottle of carbonated water to attract them near the screen. The fan/screen can kill (starve) tens of thousands of them per day and their carcasses can be used in plant fertilizer. The downside of my method I suppose is that the fan will use more power than your laser by quite a bit.
[Edit] Apologies to the parent poster. I did not mean to derail the laser discussion.
That is really clever. I never thought to use an animal to attract the mosquitoes. Not sure what I think about spraying alcohol into the fan, at least my old fan. Maybe he's using 70%.
I think Thermacell is ok to keep mosquitos away but it don't think it really kills them, at least in masses. You can't really have it running for 24/7 because the pad that contains the poison/repellent that it diffuses will run out in 4-12 hours.
Also there are some comments on that the poison they use is really harmful for marine life, so you shouldn't use it near water. Also personally not sure I like to have poison diffuser next me all time.
Thank you. Yeah, I realize it has a different purpose, but I guess I'm more concerned about not getting bitten than about killing mosquitos en masse :)
The point about harmful poison is very valid though. Definitely good to know and to avoid extended use. I'm less keen on buying it now, even though the protection from bites sounds promising.
At a distance, its CO2 (30 feet away). Closer in, its the sweat. Even closer to target, its body heat.
The CO2 itself doesn't need to be warm or sweaty. Just when the mosquito is close to a target, it switches from the general vicinity (CO2) approach to one that will give it a better lock on.
A little more than an hour. Long enough to pull in a swarm. A 2 litter would last longer but I just get the flavored sparkling water. I open it just to the point I can begin to hear a sound.
I use a CO2 tank to re-carbonate my soda stream cannisters, I imagine at a slow leak rate my 10lb tank would last a long time and it's only $20 I think to refill it.
It could be my imagination but it seems like there are less of them overall. For sure when I use the disposable fly traps there are less flies overall. I can't stand seeing horses eyes covered in flies. If I were a horse that would drive me insane.
I think in addition - depending on where you live - controlling surface water would be a factor. Don't leave water to go stale in puddles or containers, and if you have something like a pond, either treat the water with something or get plenty of mosquito-egg-eating fish.
About 20 feet in front of it. The gasses get pulled into the fan along with the mosquitoes. It works without carbonated drinks too, just slower. And that only helps if there is a swarm of them i.e. near a standing body of water. In standing water you can also use "mosquito donuts" that release a bacterium which is toxic to all species of mosquito larvae. A common brand is called "Mosquito Dunks"
I've been interested in this question for a while. The Bill Gates-funded science to try and eradicate all mosquitoes always appears founded on the premise that it would cause a ripple effect in the ecosystem. Anyone know if that's justified?
Where I live, we used to have tons of frogs. The city actually built a freeway bypass to prevent too many flat frogs. Didn't work. Anyway, the frogs quickly vanished around the same time we started spraying to reduce the spread of West Nile. Don't know if it was the food source or if the spray killed the tadpoles, but unintended consequences are a thing. A knock-on to that is we now have a growing roach problem.
It's never "all mosquitos" it's "all of these 2-3 types (Anopheles) of mosquitoes that are vectors for human pathogens".
The ecosystem impact is still super important to understand, but it's reasonable to think that other mosquitos, or similar insects, could fill the niche left behind.
I'm for eliminating all mosquitos. They are the single most annoying thing about the best time of the year, summer, around here. I want to enjoy it without being harrassed about sucking my blood. The ecosystem will adapt.
Sure, but as with climate change, you may not like the result. I guess there's a fair chance that it won't be "just like now, but no mosquito bites". Mosquito larvae are a big source of food for others, and extensively prey on larvae of other species, keeping those in check. Adult mosquitos are important pollinators, too, and as we're currently discovering with bees, taking out an important pollinator has big consequences and while the ecosystems will adapt, it may well end up shedding very desirable species entirely, ecosystems take a long time to bounce back, and may be a lot less appealing to us afterwards.
Frogs and fish might suffer, too, they'll have to make do with a lot less food when you take mosquitos out, and what takes their niche may not be as palatable. You push these below a sustainable population size in an area, you probably lose them entirely, and their function of keeping insect larvae and adult insects in check. Since we'd like to enjoy mosquito-free summers ourselves, and soon, the time scales we'd typically do such interventions on is way too short for much adaptation in vertebrates to take place, generation times even of frogs and small fish are too long for that. You may end up with ponds that are way emptier and more silent, and with lots more creepy crawlies and possibly a long-term balance that has, say, way more rats, roaches, etc.
I’ve been plagued by mosquitoes ever since I quit smoking, I’ve found that heating a spoon with boiling water and pressing it against the bites for as long as you can stand the pain will swiftly deal with the itching. You have to be careful not to burn yourself though!
Sounds expensive compared to boiling a kettle. I actually looked this up, boiling a litre of water in a kettle costs about two pence and I’d only boil around half a pint (~280 ml) for this costing me 0.56p per go. That device retails for about £30 where I live so I’d need to be bitten badly enough for it to be a problem about 5,350 times before it’d be worthwhile.
I guess it depends on whether the device is durable enough to last that long, and whether or not you’re careful enough to avoid burns with the spoon method!
I get the feeling but the point is that most mosquitoes do not suck your blood. And the blood sucking ones are just the female mosquitoes of a certain mosquito type and your blood is only meant to help their reproduction. #NotAllMosquitoes
On the one hand, yes, an excellent comment with some impressive background and credentials.
On the other hand, I'm put off by this rejection of differing viewpoints:
"While contrarianism is a valuable american (and human) trait, in this situation it is misplaced, mis-informed, and dangerous. An educated man's anti-vaxx, if you will."
... which employs a fairly lazy pejorative to dismiss (people that think perhaps we shouldn't eliminate mosquitos).
I believe I quote Will Durant: "The mosquito is the enemy of civilization" and I am intrigued, generally, by the idea of eliminating mosquitos ... but I also adhere to the precautionary principal.
Maybe save a breeding stock and frozen eggs, etc., in case there is some hidden consequence we didn't think of ?
The bacteria probably attack more than just the species that feed on humans, but putting that aside, there's only a handful of species that focus on humans, so disrupting those doesn't necessarily mean disrupting all mosquitoes.
Also hijacking the general mosquito control discussion:
What's wrong with UV light traps? Got one from amazon and the soothing placebo? effect is great.
Great against insects that are attracted by UV light, like mayflies, but not mosquitoes.
Some mayflies may look like mosquitoes, but they don't bite and are mostly harmless. It doesn't mean they are not annoying, especially when there are lots of them, and if that's a problem, UV light traps work great.
Oh, are German mosquitoes different or is it really just placebo?
Thinking about it:
If I leave the window open with the light on in summer there will be hundreds of mosquitoes in the room (together with ~50% other critters). Even if no one was inside.
Window open without light: a dozen mosquitoes at max (as counted by suddenly switching the light on).
Whatever is known about other species is not correct about our breed.
Interesting thought. I wonder if its because of the swarm mind of mosquitoes "knows" that where there's artificial light, there are people. Or evolution has favored mosquitoes which get attracted to light at night.
I wonder if you could just use something sticky, sort of like fly strips? Fertilizer becomes untenable, but perhaps you could put the energy savings toward a more efficient fertilizer approach?
24 inch drum fan. Box fans might work. The drum fans have higher air flow so I guess its up to the specs of the fan. Try it and see if they stick to the screen.
Have you found a tractor company or robotics company to mount your laser and zap weeds? I've seen a few prototypes on youtube but I have no idea how popular they are yet. If not I hope you find one.
[Edit] Apologies to the parent poster. I did not mean to derail the laser discussion.