Comments on: Propane Mosquito Trap

By: Len Luckie

Len Luckie — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:02:19 +0000

Please rethink before purchasing an American Biophysics “Mosquito Magnet” (Garden Edition) or Blue Rhino’s “SkeeterVac”. I have owned both products since 2004 and 2006 respectively. Yes, you will kill a lot of mosquitos, but you will still get bitten. You simply can’t kill them all.

Both units retailed for around the same price. They worked fairly well during the first season, but with a few problems starting them up each time I changed an LP tank. However, both units had major problems requiring an exchange of the entire head during the next season. (Separate manufacturers, different models.)

You will find the Mosquito Magnet to be extremely difficult to maintain and to troubleshoot, particularly at the beginning and end of each season. You will also need to purchase CO2 cartridges to blow out the LP line each time you change the tank.

The SkeeterVac requires less maintenance, but is just as expensive to run. It also has a TacTrap (fly paper) to wrap around the head of the unit to trap some of the insects that don’t quite make it into the unit. Unfortunately it also traps birds… I’ve had to peel a few of the little creatures off the sticky paper.

DANGER!
Less than half way through this season I have completely shut down both units and I will not use them again, because they now leak liquid propane gas.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:04:20 +0000

We do have results of some tests in the southern USA where scientists looked at yards that had these types of traps and compared them to yards without traps. In these studies, the scientists found the traps captured a lot of mosquitoes but there was no difference in the number of bites the researchers received when they stood or sat in the yards. Probably the traps just lure in even more mosquitoes and then those choose humans over the trap when they are looking for a host. Since the traps are pretty expensive and some of them are prone to breaking down, I’d say you would most likely be wasting your money.

Oh, and you have to recall that even in a bad mosquito season, you get a lot of variation from day to day in the biting pressure. So testimonials from happy users are not informative as to whether the things are working or whether something else is affecting the biting rates.

By: patty

patty — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:37:54 +0000

Bob-o
Can you tell me what brand you use? We want to buy on this week. We are so tried of not being able to sit outside and enjoy our evenings. We live in Wis.
Have you had any problems with the one that you have? We have 4 acre’s but very well maintained and no standing water and we just can’t figure out why we have so many mosquito’s.

Thanks for any help you can send my way.

By: Bob-o

Bob-o — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:32:38 +0000

We live in one of the CON-US West Nile hot spots (at least we did in 2005-6 until the abatement programs took hold), it gave enough urgency to read up on the subject so we could enjoy our back yard, especially with the news stories of how folks were dying to the Virus.

More info on the subject: http://home.howstuffworks.com/mosquito-magnet.htm

By: RGS

RGS — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:26:46 +0000

… wow!

How come you know so much about it?

By: Bob-o

Bob-o — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:16:15 +0000

Oddly enough, it’s the most effective manner to capture those “suckers”. The stream of warm and moist CO2 is the definitive attractant for Mosquito’s as it turns out. Add the special octenol scent, and it pulls in skeeters from 100’s to 1000’s of square feet, and then kills them. That’s the trick. There are effective repellents, but not effective and efficient eliminators outside of wide-area pesticides. One trades Propane consumption for potential toxic exposure to aerosol pesticides. It’s the best germane method to Mosquito population control without the introduction of chemicals that can have adverse affects on the Human population, let alone the local Flora and Fauna.

With the rise of West Nile Virus incidences, ’skeeters become more of a threat than an annoyance. At that point, the use of Propane to eliminate these pests becomes rather cheap indeed in comparison to loss of life, especially for the young and elderly.

By: RGS

RGS — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:29:17 +0000

Hello Bob-o,

welcome to RGS!

To me it just seems very odd to waste gas like that … just to trap those little suckers. There must be other ways – I hope!

By: Bob-o

Bob-o — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:25:02 +0000

Have to mention, products like this have been on the market for ages, at least here in the CON-US. I’m somewhat taken aback that you just stumbled acrossed this! The only difference here is that its cordless, not that it mimics human CO2 output….