Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death • Hacker News Board

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#21

Post by Zak » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:27 PM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #13

I don't entirely get this. If you have more spots with water, doesn't that just mean mosquitoes will lay more eggs? Which will then die, but +/- 0. How effective is this, actually.

If there are more mosquitoes than egg-laying spots, then yes. If there are more egg-laying spots than mosquitoes, then no.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#22

Post by tqwhite » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:28 PM UTC

siliconc0w wrote: post #10

You can also try a simple fan blowing over the sitting areas, mosquitos (and other bugs) have difficulty flying in the breeze. I sometimes bring a small fan camping since the breeze is nice and I hate applying deet.

I love DEET. It is absolutely the perfect way to avoid mosquitos and ticks.

At home though, I use Thermacell. It's the only thing I have ever used that makes a measurable difference. Of course, you need to have one ever four or five feet unless the air is perfectly still but that's a small price.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#23

Post by bodhi_mind » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:28 PM UTC

I definitely notice an increase in local (my backyard) mosquito activity if I accidentally leave standing water around. So I can see this working.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#24

Post by wing-_-nuts » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #13

I don't entirely get this. If you have more spots with water, doesn't that just mean mosquitoes will lay more eggs? Which will then die, but +/- 0. How effective is this, actually.

Nope, you're effectively creating a population sink. A welcoming oasis that just so happens to be a poisoned well. The trick is to put these out and carefully monitor anything else that could be alternative breeding habitat (anything that can catch water)

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#25

Post by IpV8 » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

joenot443 wrote: post #11

I'm super into this idea, especially as an alternative to spraying. Has anyone found success in this approach? This could be a game changer for my backyard this fall.

I have tried this a few times. If you live in the woods with lots of standing water, then it has literally no effect. I bought a giant supply of bacillus thurengensis pellets and put them in every body of standing water around the property weekly for a whole summer and still got annihilated by mosquitos. Now I spray, and while I hate pouring chemicals all over the property, it works fantastically well.

I could imagine it working alright if you live in the city or maybe a suburban area.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#26

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

Cool. I had an idea recently of creating breeding buckets that automatically flush the water onto the ground and refill every day or two. Mosquito breeding decoys without chemicals.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#27

Post by wing-_-nuts » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

tqwhite wrote: post #18

Every time I have read science guys about things that you can do to kill mosquitos there is an analogy to putting a drain in the ocean. You can kill mosquitos at a fantastic rate but, unless you are also killing them in all your neighbor's yards for a mile around, they are just going to keep coming as fast as they die.

Mosquitos don't actually like to fly that far for their meal / breeding grounds, and yes you should absolutely be buying these for your neighbors. Make a little gift basket

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#28

Post by jmuguy » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

tqwhite wrote: post #18

Every time I have read science guys about things that you can do to kill mosquitos there is an analogy to putting a drain in the ocean. You can kill mosquitos at a fantastic rate but, unless you are also killing them in all your neighbor's yards for a mile around, they are just going to keep coming as fast as they die.

Bingo. We did these buckets, were very diligent about it. They appeared to work (at least in terms of attracting Mosquitos, which they're meant to do) but had no real effect generally. House next door is a rental, with a rotating cast of 20-somethings that do not keep up the yard and its filled with nice little habitats for Mosquitos.

One thing that an HOA might actually be good for - I would love to see what happens if our entire neighborhood did this.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#29

Post by Spagbol » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

Currently I've been using these to deal with fungus gnats in my indoor plants; they are quite effective, just put one in my watering can, keep the watering can full so it can steep, and water as normal. It kills the larvae in the same way and after about a month I had no more fungus gnat problem (after trying many other things with no success) I do wonder about the eventual mosquito adaption to this if it is employed on a large scale though.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#30

Post by shruggedatlas » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #13

I don't entirely get this. If you have more spots with water, doesn't that just mean mosquitoes will lay more eggs? Which will then die, but +/- 0. How effective is this, actually.

I've never attempted it so I don't have any first-hand judgements of its effectiveness. However, the logic in the article seems reasonable. A backyard which already has a high population of mosquitoes implies the area has existing spots with standing water where the eggs are being hatched. Adding controlled spots of water would concentrate those eggs there and kill them off before they have a chance to hatch more eggs and add to the population. Then, the existing adults die off naturally within weeks, and you should be left with a "mosquito free yard"