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Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

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Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#241

Post by schiffern »

autoexec wrote: post #196
schiffern wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, the real tip is to eliminate standing water . This matches my experience. Building these buckets did nothing, and maybe made it worse. Putting 1/10th as much effort into eliminating standing water is what actually fixed my problem. Remember, mosquitos can breed in a puddle the size of a bottle cap!

> Building these buckets did nothing, and maybe made it worse. How could it have possibly made it worse? Even if it only prevented a small fraction of the mosquito population from reproducing it'd still be helping.

Mosquitos are attracted to breeding sites, including the buckets. They may not successfully reproduce but they're still preferentially lured into your yard.

The common gardener's joke about these sort of bug attracting methods (eg Japanese beetle traps) is to buy one and put it in your neighbor's yard. :)

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#242

Post by sidewndr46 »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #209

If you'd like to use tap water without waiting, you can add ascorbic acid to water straight from the tap and it'll neutralize the chlorine and chloramine. Ascorbic acid is a great, environmentally-safe reducing agent that readily donates electrons to these compounds. A 500–1000mg Vitamin C powder capsule will contain enough ascorbic acid to neutralize 5 gallons of even the worst city water with a good buffer to spare…

Prevents scurvy too!

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#243

Post by sidewndr46 »

diggan wrote: post #8

> The dunks contain an unhealthy—for the mosquito larvae—dose of the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, or BT. Don’t worry about your dog, Moonpie, or your cat, French Fry. They can drink straight from the bucket and be perfectly fine. Hey, it’s probably better than when they drink from your toilet, right? Here I was under the impression that the water in the toilet is the same water as go into the taps, potable wate…

Ironically toilets are usually one of the cleanest locations in the US. There is no real concern about chemicals used, since no one should be drinking or eating from a toilet bowl. Generally speaking you wouldn't wash your plates with bleach

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#244

Post by elif »

pfdietz wrote: post #230
jvanderbot wrote: post #200

I live near a swampy lake. I _thought_ these would not make a dent in mosquito populations. But all summer I've been able to sit outside without many bites, as long as I keep them rotated every month or so and stay away from the lake. 4 home depot buckets + a pack of dunks are magic. For those asking - a bucket of sticks and leaves gets stagnat pretty quick. My guess is that it's so attractive that it just manages to…

I wonder if the Bt bacteria were spreading beyond the buckets, affecting larvae elsewhere.

I think it's probably mostly that the bucket is more appealing place for offspring than a big open swamp with predators

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#245

Post by armen52 »

hangonhn wrote: post #139
fanatic2pope wrote: post #54

Note that instead of the mosquito dunks you can also buy "mosquito bits" which are the same thing in granular form. Last time I bought one they were cheaper per unit cost and they easier to use because you don't have to break them up.

For some reason mosquito dunks can be shipped to California but not mosquito bits, according to Amazon. They look to be the same thing to me. Anyone know the reason? Maybe it is an Amazon data error?

I've seen several cases like this on Amazon, where products are not available to ship to California but should be. In one case I even spoke to the manufacturer who said they got it fixed, then weeks later it was unavailable again.

There's clearly something going on where their systems are being extra cautious on what can and cannot be shipped to CA.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#246

Post by Matticus_Rex »

mchusma wrote: post #226

I tried the water based approach before and didn't work, but this may be a good one. What does work for me is a CO2 based trap. I have 4 neighbors on the street using them now. Mosquitos follow CO2 to find their targets, and get sucked into the bucket. Its kind of expensive (upfront cost of about $200 then about $60 in CO2 per summer, but I have a large bag full of mosquitos regularly so i know it works. And I can te…

CO2 seems to be extremely effective in general, but what I really want is for someone to create a commercial version of something I saw DIY'd on Reddit. They used safely-contained smoldering coals placed behind a high-speed outdoor fan, with mosquito netting secured loosely (but with no gaps) to the front of the fan.

The fan intakes CO2 from the coals... and blows it out into the neighborhood (I think he claimed it was detectable at 60 or 80 feet?) to essentially advertise. When mosquitos approach, they're sucked into the fan intake, and can't get out past the blades and netting. Most are dead by morning, and the rest you spray down before removal. IIRC he said he only needed to do it one night every few weeks to keep the population unnoticeable, and he'd wake up to thousands in the netting the next morning.

I'm sketched-out by the CO2 mechanism, so I've never tried it, but figuring out an extremely slow release mechanism from a small tank seems doable. Maybe one day I'll get around to tinkering with it. My neighborhood started spraying, so it hasn't been bad enough to put much effort into.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#247

Post by Matticus_Rex »

noelwelsh wrote: post #79

The fan trap (e.g. https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Get-Rid-Of-Mosquitoes-w... ) is another low-tech solution that is quite effective.

The one thing this needs to really scale up the murder is a CO2 source behind the fan to attract mosquitoes actively.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#248

Post by anon84873628 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #129

One question - how does this prevent mosquitos from breeding in other bits of standing water that I can't locate? I have no idea where ours are coming from; I suspect they hatch somewhere, and then migrate to the shaded areas of my yard, which is where I typically get bit. Adding a bucket will prevent some mosquitoes from laying eggs elsewhere, but not all, right? Or is the bucket so attractive to mosquitoes that the…

You can also get traps that target the mature biting mosquitoes. Defense in depth!

Check out Biogents brand. They use attractants like urea and CO2 to draw the mosquitoes to the trap instead of your body. You'd put these closer to the areas you inhabit.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#249

Post by soulofmischief »

lovich wrote: post #229
owlstuffing wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, how I’ve never wanted downvote power more.

Downvoting is a gated power on this site?

You just need 500 karma to downvote.

It helps prevent brigading and ensures that users have a moment to adjust to the community and its general expectations before being able to participate in community moderation.

If a user cannot reach that low bar after a while, they probably aren't a particularly active or positive member of the community.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#250

Post by anon84873628 »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #40
jmuguy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> One thing that an HOA might actually be good for I've gotten nothing but benefits from living in neighborhoods with HOAs. Basic stuff like funding for landscapers to keep up the shared grassy areas along the streets, to plowing the access roads in winter time. But the main benefit has always been that it provides a legal mechanism to force everyone to maintain their yards and property. No need to drop passive-aggre…

HOAs are like any government. Some are run well and have good laws, others not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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