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Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

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Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#251

Post by mitkebes »

schiffern wrote: post #52
happyopossum wrote: post #20

The key to this working is ensuring that the buckets are the only standing water around. If even 10% of the females decide to use your clogged gutter, broken water fountain, or forgotten livestock waterer instead of your buckets, you will still have a mosquito problem.

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!

> Remember, mosquitos can breed in a puddle the size of a bottle cap!

There's been so much rain these past months that my entire yard has been filled with puddles. There's only so much you can do to eliminate standing water when it's everywhere.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#252

Post by anon84873628 »

chasil wrote: post #68
Spagbol wrote: post #29

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…

This bacterial strain was discovered in 1976, but has been in the environment for a long time. Resistance should have already emerged? "As a toxic mechanism, cry proteins bind to specific receptors on the membranes of mid-gut (epithelial) cells of the targeted pests, resulting in their rupture. Other organisms (including humans, other animals and non-targeted insects) that lack the appropriate receptors in their gut…

If you keep reading that Wikipedia article you will get to citation 47 which directly references Bt resistance in the European corn borer.

Evolution is complex and 100 years is not very long. But eventually some effect is likely.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#253

Post by anon84873628 »

AngryData wrote: post #85
chasil wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This bacterial strain was discovered in 1976, but has been in the environment for a long time. Resistance should have already emerged? "As a toxic mechanism, cry proteins bind to specific receptors on the membranes of mid-gut (epithelial) cells of the targeted pests, resulting in their rupture. Other organisms (including humans, other animals and non-targeted insects) that lack the appropriate receptors in their gut…

It does exist in nature all over, but it generally isn't in such a high concentration. Its like releasing 1,000 goats in your backyard. Even if your backyard could support a few goats, it will certainly be destroyed by 1,000 of them.

This is a confusing analogy because it's more like releasing 1,000 goats then wondering why they don't have an effect.

My non-SME answer to this thread is:

1) 100 years is not that long in evolutionary terms; 2) cropland is large but not all land; 3) evolution is complex; 4) resistance is actually already observed in some species.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#254

Post by kulahan »

c22 wrote: post #198
Xss3 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to live in a neighborhood full of meadow style gardens, where native plants are allowed to flower and feed bees, with bug habitats instead of neatly cut astroturf looking golf green lawns chock full of pesticides. I can't understand the people that think the artificial look holds any beauty whatsoever.

The artificial look visibly demands a large amount of ongoing maintenance and thus acts as a convenient display of excess spending power. It's like the peacock's tail for capitalists.

This is true for a highly attractive wild lawn as well. When things grow truly wild, they're all competing and none do fantastically. If you've got a beautiful yard full of happy native plants, you've likely done some serious work, even if you're just out-competing the invasive plants.

That being said, a yard of native plants can still do more good than a yard of grass. Grasses are cool and come in many other forms though, and can be extremely resistant to drought. Native grasses often have much deeper roots, or even taproots sometimes.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#256

Post by muppetman »

krunck wrote: post #72
muppetman wrote: post #6

Love the idea - I wonder what I can use in New Zealand though - these things can't be shipped to NZ (Note I'm not surprised by this fact, I didn't expect NZ to let in random loads of mosquito killing bacteria)

There are tons of Bacillus Thuringiensis products for the organic gardening market. I'm sure they're available in NZ.

Ahh ok thanks - I'll have to check it out.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#257

Post by zokier »

ruralfam wrote: post #236

Mandatory if you have water troughs/tanks for animals such as goats or horses. Also a very good idea to encourage swallow nesting. Many an evening I watch a dozen or so swallows on our property dipping and diving in a sort or aerial mosquito feeding dance. Swallows are very cool btw. HTH, RF.

While swallows are definitely cool birbs, I would be very surprised if they had any noticeable effect on mosquito populations. There is even one study proposing that swallows attract more mosquitos!

https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/39/1/115/879132

choice quote:

> Cliff swallows occasionally eat mosquitoes (Brown and Brown 1996), but they represent an insignificant part of the diet

https://www.mosquitoalert.com/en/depredadores_naturales_de_l...

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#258

Post by muppetman »

mkmk wrote: post #47
muppetman wrote: post #6

Love the idea - I wonder what I can use in New Zealand though - these things can't be shipped to NZ (Note I'm not surprised by this fact, I didn't expect NZ to let in random loads of mosquito killing bacteria)

Why not?

I figured it would be a biosecurity issue - looks like I'm wrong though which is good!

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#259

Post by svantana »

lambdaone wrote: post #64
svantana wrote: post #48

With modern electronics, wouldn't it be possible to build a device that detects bugs using some type scanner (radar or whatever) and zaps them with a microwave laser? That seems like it could be 100x more efficient than this solution.

Buckets of bacterial muck sound a lot more efficient and environmentally friendly than expensive high-tech devices that need to be powered and maintained. And buckets are unlikely to blind anyone if their safety system fails.

Interesting, I had the opposite idea, where the bacterial solution seems destined to give rise to resistant mosquitos and god knows what other unintended side effects.

The energy needed to kill a mosquito shouldn't be more than a joule or so, and regarding blinding, I suggested the microwave spectrum specifically to avoid that problem.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#260

Post by jrs235 »

I've heard of some other possible additions and improvements to this setup. One is to cover it with Saran wrap and poke or cut a small hole in the middle of it and let it drape down a little bit so that any mosquitoes that find their way in can't find them way out to lay eggs again elsewhere. Another option is to add some yeast and a little bit of sugar so that CO2 is emanated from the bucket particularly the little hole if you use the previous "improvement".
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