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Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

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Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#271

Post by GeekyBear »

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…

You might try mosquito fish as a biological control. They also are effective in abandoned swimming pools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquitofish

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#272

Post by mattmaroon »

EasyMark wrote: post #265
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.

I have my doubts about this. I had my back/front yard sprayed for mosquitos and the population seems to have dropped by 90-95% while bbqing out back.

Fogging works for sure, and there’s lots of data to back it up, the issue is not efficacy but toxicity and environmental impact.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#273

Post by mattmaroon »

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…

Interesting, would any other cheap readily available acid (like citric) work too?

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#274

Post by foobarian »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #261
foobarian wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the next house I move to, I will look for an HOA that prohibits combustion-powered yard tools, and hires an all-electric crew for common maintenance, cost be damned.

Death to combustion powered yard tools!!! So frickin noisy!!!!

Even worse is, say you have 20 neighbors on the block each scheduling yard maintenance separately, then it's like the balls in bins problem, and you pretty much end up with these abominations making noise at least once a day (and weekends included because that's when Dad has time to do the weekend warrior thing and it takes him 3x as long as a professional crew). Sigh.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#275

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

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…

Why rotate?

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#277

Post by broguinn »

amluto wrote: post #87
nicolaslem wrote: post #57

I ended up building this entirely by accident. Last summer I wanted to have aquatic plants in my garden, so I made a small container pond. As you can imagine it quickly got invaded by mosquito larvae. By the time I realized I was getting raided by mosquitos each night, much more than previous years. After getting hold of the bacteria (not sure if it's completely allowed here, only Amazon would sell it to me) mosquito…

You can also add some small fish — many species of fish think that mosquito larvae and pupae are delicious.

I added 6 mosquitofish to my 110 gallon container pond two months ago. There are now nearly 100 in there, and the mosquito count in my back yard has definitely diminished.

Cool mosquitofish facts:

- An adult female can eat between 300-400 mosquito larvae in a single day.

- They're highly tolerant of low-oxygen and high-temperature water. They're hardy fish.

- They're native to North America, so pose little risk to getting into the water system, as they're already there.

- They're so effective at reducing mosquito populations, some local governments give them out for free.

src: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquitofish

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#278

Post by anitil »

bink wrote: post #263
abakker wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you toss a dunk on their roof.

Or a small amount of diesel fuel (the dunks are safer). People sometimes do this with abandoned pools.

What does diesel do? Does the layer of oil prevent mosquitos from laying eggs?

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#279

Post by op00to »

autoexec wrote: post #214
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…

You might have some success with talking to them, or even dropping a leaflet or a print out in their mailbox explaining the problem and encouraging them to check their yard for breeding grounds. A lot of folks (especially young ones) just don't think about that kind of thing, but very few people actually like mosquitos, so a polite reminder every couple years or when someone new moves in might do some good.

I had a neighbor with a bunch of trash in his backyard that collected water causing mosquito breeding. It was impossible to be outside for more than a few minutes. Despite being friendly with him, he took offense when I pointed out his problem and even offered to help lug the trash to the curb with him. Some people are just too proud.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#280

Post by op00to »

gameman144 wrote: post #181
shakow wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people parking their cars on their lawns. Indeed, God forbid people would like to park their cars on their property!

Some people like living in communities that look nice. It seems fair that you can opt-in to those rules by buying in an HOA, and if you do want to park on your lawn, buy elsewhere. (And I am not a fan of HOAs personally, so I do in fact live elsewhere, but my neighbors house is also an eyesore)

I live in a beautiful neighborhood. No HOAs.
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