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Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

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Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#51
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.

The population of mosquitoes isn’t increased by your bucket (assuming it kills them all) but some of them that would have laid eggs in a location that doesn’t kill them are now laying them in a location that does.

So it’ll be a reduction. How much probably depends on their other options.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#52

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!

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#53
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.

[dead]

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#55
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…

People have probably not defecated in your fresh water pipes. Your toilet bowl can’t claim the same.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#56

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.

I’d still take 10% as many mosquitoes over 100%.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#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) mosquitos are completely gone, in the pond and around.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#58
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…

Interesting. I have fungus gnat problems as well. I am going to give this a try, thanks for the tip!

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#59
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 agree in the sense that if everyone did their part, the outcome would be meaningful. This is not to say that traps don’t make your house more livable. Once, I lived in a house connected to a forest in Brazil—no real neighbors, and a shitload of mosquitoes. I did buy some fancy traps with UV lights and fans, and oh boy, I killed a shitload of them. Not to say I fully solved the mosquito problem, but I significantly…

The UV light traps attract all sorts of insects that aren't female mosquitos looking for a blood meal. They can catch mosquitos too, but probably not super well. A trap focusing on the scents they follow from humans would do more with less collateral damage.

Re: Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death

#60
post #15
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…

Would you drink out of your toilet?

You mean like from a toilet?
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