Electric insect killer ?

Recently, our housing estate was infected with mosquito due to the non- work schedule at a nearby construction site.So, i bought three unit electric mosquito & insect killer to help erodicate the problem. Although i switched on throughout the night, not a single mosquito was caught.My bare hands could do a much better job ! Is the UV-A ray effective to attract the mosquito and are the ray harmful to us ? Would like some suggestion and advice, Thanks. Regards

Reply to
mowhoong
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Mosquitos like CO2 (carbon dioxide), they also like dark colors and warmth resembling a mammal. I'd look more towards the infra-red end of the spectrum, but I'm guessing.

Reply to
Anthony Fremont

Mosquitoes aren't attracted to UV. Try a Mosquito Magnet

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Reply to
Homer J Simpson

Hang some dry ice underneath it.

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Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004

COOSN-266-06-25794
Reply to
Meat Plow

My brother-in-law would hang his bug zapper on the patio since it was near the power outlet and there was a hook. Not a thought that the bugs are then attracted to where he was located....

I recall a vacuum assisted version from my childhood years on the island. A fan would draw the bugs into the grid.

Reply to
Lord Garth

Yeh, you don't want to put a zapper close to where your activities are. I always put my 50 feet or so away. And it did work very well so I don't know what the OP was talking about, the "Black Light" FL tubes did attract them well along with every other flying thing.

version from my childhood years on the

Around here the local health department collects them with dry ice traps to test them for the West Nile virus. And I was under the impression that some of those available on the consumer end used something similar, maybe a canister of CO2 gas?????????????

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Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004

COOSN-266-06-25794
Reply to
Meat Plow

The version I'm aware of burns propane to create CO2.

The UV lamps in the above vacuum unit seemed to function quite well as the catch bag was usually full.

Yellow fever was the enemy.

My brother and I were about a half mile from the house on an estuary. We were plinking. The wind shifted from the north and we began to hear an unidentifiable noise. Turns out to have been about 300 trillion mosquitoes coming across the bay from the mainland swamps.

We run back to the house as fast as we could! This is also the last time I recall seeing DDT being fogged from a truck.

Reply to
Lord Garth

I go into the north west region of lake Winnipeg for fishing and the insects are atrocious. Where was it that you encountered all those mosquitoes? You mentioned yellow fever so that's what Asia?

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Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004

COOSN-266-06-25794
Reply to
Meat Plow

That would be Galveston, Texas. Once the yellow fever capitol of the US. Actually, yellow fever was never really any concern of mine. The epidemics were largely before my time.

The fish growing in the estuary certainly need the mosquito larvae for food so mass extermination had its effect on our fish and bird populations. The good news is that as of about 15 years ago, the brown pelican is back along with egrets and the occasional pink flamingo. The DDT almost made them extinct around home.

I was visiting a cousin in the Camrose area...there were indeed many insects around the lake however, these bugs didn't seem to like my "taste".

Reply to
Lord Garth

I saw some in tv that used a tank of LPG, which they converted in the normal fashion to CO2. creating warmth and humidity in the process things which also attract mozzies

I think some are also available that use yeast and sugar instead.

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
jasen

Back around early 1978 or so, I made a homebrew bugzapper and tried different lamps in it.

My findings:

  1. Best fluorescent lamp was "blue", as in /B color code, mainly available in 20 watt and 40 watt, 2-foot/4-foot, T12 (1.5 inch diameter) sizes. BLB and BL did not work as well, with BLB being the worse of those two. Somehow I suspect wider bandwidth and color like that of sky help, although including UV with this probably helps. Maybe 05 actinic will do well, but selection of sizes could be very limited.

  1. Fluorescent lamps appeared to me in my tests to attract insects better if they are fed filtered DC (or maybe AC of very high frequency). I have heard a bit that insects actually see 120 Hz flicker.

Keep in mind that one needs a resistor in series with a fluorescent lamp with DC. In addition, an inductor in series with the resistor helps if you use the "preheat" starting method.

  1. Mosquitoes are not that phototropic. The main lure of the particular ones that bite are the scent of CO2 and maybe in combination with perspiration scent and maybe with some sensation of warmth - that is how biting mosquitoes find their prey. And, only the females bite.

Light/UV does a better job of attracting a fair number of other insects

- including ones that attract natural enemies of mosquitoes. I suspect you don't want mosquito enemies in your immediate neighborhood to find your immediate neighborhood low on food!

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

See

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for a lot of info on this.

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Reply to
Homer J Simpson

The UV insect zappers kill a lot of insects (many may actually be beneficial), but "body count" studys of the insects killed have found that few (maybe 1%) that are killed are actually mosquitos.

Reply to
Si Ballenger

As others have mentioned the humble mozzie is not attracted by UV but rather by CO2, moisture, and warmth. Many commercial mosquito traps use some form of attractant to get them into a semi-enclosed space and to then drown or poison them by some means. One low cost scheme being developed in Australia plans to use bio-degradable cans or buckets made of corn starch which have a quantity of environmentally safe liquid insecticide at the bottom. The idea is for the female mosquitoes to lay their eggs in the liquid before flying off. The female is not killed but all the eggs are. The buckets are distributed as necessary to control mosquito breeding rather than to kill adult mosquitoes.

Eventually (about 6 weeks) the bucket degrades and releases any trapped liquid so that it does not become a breeding spot for other mosquitoes when it fills with rain. This saves any ongoing maintenance and the need for periodic emptying.

Here's one commercial system which would be suitable for a housing estate.

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As an aside, I thought there might be some on the NG who would be interested in Starkey's latest Luratrap product.

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The question is, 'would it be effective?'

Reply to
Ross Herbert

Snip

Go to the source of the problem! Solve that. Get the neighbors involved, here in Florida the county would be interested in removing the production site. Mike

Reply to
amdx

I have read the mosquito magnet commercial and found a cheaper and similar product using similar principles. It says it was designed in Korea and there is a still cheaper one if you scroll to the bottom. At 1/10 of the cost of the mosquito magnet, why not give it a shot if all other methods fail.

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FYI, I am not an employee or related to the commercial's company

Allen

Reply to
Allen Bong

Judging by the picture it collects moths not mosquitoes.

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Reply to
Homer J Simpson

May be that's why both of them start be "mo"!

Allen

Reply to
Allen Bong

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