Mosquito Traps
Mosquito Traps | Contact Mosquito Traps

Mosquito Traps

Mosquito Traps became popular in North America in the 1990's when the West Nile Virus hit the media. Mosquito traps come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, although currently most use a combination of attractants that the manufacturers claim are best for luring mosquitoes, and a fan or glue board to trap the mosquitoes once they are lured in. Some work quite a bit better than others. Currently the most popular mosquito traps on the market are the Mosquito Magnet, and the Lentek Mosquito trap. Each of these brands has a significant amount of tests and studies showing their traps effectiveness. Both types of traps use similar attractants, including a combination of carbon dioxide (CO2), heat, light, and octenol.

Mosquito traps usually take up to three weeks to really show an effect. That is not to say that you won't find tons of mosquitoes in your trap after the first few days. The issue is that mosquitoes will have already reproduced and the newborn mosquitoes will take some time to develop enough to be lured to the trap and exterminated. As the breeding population is reduced, the whole mosquito population will also be slowly reduced, until you no longer have a mosquito problem.

Mosquito Trap Placement

Where you place your mosquito trap is very important to it's success. You want to place the mosquito trap as far from where you are going to be as possible, while still keeping it between you and any standing water or other potential source of mosquitoes. You may have to try moving it to a few different areas on your property before you find the most effective spot. Choosing a mosquito trap that does not require electricity makes this placement much easier as you will not have to run extension cords to the far corners of your property.

Propane Mosquito Traps

Mosquito traps which utilize carbon dioxide offer the best mosquito trapping capacity. Even those traps created by the Center for Disease control uses this attractant. This is done on the belief that mosquitoes can sense the CO2 expelled by warm blooded animals when they breathe. Most residential mosquito traps will use propane to produce both the CO2 and the heat which has also been shown to attract female mosquitoes. Due to the amount of CO2 expelled by propane mosquito traps, they can often cover larger areas than chemical traps. Models which cover areas in excess of one acre are readily available for those with larger yards.

Chemical Mosquito Traps

A variety of chemical attractants are on the market these days, but the most common chemical seems to be octenol. Octenol has proven very effective at catching a variety of mosquito species. Due to the number of different mosquito species out there, and the diversity in the attractiveness of octenol to them though, it is usually combined with other attractants in most mosquito traps. If you are fortunate enough to have the right species of mosquito in your backyard, a strictly chemical octenol mosquito trap could be very effective over a small area.

Mosquito trap reviews

One simply has to do a google search in order to find a wealth of information on mosquito traps and all the different makes and models. Consumer reports has probably got one of the most extensive reviews on the most popular models. In most reports, the Mosquito Magnet, and the Lentek Mosquito Trap come out as the best overall traps, with the Lentek being slightly more affordable. Make sure when researching mosquito traps that you take most reviews with a grain of salt, as you may have a different species of mosquito in your area than the reviewer. If you can find a source of local reviews, they will probably be the most accurate for you.
Mosquito Trap information from Mosquito Traps . Info