I don't know about you, but with all the rain many parts of the country has been getting, Mosquitoes are large teeming hoardes everywhere! . I noted this article a couple of months ago but failed to follow up on it until today. Article as follows; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homemade Mosquito Traps . Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to lay eggs. Both male and female mosquitoes dine on flower nectar and fruit juice. New research from Israel and West Africa has discovered how to take advantage of these facts. Mosquito traps baited with mildly poisoned scented fruit juice reduce mosquito populations by close to 90%. Here is how to make some of these effective traps. . Materials; 1/16 dia. nail or drill bit, Quart size wide mouth container with a lid, 1 TBS sugar, 1/2 tspn Boric Acid, 1 cup smashed fermented fruit with some fruit juice, Jasmine essential oil (optional). . Instructions; Set the smashed fruit in the jars in the sun for a couple of days with lids on to speed the fermentation process. Drill several holes in the lid of each jar trap. Holes larger that 1/16 will aloow many beneficial insects as well. Keep the holes small. Add all the other ingredients to each jar mixing well. Place the traps in a sheltered locations where they won't get rained on and that you want to reduce the mosquito numbers. . Mosquitoes will feed on the boric acid laced juice and die . The research also indcated several species of mosquito was drawn to the scent of jasmine oil. Thus adding a few drops of this essential oil should add to their effectiveness. . Additional info on Mosquito traps may be found at; WWW.MotherEarthNews.com/Mosquito-Traps
Minor update here. I have obtained all the items required for making these mosquito traps. The mosquitoes here in the woods all around my bunker are as big a A-10s and almost as deadly. Also they are almost as numerous as US welfare recipients. My first trap has been assembled baited and set out. With any luck it will soon be filled with lots and lots of floating dead black dots. . I'll let you know how it goes.
If they prove to be effective as I have been led to believe they are, I will get pictures and post them. Digital cameras aren't exactly my thing, (I am a dinosaur), but I will see what I can come up with.
Update. Day 4. I had no rotting fruit on day one. I used new fruit juice with everything else as described. Nothing happened for multipe days. The fruit juice had to get ripe/nasty first. Saw my first dead mosquitos in the lone test jar yesterday. More today. There are still millions of large hungry freakin mosquitos all around my place. They find you in mere seconds and go to work biting. I have found a fruit and vegie stand that is going to let me have all the rotting juicy fruit I want to haul away. I will be manufacturing several more jar traps. Up to a dozen or more. I have over 2500 square feet of open porch to put them on. I will get pictures when I can, but this ain't rocket science folks. The initial post was pretty specific. They do work.