Owen Jones, writes on many topics and is currently involved with commercial patio heaters. 

Would it not be lovely, at the end of a hard day’s work or on your day off, to relax outside on your patio deck?

A consideration, depending on where you live, could be the use of patio heaters. Furthermore, patio heaters are not that expensive any more and not that dear to run. If you add a mosquito trap and some lighting, you will have a pleasure to enjoy for the rest of your life. source

Mosquitos can make your life miserable. Between the itchy bites and the annual fears about insect-borne illnesses like West Nile Virus, it’s enough to make you hide indoors behind your screens. You can dress the part (long pants and sleeves) and slather on the Eau de Cutter, but if you live in a heavily infested area, even that might not be enough to escape the bites. Alternately, you can battle mosquitos by trying to kill them.

There are plenty of traps out there designed to do exactly this.  Mosquito traps do indeed catch mosquitos — sometimes in large quantities — and are best used as a key feature in a broader set of mosquito control practices. 

Two of the  best-reviewed mosquito traps, the Mega-Catch Premier and SkeeterVac SV1300, use different approaches to achieve the same goal as the Mosquito Magnet.  read more

When it comes to ridding private properties of mosquitoes, Benton County residents have their hands tied.  The state’s Department of Ecology has drafted new permit restrictions that, if passed, would prohibit the spraying of insecticides on mosquito populations near bodies of water.

These restrictions while aimed at protecting the environment from harmful chemicals could lead to an increase in adult mosquito populations as a result.  While the merits of spraying restrictions are debated homeowners faced with the prospect of a mosquito invasion are looking at alternative ways of keeping their backyards safe.

One type of mosquito killer being touted – the  mosquito magnet  – seems like the answer to a prayer.  These devices mimic humans by releasing CO2 to attract mosquitoes.  Combined with other attractants, mosquitoes are then lured to the trap and drawn into a net where they subsequently dehydrate and die.  These mosquito machines disrupt the mosquito breeding cycle without the use of harmful pesticides.

In places like Benton County, mosquito killers like these may well prove to be the most effective way to reduce mosquito populations and help combat the spread of diseases like dengue fever and West Nile virus.

There are two key elements to a successful mosquito trap.  First the ability to attract mosquitoes to the trap and second the ability to get the mosquitoes into the trap.

There are thousands of mosquito species worldwide.  Each species is unique and each is attracted by different combinations of sensory stimuli.  The trick for the mosquito trap manufacturer is to use combinations of stimuli which attract the target species.  Some manufacturers have gone to extraordinary lengths in this regard.  For example the gas release system on the Mega-Catch™ ULTRA is designed to replicate a key element of human respiration by releasing quantities of pure CO₂ at varying rates over fixed intervals to produce an exponentially decaying concentration gradient in the air plume emanating from the lower part of the trap with mosquitoes using this concentration gradient to navigate their way to the trap.

Mosquito Magnet® traps use counter flow technology with a patented catalytic converter to produce CO₂, heat and moisture to attract mosquitoes.  They also say that most mosquitoes require a secondary attractant to hone in on the trap for which they offer either Octenol or Lurex3™.    Read more

We’ve done the research, compared and reviewed all the top mosquito traps so you don’t have to. source

It’s important that consumers are able to make informed choices when purchasing any product. This website sets out to provide as much information as possible to help potential mosquito trap owners make those choices with a list of 5 things you need to know before you buy a trap:

1. What performance/features do you need the mosquito trap to have?

2. Will the trap be safe for the intended environment?

3. Will the trap operate reliably?

4. What are the running costs?

5. Can you expect to receive a high standard of after sales service?

Personal protection with products like DEET or Repel, together with mosquito netting and screens plus a mosquito trap or two will help make your yard a more enjoyable space over summer. 

You can keep mosquitoes outdoors by creating skeeter-free zones inside with screens and mosquito netting.   Mosquito nets are effective but protect limited spaces; mosquito traps protect larger open spaces. Nets are extremely effective at blocking mosquitoes; mosquito traps kill mosquitoes by attracting them in first.  

Mosquito traps are not a replacement for mosquito nets, screens or repellents, but an adjunct.  When used together they can help reduce dependence on sprays of toxic pesticides and provide an effective long term method of control by reducing the number of mosquitoes and other biting insects from your yard.

Yale University researchers have found more than two dozen scent receptors in malaria-transmitting mosquitoes that detect compounds in human sweat, a finding that may help scientists to develop new ways to combat a disease that kills 1 million people annually.

Female Anopheles gambiae mosquito

These olfactory receptors in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae offer scientists potential new targets for repelling, confusing or attracting into traps the mosquitoes that spread a disease afflicting up to 500 million people.

“The world desperately needs new ways of controlling these mosquitoes, ways that are effective, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly,” said John Carlson, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale and senior author of the study. “Some of these receptors could be excellent targets for controlling mosquito behavior.”

Source

In the past people relied on chemical sprays and the like to prevent mosquitoes from invading their homes and garden, but those chemicals aren’t much better for us than they are for the mosquitoes. Fortunately we’ve got better technology these days and mosquito traps are one of the best ways to get rid of mosquitoes.

The Blue Rhino SkeeterVac Mosquito Elminator is one the high end mosquito traps. Its works by transforming propane into CO2, which mosquitoes are attracted to (this is how they track you down in the dark — via the CO2 in your breath).

The Mega-Catch Premier is another impressive mosquito trap.  This trap does not use propane or other chemicals, but instead works by utilizing a UV light.

Read more @ http://hubpages.com/hub/Mosquito-Trapss

CHILDREN as young as 10 are being trained to be dengue busters, collecting and studying the mosquitoes that spread the potentially life-threatening disease.

Queensland Health, James Cook University and Cairns Regional Council are testing a dengue fever education campaign in Cairns schools, in an attempt to raise awareness of the disease from an early age.

As part of the project, students in years 5 to 7 are taught how to safely collect Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, breed them, and observe and record their life cycle, before disposing of the insects.

Education Queensland regional science manager Adam Hooper said there was no danger of catching dengue from the studies.  Read more @ http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/03/23/101191_local-news.html

A lot of the negative feedback you’ll see for mosquito traps is because new owners didn’t use them properly!

Mosquito traps don’t REPEL mosquitos, these machines ATTRACT the mosquitos and then kill them. It also takes a while for them to lure and kill a large local population. Buying a mosquito catcher in the afternoon and putting the unit in the middle of your big neighborhood barbeque that same night is a sure recipe for turning your party into an itchy, buggy disaster!

These mosquito machines should be placed a good distance from where people are congregating (ideally, 35′ or more), preferably upwind. Place mosquito traps on the perimeters of your yard, not in the middle of your activity area, and set them to run 24/7 or at least daily during peak insect activity times (dawn and dusk) at first. After several days they will have begun to kill off the existing colonies and you’ll be well on your way to a mosquito-free yard!  Source

Here’s a mosquito trap that may rightfully be called sexist.  

The “MozziQuit”, developed by Ignatius Noronha, a Mangalore based innovator, attracts and kills female mosquitoes to stop them from breeding.

Noronha was working for an American manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia until he set upon his new mission of developing a cost effective device to kill mosquitoes.

Explaining the science behind attracting mosquitoes, he said, “Mosquitoes normally detect human presence based on the carbon dioxide we exhale. 

There is a special additive I have added to the device, which attracts the mosquitoes.”

Read more  http://www.ptinews.com/news/495138_Eco-friendly-mosquito-traps-to-hit-markets-soon