"Ed Pawlowski" wrote:

-snip-
I used one for a couple of years and like yours, it would be loaded with
bugs. The problem, however, is that it attracted more bugs than when I had
nothing and it was still a net gain on my screen door in spite of those
killed away from the house where the zapper was hung. I'd never have one
again. . It may work better in more urban areas, especially if a few
neighbors have them too.

An entomologist was being interviewed about the various ways of
dealing with mosquitoes and said the propane zappers were a good gift
for a neighbor. He wouldn't use one on his property though.

It was a while ago, but I think his conclusion was deet and fans for
the best reduction in bites.

Jim

On Aug 15, 10:45*am, Yard Guy wrote:
I remember seeing these propane-powered mosquito traps at local big-box
hardware stores a few years ago, but I don't think I've seen any of them
lately.

What's the verdict on these things? *Are they effective?

If you are going to have a party, toss pieces of dry ice into a ditch
a few hundred feet away. They go for the carbon dioxide in your
breath,
the dry ice provides plenty of that, makes them head for the source.

Some have good luck with the traps, some don't. And there are some
possible reasons for the disparity. For one thing, wind direction. If
there
is a very gentle air movement sending the machine's attractant, but
the
mosquitoes heading for it find you before they get to it, you would
be
saying that it isn't doing the job. But if the neighbors on both sides
of
you use them, you would be saying you don't need one.

Most anything that makes carbon dioxide can serve as an attractant,
even the family dog. If you decide to get a device, be sure to decide
where your prevailing winds come from, and if wind speed is 3 miles
an hour or more, turn the unit off to save gas.

Also, consider taking 100mg. Vitamin B before you're going to be in
the yard, especially during the evening. And Avon Skin-So-Soft might
not be a bad idea, either. Neither are going to hurt, might help.

On Aug 16, 12:34*am, "Rod Speed" wrote:
dpb wrote:
Rod Speed wrote:
dpb wrote
Rod Speed wrote
dpb wrote
Yard Guy wrote
What's the verdict on these things? *Are they effective?
I've seen no independent testing results that indicated they're more
effective than alternatives tested--which is pretty much why they're
not particularly widespread; it appears that most of the glowing
testimonials are either sponsored "research" (read advertising hype)
or self-justification of the $$ spent to avoid admitting have been suckered.
It's been a while since I looked but google found several studies a
while back from various land-grant universities, etc., that
concluded they're of minimal help if any...
That can only be because some werent that well designed.
Its been known for a long time now what attracts mosquitos.
May be so;
No maybe about it.
You're taking that away from the rest of the sentence it was modifying to infer a totally different meaning from what
I said...

You're lying.

Certainly it's know what attracts skeeters to live critters; what's
not so clear is that the artificially-generated attempts are effective.

Corse its perfectly possible to provide the CO2, heat and
odours etc that are the same as what live humans produce.

as noted the testing results I remember seeing didn't demonstrate significantly higher preferential capture rates
for the devices.
Higher than what ? *If they capture anything,
they must be working better than no device at all.
Than the other devices in the test, obviously...

That means that those other devices are perfectly viable mosquito traps, stupid.

Particularly, they weren't effective for anything even
remotely approaching the acreage coverage claims iirc...
Different matter entirely.
But still a portion of the test and how effective they are for practical use.

Wrong on that last.

So what if even if they were 100% effective in a small radius--you going to limit your position into that area?

You havent established that they only work over a small area.

The devices are typically advertised as covering sizable fractions of an acre.

Irrelevant if you dont need as much as that.

There are likely newer studies available; others are welcome to pursue it. *Seems like it was LSU extension
maybe(???) that had some of the
most extensive that I saw previously but I'm not certain of that any longer....
Sounds like you are comprehensively garbling what they actually said.
No;

Yep.

the conclusions were they were no more effective than other traps tested w/o the CO2 attractants...

Easy to claim. Have fun actually substantiating that claim.

As they say, "you can look it up"...

As they say,

YOU made that claim about what they purportedly said.

YOU get to demonstrate that any actually said what you claim they said.

THATS how it works.

That's how the ignorant think it works. More knowledgeable persons
simply refute, then may or may not chastise.

Any device may kill tons of mosquitoes. Whether those kills provide
adequate relief is another story entirely.

Gas/smoke/heat emitting devices are obviously dependent on the speed
and direction of the wind, a severe limitation of effectiveness.

As a former PCO who lives in the woods with a SO who is outdoors
morning to usually late night I recommend materials that both kill and
repel. I use Tempo Ultra WP (available on eBay at nearly PCO $)
applied at a 0.10 concentration with a Birchmeier 2-1/2 gallon sprayer
(the Cadillac of sprayers).
http://www.birchmeier.com/English/Ab...8/Default.aspx
http://www.itbcompany.com/

The big downside is that pyrethrin insecticides, while safe for
mammals, aren't selective; they kill pretty much everything.

They are also quickly degraded by UV light (@48 hrs direct sunlight)
and while they will stick pretty good during a heavy rain, two rains
and they're in the dirt (it's been a tough year here in this regard,
it's rained twice every 3-4 days).

Another consideration is swimming pools. Get much in one by spray or
tracking) and you'll have algae growing like you've never seen before.

I spray everything in the vicinity; trees, grass, bushes, walls, deck
railing, being careful of overspray drift in the pool.

SWMBO sits out in her bikini unmolested by anything but me.

No "electronic" pest repellent/killer has been demonstrated to have
much effectiveness outdoors.

(I once met a client at a pet store and we put his new $50 electronic
rodent device in an aquarium full of mice. They immediately crawled
all over it.)
-----

- gpsman

gpsman wrote:
On Aug 16, 12:34 am, "Rod Speed" wrote:
dpb wrote:
Rod Speed wrote:
dpb wrote
Rod Speed wrote
dpb wrote
(snip)
No "electronic" pest repellent/killer has been demonstrated to have
much effectiveness outdoors.

Now if somebody could just come up with an electronic repellent for Rod
Speed...
(talk about futile battles...)

On Aug 16, 12:34*am, "Rod Speed" wrote:

You're lying.

Still working on those "people skills", I see.

on 8/15/2009 10:45 AM (ET) Yard Guy wrote the following:
I remember seeing these propane-powered mosquito traps at local big-box
hardware stores a few years ago, but I don't think I've seen any of them
lately. They retailed for around $300 and up to $450 if I remember
correctly. Some brand names include Skeeter Vac and Mosquito Magnet.

The premis is that they gave off a carbon-monoxide (or co2?) scent (by
burning propane) which would attract mosquitoes into a one-way bag where
they'd die. Some of the claims were that one unit was good for about an
acre of coverage.

The reviews on Amazon are mixed. Some claim it catches everything but
mosquitoes, some claim it works great on them. Many don't like the
ongoing cost of replacing sticky paper.

Some employ some combination (or all?) of these methods: heat, co2,
octenol, lactic acid, suction, blinking lights, sticky paper.

What's the verdict on these things? Are they effective?


The best mosquito killers are Bats. Build some Bat houses around your
yard. Bats require no electricity, chemicals, devices,or other man made
objects, other than the bat house, to eliminate mosquitoes and other
insects, .
http://www.batconservation.org/conte...mportance.html

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

willshak wrote:

The best mosquito killers are Bats.

While I've got nothing against bats, and wouldn't mind if there were
some around my place (I don't think there are any), I can't believe that
a mosquito is large enough to have an acoustic profile that would result
in it reflecting enough sound back to a bat to allow for echo location.

Or that there are enough calories in a mosquito to be worth the effort.

In other words, while I can believe that bats can detect, and eat, a lot
of flying insects (moths, etc) I simply don't believe that mosquitoes
form any significant portion of their diet.

"Yard Guy" wrote in message ...
In other words, while I can believe that bats can detect, and eat, a lot
of flying insects (moths, etc) I simply don't believe that mosquitoes
form any significant portion of their diet.

That's just plain ignorance. Bats eat lots of mosquitoes, and it doesn't
matter what portion of the bats diet mosquitoes make.

Yard Guy wrote:
I remember seeing these propane-powered mosquito traps at local big-box
hardware stores a few years ago, but I don't think I've seen any of them
lately. They retailed for around $300 and up to $450 if I remember
correctly. Some brand names include Skeeter Vac and Mosquito Magnet.

The premis is that they gave off a carbon-monoxide (or co2?) scent (by
burning propane) which would attract mosquitoes into a one-way bag where
they'd die. Some of the claims were that one unit was good for about an
acre of coverage.

The reviews on Amazon are mixed. Some claim it catches everything but
mosquitoes, some claim it works great on them. Many don't like the
ongoing cost of replacing sticky paper.

Some employ some combination (or all?) of these methods: heat, co2,
octenol, lactic acid, suction, blinking lights, sticky paper.

What's the verdict on these things? Are they effective?
When I lived in the Chicago area, a
local TV station did a test of various
mosquito units. As I recall, they found
these units to work real well. On
the down side, they were expensive and
expensive to run. They found
that the bug zappers not to do as well
(I'm digging this out from about 3
years ago, so it might not be real
accurate). Also, the one thing I remember
is that products like "Bug Free
Backyard" work almost as well and are
very cheap comparatively. You do have
to apply them every 3 weeks
or so. I've used this stuff in the
Chicago suburbs and
have been very happy with the results
..... probably poisoning me and
everything around me.

Chas Hurst wrote:

In other words, while I can believe that bats can detect, and eat
a lot of flying insects (moths, etc) I simply don't believe that
mosquitoes form any significant portion of their diet.

That's just plain ignorance. Bats eat lots of mosquitoes, and it
doesn't matter what portion of the bats diet mosquitoes make.

A bat that eats one mosquito per night would not it a good reason to try
to attract bats to my back yard.

And you didn't respond to my comment that I question if a mosquito is
large enough to be detectible to the echo-location mechanism that bats
use to locate and consume their flying food items at night.

Am I to assume that there is a debate regarding these propane-powered
traps, and if by the sake of their operation they end up attracting more
mosquitoes to an area than would ordinarily be there in the first place,
and that they may not capture these excess mosquitoes, thereby making
the mosquito problem worse for the backyard the unit is located in?

"Yard Guy" wrote in message ...
Chas Hurst wrote:

In other words, while I can believe that bats can detect, and eat
a lot of flying insects (moths, etc) I simply don't believe that
mosquitoes form any significant portion of their diet.

That's just plain ignorance. Bats eat lots of mosquitoes, and it
doesn't matter what portion of the bats diet mosquitoes make.

A bat that eats one mosquito per night would not it a good reason to try
to attract bats to my back yard.

And you didn't respond to my comment that I question if a mosquito is
large enough to be detectible to the echo-location mechanism that bats
use to locate and consume their flying food items at night.

"A single bat can swallow 600 to 1,000 mosquitoes an hour, depending on the
bat species. An individual bat feeds for an hour or so at dusk and retreats
to its home site to rest. A second feeding may take place near dawn. With
about 100 small brown bats in a typical single colony, a lot of mosquitoes
can disappear in a single night. "



http://news.ufl.edu/2004/10/27/bats-n-skeeters/

Moron.

Yard Guy wrote:

Am I to assume that there is a debate regarding these propane-powered traps,

Not that so much as many cant seem to grasp that by their
nature they are going to be quite dependant on the wind.

With that sort of variable, its not surprising that few can really
grasp the basics of when they work well and when they dont.

The other complication is that counterflow traps work a lot better
that traps that dont have counterflow as well as the propane.

and if by the sake of their operation they end up attracting more
mosquitoes to an area than would ordinarily be there in the first place,

That wouldnt matter if they then trap the mosquitos effectively.

and that they may not capture these excess mosquitoes,

They should do that if they are well designed.

thereby making the mosquito problem worse for the backyard the unit is located in?

There is no evidence of that. Like with anything tho, some work better than others.

Yard Guy wrote
Chas Hurst wrote

In other words, while I can believe that bats can detect, and
eat a lot of flying insects (moths, etc) I simply don't believe
that mosquitoes form any significant portion of their diet.

That's just plain ignorance. Bats eat lots of mosquitoes, and it
doesn't matter what portion of the bats diet mosquitoes make.

A bat that eats one mosquito per night would not it
a good reason to try to attract bats to my back yard.

And you didn't respond to my comment that I question if a mosquito
is large enough to be detectible to the echo-location mechanism that
bats use to locate and consume their flying food items at night.

It clearly must be when its known that bats eat
huge numbers of mosquitos in a single sitting.

And that is trivial to prove by killing the bats and examining their stomach contents.

Art Todesco wrote:
Yard Guy wrote:
I remember seeing these propane-powered mosquito traps at local
big-box hardware stores a few years ago, but I don't think I've seen
any of them lately. They retailed for around $300 and up to $450 if
I remember correctly. Some brand names include Skeeter Vac and
Mosquito Magnet. The premis is that they gave off a carbon-monoxide (or co2?) scent
(by burning propane) which would attract mosquitoes into a one-way
bag where they'd die. Some of the claims were that one unit was
good for about an acre of coverage.

The reviews on Amazon are mixed. Some claim it catches everything
but mosquitoes, some claim it works great on them. Many don't like
the ongoing cost of replacing sticky paper.

Some employ some combination (or all?) of these methods: heat, co2,
octenol, lactic acid, suction, blinking lights, sticky paper.

What's the verdict on these things? Are they effective?

When I lived in the Chicago area, a
local TV station did a test of various
mosquito units. As I recall, they found
these units to work real well. On
the down side, they were expensive and
expensive to run. They found
that the bug zappers not to do as well

Thats not surprising given that many in mosquito
infested areas find that they dont see any mosquitos
inside the house while the lights are on in the evening, and
get them zooming around you in bed with the lights off.

They clearly do prefer the dark.

It would be interesting to see if part of the reason for
the variable results some get with propane traps is just
whether they are located where its dark and where its not.

(I'm digging this out from about 3
years ago, so it might not be real
accurate). Also, the one thing I remember
is that products like "Bug Free
Backyard" work almost as well and are
very cheap comparatively.

Yeah, the maintenance man at one place I worked
at believed in those and applied them when there
was a big outside barbeque at work in the evening.
This is in an irrigation area where the mosquitos
have 6 engines. Worked very well.

You do have to apply them every 3 weeks
or so. I've used this stuff in the
Chicago suburbs and
have been very happy with the results
.... probably poisoning me and
everything around me.