[HN Gopher] Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death
___________________________________________________________________
Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death
Author : almuhalil
Score : 321 points
Date : 2025-07-30 13:24 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.energyvanguard.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.energyvanguard.com)
| boringg wrote:
| Anything for deer flies and horse flies?
| diggan wrote:
| I guess the same principle can be applied to various insects
| you don't like. Step 1: Figure out how they lay their
| eggs/create their spawn. Step 2: Build a contraption that is
| the ideal place for them to reproduce. Step 3: Use appropriate
| poison to kill them off.
| itsanaccount wrote:
| deer and horse flies are fundamentally different. a horse fly
| can be caught by a chemical attractant, think the "pop" traps.
| Which you can scale to a 5 gallon bucket no problem.
|
| A deer fly goes after movement and the color blue, so your
| traps tend to be sticky traps, like a lowes bucket coated in
| tanglefoot. but you can't feed them to fish, chickens and
| they're a pain to clean.
|
| I've been looking for someone to scale up some kind of fan trap
| for deer flies, like think a bigger version of the Katchy UV
| traps, but so far nobody has done anything. A fellow had a good
| example of using blue nitrile gloves blown up and coated in
| tanglefoot on a stick but while cheap, still messy.
| floatrock wrote:
| In my parts, I've seen people put blue solo cups wrapped in
| glue/tape upside down on their lawnmowers or biking helmets
| as they're moving around.
| danslaboudoir wrote:
| I second this. I'm stood outside work being dive bombed by
| three of them as I type
| yrcyrc wrote:
| Very interesting we've had infestations here (France) while I was
| living in the south, adding biogents moquitaire traps is also
| successful as a complement, April onwards to October. But I love
| the name bucket of death. Tiger mosquitoes are such an annoyance
| lenerdenator wrote:
| This might actually be worth my time.
|
| I hate cutting my grass and don't spray because I don't want to
| decimate the ecosystem in my yard (also, I'm lazy and it's hot
| out, so mowing sucks) but mosquitoes are a real problem.
| muppetman wrote:
| Love the idea - I wonder what I can use in New Zealand though -
| these things can't be shipped to NZ (Note I'm not surprised by
| this fact, I didn't expect NZ to let in random loads of mosquito
| killing bacteria)
| mkmk wrote:
| Why not?
| muppetman wrote:
| I figured it would be a biosecurity issue - looks like I'm
| wrong though which is good!
| krunck wrote:
| There are tons of Bacillus Thuringiensis products for the
| organic gardening market. I'm sure they're available in NZ.
| muppetman wrote:
| Ahh ok thanks - I'll have to check it out.
| itsanaccount wrote:
| This is the same idea as the propane mosquito traps, that when
| run for a few weeks can eliminate a local population.
|
| But the only places where they're useful is exurban, edge of the
| city kinds of places. Places where we've already disturbed the
| local ecosystem so much that the populations aren't kept in
| balance. Otherwise your other environments don't need them:
|
| - a place where they're spraying so many pesticides that nothing
| survives, ie most cities
|
| - a place where the bats, barn swallows and larval predators are
| so plentiful mosquitos are kept in check.
|
| - a place where there are seasonal swarms of small bugs you
| simply cant put a dent in. people tend to visit these in-between
| seasons.
| diggan wrote:
| > The dunks contain an unhealthy--for the mosquito larvae--dose
| of the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, or BT. Don't worry
| about your dog, Moonpie, or your cat, French Fry. They can drink
| straight from the bucket and be perfectly fine. Hey, it's
| probably better than when they drink from your toilet, right?
|
| Here I was under the impression that the water in the toilet is
| the same water as go into the taps, potable water, at least
| that's common here in Spain. Is it not the same in the US? Then
| both of them may have stagnant water or even "polluted" water in
| one way or another, but seems more or less the same.
| cpfohl wrote:
| It's not the _water_ in the toilet that's gross to drink...
| woodruffw wrote:
| It's the same in the US. I think the author probably just meant
| that slightly buggy "pond" water is no worse than toiler water
| for a pet.
|
| (Americans also like to put all kinds of chemical pucks/cleaner
| devices in our toilets, so maybe the author is referring to
| that?)
| Dlanv wrote:
| Would you drink out of your toilet?
| hackeraccount wrote:
| You mean like from a toilet?
| doomspork wrote:
| It is the same water but it's also fairly common for people to
| use harsh chemicals and toilet tablets to keep them clean and
| smelling fresh. Those would not be so good for your pet.
| marcellus23 wrote:
| It's also fairly common for people to urinate and defecate in
| them.
| ethagknight wrote:
| author was just making a joke here. Yes it's all the same water
| in the US although some towns in actually have greywater
| distribution systems, mostly for irrigation and fire hydrants.
| Cerium wrote:
| Large new buildings in the Bay Area will use recycled water
| for toilets as well as irrigation. There are signs above
| every toilet telling you the water in the toilet is not fit
| for drinking.
| mattmaroon wrote:
| People have probably not defecated in your fresh water pipes.
| Your toilet bowl can't claim the same.
| kortilla wrote:
| In the US we shit in our toilets.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Porcelain isn't zero percent porous. It's just the least porous
| material that can also support the weight of two people when
| fashioned into the shape of a toilet. There's a reason toilet
| cleaners still contain bleach.
| fwip wrote:
| Two people - what are people doing on their toilet? (Or do
| you just mean 2x normal weight, as a safety factor?)
| jihadjihad wrote:
| This whole thread is comedy gold.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| Ironically toilets are usually one of the cleanest locations in
| the US. There is no real concern about chemicals used, since no
| one should be drinking or eating from a toilet bowl. Generally
| speaking you wouldn't wash your plates with bleach
| siliconc0w wrote:
| You can also try a simple fan blowing over the sitting areas,
| mosquitos (and other bugs) have difficulty flying in the breeze.
| I sometimes bring a small fan camping since the breeze is nice
| and I hate applying deet.
| tqwhite wrote:
| I love DEET. It is absolutely the perfect way to avoid
| mosquitos and ticks.
|
| At home though, I use Thermacell. It's the only thing I have
| ever used that makes a measurable difference. Of course, you
| need to have one ever four or five feet unless the air is
| perfectly still but that's a small price.
| itsanaccount wrote:
| Deet works just fine and is safe for us, but Picaridin works
| just as well and is safe for dogs. Thermacells are putting a
| pyrethroid into vapor. Flat out its a neurological toxin, its
| just a matter of dose. I use one now and again but I can't
| help remember all the early onset parkinsons diagnoses, and
| how those cases are going up.
| mcflubbins wrote:
| Having lived in places were mosquitos thrive, I 100% agree
| with you.
|
| I keep bottles and sachets of OFF's DEEP WOODS DEET fueled
| repellant in my car, book bags, its a must-have.
| Hilift wrote:
| Deet works on most things except deer flies. One bite is
| usually enough to itch for hours. They feed during the
| daytime.
|
| "Their mouthparts include two pairs of cutting "blades" that
| lacerate skin and cause flow of blood out of the wound, which
| females lap up with a sponge-like mouthpart."
|
| https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publichealth/insects/taban.
| ..
| beala wrote:
| DEET is super effective, especially if you go to an outdoors
| store like REI and get the extremely concentrated 95% DEET
| they make for backpackers. Will it give me cancer on 20
| years? Who knows. But it does work.
| bjackman wrote:
| FWIW, I have found that icaridin-based repellents also work.
| It's dramatically less unpleasant than DEET!
|
| (If you find that a fan works, that's even better! But I never
| really find these environmental interventions are good enough,
| they always get me at some point regardless)
| mattmaroon wrote:
| Fans work great as long as you're in the path of the fan.
| Mosquitoes are not very strong flyers. I use them with my hot
| tub because when I'm in there I'm not moving around.
|
| The problem, of course, is that the path of a fan is huge and
| how many fans are you really going to have around?
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Icaridin generally doesn't last as long as DEET though.
|
| For fans, I have seen people make mosquito traps by attaching
| a bug net to a fan, sometimes combined with a CO2 generator
| as bait. I don't know how effective it is in practice. What
| we do sometimes is to put a fan under the table, it helps a
| little against low flying mosquitoes, definitely not as
| effective as DEET though.
| joenot443 wrote:
| I'm super into this idea, especially as an alternative to
| spraying.
|
| Has anyone found success in this approach? This could be a game
| changer for my backyard this fall.
| IpV8 wrote:
| I have tried this a few times. If you live in the woods with
| lots of standing water, then it has literally no effect. I
| bought a giant supply of bacillus thurengensis pellets and put
| them in every body of standing water around the property weekly
| for a whole summer and still got annihilated by mosquitos. Now
| I spray, and while I hate pouring chemicals all over the
| property, it works fantastically well.
|
| I could imagine it working alright if you live in the city or
| maybe a suburban area.
| palashkulsh wrote:
| Try putting temephos in the standing water.
| rendaw wrote:
| I don't entirely get this. If you have more spots with water,
| doesn't that just mean mosquitoes will lay more eggs? Which will
| then die, but +/- 0. How effective is this, actually.
| Zak wrote:
| If there are more mosquitoes than egg-laying spots, then yes.
| If there are more egg-laying spots than mosquitoes, then no.
| wing-_-nuts wrote:
| Nope, you're effectively creating a population sink. A
| welcoming oasis that just so happens to be a poisoned well. The
| trick is to put these out and carefully monitor anything else
| that could be alternative breeding habitat (anything that can
| catch water)
| shruggedatlas wrote:
| I've never attempted it so I don't have any first-hand
| judgements of its effectiveness. However, the logic in the
| article seems reasonable. A backyard which already has a high
| population of mosquitoes implies the area has existing spots
| with standing water where the eggs are being hatched. Adding
| controlled spots of water would concentrate those eggs there
| and kill them off before they have a chance to hatch more eggs
| and add to the population. Then, the existing adults die off
| naturally within weeks, and you should be left with a "mosquito
| free yard"
| mattmaroon wrote:
| The population of mosquitoes isn't increased by your bucket
| (assuming it kills them all) but some of them that would have
| laid eggs in a location that doesn't kill them are now laying
| them in a location that does.
|
| So it'll be a reduction. How much probably depends on their
| other options.
| seatac76 wrote:
| I put Mosquito dunks in the buckets in my yard which kills the
| larvae, it has worked so far, no standing water plus dunks
| where water might pool.
| fwip wrote:
| There are multiple limiting factors on mosquito egg-laying -
| availability of water is just one of them. The energy/nutrition
| required to produces eggs (which comes from blood) is also a
| factor, plus time, etc.
|
| I'm sure there is some extra egg-laying, but there are also
| eggs laid there that would have otherwise been in suitable
| water.
| tqwhite wrote:
| Every time I have read science guys about things that you can do
| to kill mosquitos there is an analogy to putting a drain in the
| ocean. You can kill mosquitos at a fantastic rate but, unless you
| are also killing them in all your neighbor's yards for a mile
| around, they are just going to keep coming as fast as they die.
| wing-_-nuts wrote:
| Mosquitos don't actually like to fly that far for their meal /
| breeding grounds, and _yes_ you should absolutely be buying
| these for your neighbors. Make a little gift basket
| jmuguy wrote:
| Bingo. We did these buckets, were very diligent about it. They
| appeared to work (at least in terms of _attracting_ Mosquitos,
| which they 're meant to do) but had no real effect generally.
| House next door is a rental, with a rotating cast of
| 20-somethings that do not keep up the yard and its filled with
| nice little habitats for Mosquitos.
|
| One thing that an HOA might actually be good for - I would love
| to see what happens if our entire neighborhood did this.
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| > One thing that an HOA might actually be good for
|
| I've gotten nothing but benefits from living in neighborhoods
| with HOAs. Basic stuff like funding for landscapers to keep
| up the shared grassy areas along the streets, to plowing the
| access roads in winter time. But the main benefit has always
| been that it provides a legal mechanism to force everyone to
| maintain their yards and property. No need to drop passive-
| aggressive notes in a mailbox about people parking their cars
| on their lawns.
|
| 10/10 highly recommend
|
| edit: apparently you guys don't like HOAs haha. Well I love
| them. Keeps the neighborhood from looking like a dump.
| shakow wrote:
| > people parking their cars on their lawns.
|
| Indeed, God forbid people would like to park _their_ cars
| on _their_ property!
| arcticfox wrote:
| Yes indeed! One of the reasons I'm personally happy to
| live in an HOA after having lived in an area where lawn
| junkyards were common.
| gameman144 wrote:
| Some people like living in communities that look nice. It
| seems fair that you can opt-in to those rules by buying
| in an HOA, and if you _do_ want to park on your lawn, buy
| elsewhere.
|
| (And I am not a fan of HOAs personally, so I do in fact
| live elsewhere, but my neighbors house is also an
| eyesore)
| kspacewalk2 wrote:
| To each their own. I much prefer to live in the
| neighbourhood where each neighbour does what they feel like
| with their property, within reason. It ought not be any
| business of yours what I do with my yard, front or back, as
| long as it doesn't adversely affect your enjoyment of your
| own property - and this last part is key - as a reasonable
| person would interpret it. In other words, smells and
| health hazards - sure. Unexplainable hatred for
| wildflowers, uncut grass and the laughter of children - go
| ahead and send a passive aggressive note straight to
| /dev/null for all I care.
| Arainach wrote:
| The issue is that it's hard to agree on where the line is
| and (without a HOA) impossible to enforce.
|
| Wildflowers? Generally good.
|
| Tall grass that allows rats to thrive and spread into
| adjacent yards? Bad.
|
| Most people don't want to have to go to court to battle
| pedantic neighbors who confuse the two.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| If it comes to it, cops, 311 and probably other means are
| available. It's possible to enforce and court is not
| needed.
| Arainach wrote:
| It's hard enough to get the cops to come out to a robbery
| - I know of nowhere in America where they're bored enough
| to come look at someone with poor landscaping.
|
| Unless you're a decamillionaire (or a cop), the cops in
| America don't care about you.
| autoexec wrote:
| > I know of nowhere in America where they're bored enough
| to come look at someone with poor landscaping.
|
| People get fines all the time for failing to cut their
| grass. Some cities just love the income. They can add up
| to several thousand
| (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/in-court-of-
| appeals/168774...).
| c22 wrote:
| If you're feeling like an asshole and you complain to the
| city about your neighbors overgrown yard most places will
| start fining your neighbor daily if it's actually a
| problem. It's not really a police matter though.
| chasd00 wrote:
| Heh in my neighborhood (oakcliff in Dallas TX) if you're
| white and have a garage sale without a permit it's like
| committing a felony. If you're not white, code
| enforcement will come help you set up and tear down no
| permit required.
| gspencley wrote:
| > and the laughter of children
|
| This I will take a nuanced position on. If your kids are
| playing in the backyard, and it doesn't impact me at all
| ... perfect please enjoy life.
|
| But I can often hear people outside, especially children
| screeching and yelling, over my television with all of my
| doors and windows shut and the air conditioner on full
| blast.
|
| In those scenarios, the laughter IS adversely affecting
| the ability of other people to enjoy their own property.
| autoexec wrote:
| children screeching and yelling, provided that it isn't
| going on for hours at a time or in the middle of night,
| is just a normal consequence of living in a community.
|
| I do feel for people who move in next to schools or
| public pools/playgrounds but considering how much time
| kids spend indoors these days I'd guess that people today
| have it much easier than people did in the past.
|
| I'd much rather have to occasionally be reminded that
| kids are somewhere playing and having a good time than
| deal with a lot of the other noises that can disrupt a
| person's day like loud cars/motorcycles, drunk people
| fighting, landscapers or sirens.
| c22 wrote:
| If you move next to a playground you should know what
| you're doing. My parents live next to a school on purpose
| and we all enjoy the sounds of children when we're out in
| the yard. Recess isn't even that long and always happens
| in the middle of a weekday.
| gspencley wrote:
| > children screeching and yelling, provided that it isn't
| going on for hours at a time
|
| But it does often go on for hours at a time. And I'm not
| talking about a school zone or a park. As another person
| pointed out, if you move next to a school or a park you
| know what you are signing up for. But in a quiet suburb,
| if the issue is new neighbours that weren't there when
| you bought the house.. or who just started a family
| recently. That's something that's being imposed on you
| that didn't exist before.
|
| And we don't tolerate this when it is barking dogs or
| loud music. Most cities have noise ordinances and I even
| read mine because of problematic neighbours. Not because
| of children, mind you. The man was an alcoholic who would
| get drunk early in the morning and go into his backyard
| where he would have loud screaming matches with
| hallucinations which terrified our small daughters so I
| wanted to know if the noise ordinance covered it. Answer
| is, technically yes but the police don't enforce yelling
| and hollering despite it being spelled out in the letter
| of the bylaw.
|
| Why is it acceptable to expect people to keep their pets
| quiet, their music at a reasonable volume, their power
| tools and machinery at bay and to not have extremely loud
| parties where people are screaming and blasting noise ...
| but the second it's loud children we're talking about oh
| no ... you just need to learn to "live in a community"?
|
| You can make the same argument about anything. Living
| with neighbours who have tall grass is part of "living in
| a community." Some people don't care about well trimmed
| lawns. Motorcycles with extremely loud engines, just part
| of "living in a community." Barking dogs. Honking car
| horns etc. etc. etc. We have noise ordinances for a
| reason; noise directly affects other people.
|
| And I say all of this as a parent who raised two
| daughters to adulthood. I don't understand this weird
| standard. We (their mother and I) always expected our
| children to be respectful of our neighbours.
| c22 wrote:
| Sometimes I hear dogs barking and loud cars on the
| street. Or just the constant drone of weed whackers and
| leaf blowers from about april to october. I have triple
| glazed windows and eight inch thick walls so I don't hear
| any of it when I go inside.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| >"within reason".
|
| Key word there. HOA rules exist for the sole purpose of
| defining a common, enforceable, agreed upon definition of
| "within reason".
| Etheryte wrote:
| Over maintained yards are a leading reason for having no
| biodiversity around your home. First you lose the bugs,
| then the birds and over time this extends to everything.
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| A 3" cut once a month during peak growing season is
| hardly "over maintained". Every HOA community I've lived
| in has been perfectly reasonable.
| ben_w wrote:
| Without knowing where you are exactly, I can only give a
| vague and general response such as "in much of the USA,
| the mere existence of a lawn is 'over maintained'", see
| also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| Oh I don't live in Nevada or Arizona, if that's what you
| were implying. Also, this thread is about the utility of
| HOAs, so in the example you're giving, then HOA can
| actually be _more beneficial_ since they often include
| bylaws to restrict or prevent landscaping and watering
| during periods of water conservation. It goes both ways.
| ben_w wrote:
| What I'm implying is: HOAs can mandate bad things,
| including in various cases lawns, because an absence of
| good reasoning when mimicking others isn't the preserve
| of individuals.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > I've gotten nothing but benefits from living in
| neighborhoods with HOAs.
|
| I'm happy somebody has. Except for you, I have never heard
| anything but nightmares from the people I know who suffer
| under HOAs.
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| I question the motivation of people choosing to live in a
| place where they are constantly at odds with the agreed-
| upon standards of the community. They should leave if it
| is really that stressful and onerous.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| And this is how we get Redlining
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| Not sure how redlining comes into this. Everyone in my
| neighborhood provided no fewer than 3 signatures in a
| contract agreeing to abide by the well-documented
| community standards for use and upkeep of their property.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| I'm sure those community standards don't suggest in any
| way that they might impinge on the freedom of expression
| of any minorities who might consider moving to the
| neighbourhood...
| snacktaster wrote:
| > freedom of expression
|
| I don't believe that it is a constitutional right to live
| in a neighborhood that will permit you to operate a chop-
| shop in your overgrown yard.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| The problem is that those standards can change based on
| who's elected or chosen to run the HOA.
| arcticfox wrote:
| they can, but in my experience rule changes are
| approximately zero. All of the HOAs I've lived in have
| been very reasonable. When I was on the receiving end of
| notices - they were well-deserved as much as they were
| embarrassing.
| petcat wrote:
| Such is the problem with living in a "town" -- or
| anywhere with a city/community council. People are
| allowed to move to an adjacent neighborhood, or county,
| or anywhere, if they don't like the standards and
| governance.
| JohnFen wrote:
| It's not a question of being at odds with the agreed-upon
| standards. They aren't.
|
| > They should leave if it is really that stressful and
| onerous.
|
| Easier said than done. A few people I know found that it
| was difficult to sell their home because the existence of
| an HOA scares off buyers.
| petcat wrote:
| > difficult to sell their home because the existence of
| an HOA scares off buyers
|
| It can be a concern. But I actually found the opposite to
| be true in my case. During my house-hunt I was far more
| turned-off by the appearance and disrepair of several
| houses and properties near the places that I was looking
| at. So it can definitely be a consideration from both
| perspectives.
| antisthenes wrote:
| > place where they are constantly at odds with the
| agreed-upon standards of the community.
|
| I didn't write those standards, so why would I agree with
| them? Should I be homeless now?
| petcat wrote:
| You seem to not understand what a Homeowner Association
| is. You _have to_ agree to the rules in order to live in
| the community. However, you can choose _not to_ agree to
| the rules if you don 't like them. In which case, you can
| move somewhere else in order to avoid homelessness.
| lovich wrote:
| You can't have a property under an HOA that you didn't
| agree to. Either you were the owner when the original HOA
| was entered into, or you were aware of it when you
| purchased the property.
| foobarian wrote:
| The thing that really makes me wonder are some of the
| horror stories where new homeowners were surprised by the
| HOA existence, or at least some of the enforcement
| actions. It also seems like an easy thing to fake for the
| clicks, who knows.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| No one is going to rant about how their HOA is pretty OK.
|
| My building has an HOA, and the worst I can say about is
| that's it's pretty boring.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| There's a vast difference between the HOA for a building,
| and one for a suburban neighborhood.
| criddell wrote:
| My suburban neighborhood has an HOA and it's fine. Most
| of what they do is take care of the community swimming
| pools, sports fields, dog park, tennis courts, and
| landscaping and signage along the roads.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| > Basic stuff
|
| You like paying extra for stuff that is normally included
| in your property taxes? I'm dumbfounded.
| Arainach wrote:
| Property taxes basically never pay for privately owned
| things, be that landscaping in common spaces, maintenance
| of private neighborhood roads, etc.
| dsr_ wrote:
| The alternative is public space and public roads.
| Arainach wrote:
| These don't work because suburbs are a ponzi scheme that
| is collapsing.
|
| People are grudgingly willing to pay to put in a brand
| new sewer once. No one wants to fund maintenance or pay
| millions to replace it in 60 years and cities are
| literally going bankrupt because the population density
| isn't enough to maintain the infrastructure.
|
| Cities realized this decades ago which is why many are
| reluctant to add more unsustainable public
| roads/sewers/etc. and insist new development owns and
| funds them privately....which tends to require a HOA to
| fund maintenance from communal contributions/reserves.
|
| https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/01/benjami
| n-h...
| mgerdts wrote:
| My back yard neighbors live on a private street with an
| HOA. When the city water pressure went high for a brief
| period of time, they were one of the few places to have
| water lines burst. Their private supply lines were not of
| the same rating as the city lines that supply similar
| neighborhoods. Since this was private, this HOA was on
| the hook for ripping up the street, repairing water
| lines, and fixing their street. Being a customer that
| doesn't normally need such services, the fix was done a
| couple months after the water lines break. They had a
| week or so with no water and many weeks of water being
| fed to their homes via hoses connecting a fire hydrant
| and the spigots they would normally use to get water
| outside.
|
| They were so lucky this happened in the summer. In the
| winter, the hoses would have frozen solid.
|
| These folks were very sad the city's water utility
| couldn't do the work. They fix water main breaks within a
| couple days, usually the same day.
| owlstuffing wrote:
| Oh, how I've never wanted downvote power more.
| nick__m wrote:
| Submit interesting unique links and post more substantive
| comments (maybe add a paragraph or two your previous
| comment) and you will be able to downvote soon enough.
| But I don't understand the appeal, when I do it is
| usually accidental (really easy to do on a tablet)...
| c22 wrote:
| I usually downvote comments that are derailing the thread
| or are so lazy as to feel like a waste of my time to have
| read.
|
| I'll often upvote comments with opinions that are counter
| to my own, especially if they are presented in a clear,
| coherent, or novel way that causes me to think a bit.
| lovich wrote:
| Downvoting is a gated power on this site?
| soulofmischief wrote:
| You just need 500 karma to downvote.
|
| It helps prevent brigading and ensures that users have a
| moment to adjust to the community and its general
| expectations before being able to participate in
| community moderation.
|
| If a user cannot reach that low bar after a while, they
| probably aren't a particularly active or positive member
| of the community.
| axus wrote:
| A neighbor had a bus under renovation in their driveway for
| a few years. That really bothered one guy, the rest of us
| just rolled our eyes.
|
| HOA is another layer of local government, I think it's
| great that moving is a chance to choose the government (or
| anarchy) that you prefer.
| gcanyon wrote:
| I have a friend whose parents built a 48' sailboat in
| their yard over about a dozen years. "built" as in cast
| the lead keel, laid the fiberglass hull, etc. etc. This
| was in a traditional suburban neighborhood, but no HOA.
| So they had to be pretty good friends with their
| neighbors.
| nkrisc wrote:
| HOAs can be good. Like many things, HOAs are not inherently
| bad or good. It's the people who run them.
|
| I lived in a four unit condo buildings before and the HOA
| was fine, because all residents were on the board.
|
| I now live in a more typical suburban HOA development and
| the HOA is very unobtrusive and only comes down on the
| actual problem properties (overgrown, uninhabited houses)
| and doesn't do much other than handle common area upkeep.
| Dues are only $150 per year.
| johnkizer wrote:
| From what I can tell, HOA experiences - like politics - are
| highly dependent on the folks who would make good decision-
| makers actually being interested in, and attaining, the
| level of power in the association to make those decisions.
|
| I've seen both - folks who are good stewards of the
| community's money and add to its energy, and folks who
| can't manage money and exhaust the community's energy on
| trivialities.
| antisthenes wrote:
| > edit: apparently you guys don't like HOAs haha. Well I
| love them. Keeps the neighborhood from looking like a dump.
|
| This is so good, it can be used as a textbook definition of
| a strawman.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| "Keeps the neighborhood from looking like a dump."
|
| The single highest priority in life. Completely reasonable
| to give up everything else to get that.
| foobarian wrote:
| I think the next house I move to, I will look for an HOA
| that prohibits combustion-powered yard tools, and hires an
| all-electric crew for common maintenance, cost be damned.
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Death to combustion powered yard tools!!!
|
| So frickin noisy!!!!
| anon84873628 wrote:
| HOAs are like any government. Some are run well and have
| good laws, others not -\\_(tsu)_/-
| Xss3 wrote:
| I would love to live in a neighborhood full of meadow style
| gardens, where native plants are allowed to flower and feed
| bees, with bug habitats instead of neatly cut astroturf
| looking golf green lawns chock full of pesticides.
|
| I can't understand the people that think the artificial look
| holds any beauty whatsoever.
| c22 wrote:
| The artificial look visibly demands a large amount of
| ongoing maintenance and thus acts as a convenient display
| of excess spending power. It's like the peacock's tail for
| capitalists.
| pfdietz wrote:
| Veblen goods are a plague.
| kulahan wrote:
| This is true for a highly attractive wild lawn as well.
| When things grow truly wild, they're all competing and
| none do _fantastically_. If you 've got a beautiful yard
| full of happy native plants, you've likely done some
| _serious_ work, even if you 're just out-competing the
| invasive plants.
|
| That being said, a yard of native plants can still do
| more good than a yard of grass. Grasses are cool and come
| in many other forms though, and can be extremely
| resistant to drought. Native grasses often have much
| deeper roots, or even taproots sometimes.
| throwawaymaths wrote:
| although meadow style gardens would increase bugs, i
| imagine they would decrease mosquitos?
| Xss3 wrote:
| More natural predators can't hurt. They don't predate
| other bugs.
| autoexec wrote:
| You might have some success with talking to them, or even
| dropping a leaflet or a print out in their mailbox explaining
| the problem and encouraging them to check their yard for
| breeding grounds. A lot of folks (especially young ones) just
| don't think about that kind of thing, but very few people
| actually like mosquitos, so a polite reminder every couple
| years or when someone new moves in might do some good.
| diogolsq wrote:
| I agree in the sense that if everyone did their part, the
| outcome would be meaningful.
|
| This is not to say that traps don't make your house more
| livable. Once, I lived in a house connected to a forest in
| Brazil--no real neighbors, and a shitload of mosquitoes.
|
| I did buy some fancy traps with UV lights and fans, and oh boy,
| I killed a shitload of them. Not to say I fully solved the
| mosquito problem, but I significantly reduced the bites. My
| wife is allergic to them, so she's a great sensor--if there's
| even one mosquito in the room, she knows.
| goda90 wrote:
| The UV light traps attract all sorts of insects that aren't
| female mosquitos looking for a blood meal. They can catch
| mosquitos too, but probably not super well. A trap focusing
| on the scents they follow from humans would do more with less
| collateral damage.
| sciencejerk wrote:
| CO2 traps (using CO2 tank, yeast, decaying plant matter)
| are effective at attracting mosquitos but not other bugs
| (from experience)
| whalesalad wrote:
| My closest neighbor is about 500 feet away
| esafak wrote:
| Rookie numbers!
| schiffern wrote:
| Mosquitos don't fly very fast or very far, and they breed
| extremely fast, so if you have nearby puddles you get a "local
| high density" zone. The inflow is so large that it never
| settles down to the expected steady state with uniform density.
|
| It's the same reason you have a high density of sports fans
| when you stand near the exit of a stadium after a game. The
| people (mosquitos) are streaming out of the stadium (standing
| water) so fast that there's a local high-density zone.
|
| I literally live in a swamp, so I reasoned "how much could one
| tire hurt?" _Oh boy_ was I wrong! Eliminating that one single
| mosquito breeding site near the house made an _enormous_
| difference on the local mosquito density.
| sciencejerk wrote:
| I've been using a 20 lb CO2 tank to bait mosquitos into an
| enclosure with a fan which provides gentle suction, with a fair
| amount of success. This method does reduce numbers from areas
| that are not under your control, but the "dunks" are probably
| still the cheapest easiest treatment for local buggers
| 01100011 wrote:
| This. My old neighbor had a broken hot tub that would breed
| thousands of mosquitoes. Buying the fancy, $200, german made
| trap was satisfying because of how many it caught but it didn't
| keep you from being bit.
| EasyMark wrote:
| I have my doubts about this. I had my back/front yard sprayed
| for mosquitos and the population seems to have dropped by
| 90-95% while bbqing out back.
| happyopossum wrote:
| The key to this working is ensuring that the buckets are the only
| standing water around. If even 10% of the females decide to use
| your clogged gutter, broken water fountain, or forgotten
| livestock waterer instead of your buckets, you will still have a
| mosquito problem.
| itsanaccount wrote:
| dont tell them. theres nothing i love more than a site full of
| programmers swarming around a simple cheap product solution to
| a large scale ecological problem. keeps em off the other sites.
| schiffern wrote:
| In other words, _the real tip is to eliminate standing water_.
|
| This matches my experience. Building these buckets did nothing,
| and maybe made it worse. Putting 1/10th as much effort into
| eliminating standing water is what actually fixed my problem.
|
| Remember, mosquitos can breed in a puddle the size of a bottle
| cap!
| autoexec wrote:
| > Building these buckets did nothing, and maybe made it
| worse.
|
| How could it have possibly made it worse? Even if it only
| prevented a small fraction of the mosquito population from
| reproducing it'd still be helping.
| schiffern wrote:
| Mosquitos are attracted to breeding sites, including the
| buckets. They may not successfully reproduce but they're
| still preferentially lured into your yard.
|
| The common gardener's joke about these sort of bug
| attracting methods (eg Japanese beetle traps) is to buy one
| and put it in your neighbor's yard. :)
| mitkebes wrote:
| > Remember, mosquitos can breed in a puddle the size of a
| bottle cap!
|
| There's been so much rain these past months that my entire
| yard has been filled with puddles. There's only so much you
| can do to eliminate standing water when it's everywhere.
| mattmaroon wrote:
| I'd still take 10% as many mosquitoes over 100%.
| tclancy wrote:
| Yeah, I tried using the dunks as-is when we first moved to the
| semi-woods and realized how Sisepheyan the task was. That said,
| this bucket approach is interesting.
| bodhi_mind wrote:
| I definitely notice an increase in local (my backyard) mosquito
| activity if I accidentally leave standing water around. So I can
| see this working.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Cool. I had an idea recently of creating breeding buckets that
| automatically flush the water onto the ground and refill every
| day or two. Mosquito breeding decoys without chemicals.
| bjackman wrote:
| Some species of mosquitoes are able to survive their egg site
| drying out for quite some time. They go dormant and then hatch
| when they are rehydrated.
|
| I believe this is quite dependent on the timing in the
| lifecycle though so maybe there's a design for this that works
| regardless, just by getting the periodicity right.
|
| Edit: ah no, according to AI, the window before they become
| dessication-resistand is very short.
|
| However, another idea (actually even simpler, no moving parts):
| a UV lamp that turns on for an hour every day would probably
| kill them pretty dead!
| Spagbol wrote:
| Currently I've been using these to deal with fungus gnats in my
| indoor plants; they are quite effective, just put one in my
| watering can, keep the watering can full so it can steep, and
| water as normal. It kills the larvae in the same way and after
| about a month I had no more fungus gnat problem (after trying
| many other things with no success) I do wonder about the eventual
| mosquito adaption to this if it is employed on a large scale
| though.
| dan353hehe wrote:
| Interesting. I have fungus gnat problems as well. I am going to
| give this a try, thanks for the tip!
| chasil wrote:
| This bacterial strain was discovered in 1976, but has been in
| the environment for a long time. Resistance should have already
| emerged?
|
| "As a toxic mechanism, cry proteins bind to specific receptors
| on the membranes of mid-gut (epithelial) cells of the targeted
| pests, resulting in their rupture. Other organisms (including
| humans, other animals and non-targeted insects) that lack the
| appropriate receptors in their gut cannot be affected by the
| cry protein, and therefore are not affected by Bt."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis
|
| Edit: "Spores and crystalline insecticidal proteins produced by
| B. thuringiensis have been used to control insect pests since
| the 1920s and are often applied as liquid sprays and donut
| pellets."
| AngryData wrote:
| It does exist in nature all over, but it generally isn't in
| such a high concentration. Its like releasing 1,000 goats in
| your backyard. Even if your backyard could support a few
| goats, it will certainly be destroyed by 1,000 of them.
| throwup238 wrote:
| _Bacillus thuringiensis_ is the most used pesticide in
| existence and has been for nearly a century. We've sprayed
| it everywhere in huge quantities, including on pretty much
| anything labeled "organic."
| anon84873628 wrote:
| This is a confusing analogy because it's more like
| releasing 1,000 goats then wondering why they _don 't_ have
| an effect.
|
| My non-SME answer to this thread is:
|
| 1) 100 years is not that long in evolutionary terms; 2)
| cropland is large but not all land; 3) evolution is
| complex; 4) resistance _is_ actually already observed in
| some species.
| anon84873628 wrote:
| If you keep reading that Wikipedia article you will get to
| citation 47 which directly references Bt resistance in the
| European corn borer.
|
| Evolution is complex and 100 years is not very long. But
| eventually some effect is likely.
| vecter wrote:
| How quickly would the local population of mosquitos adapt to the
| MosquitoDunks, such that within a few generations, the only
| surviving ones would be the ones that are unaffected by the
| dunks? Or is that not a real concern?
| bee_rider wrote:
| I wonder...
|
| I don't know much biology, but is there a general principle
| where things that have a shorter reproductive cycle tend to
| "win" these sorts of arms races? I wonder if we will have to
| occasionally go out and find better copies of the bacteria,
| haha.
| vecter wrote:
| I presume so. Here's a great example of it with bacteria:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDa4-nSc7J8
| throwup238 wrote:
| The arms race might not even be realistically winnable for
| the mosquito. Most of the time when we talk about resistance
| it's to a single molecule or evolutionary adaptation. That
| mosquitos have not developed a resistance after decades of
| heavy use (we've been using Bt as a pesticide since the 1920s
| and its the most used pesticide today) implies that the
| _Bacillus thuringiensis_ used in the dunks /bits is attacking
| the larvae with multiple different mechanisms of action.
|
| When that happens, natural selection almost always fails to
| develop a resistance because a resistant organism needs to
| have a defense against every mechanism of action at the same
| time. The probability of two beneficial mutations lining up
| perfectly to create that resistant organism are just
| extremely unlikely. That's the basis for modern oncology,
| which uses combination therapy to prevent tumors from growing
| resistant to any one drug.
|
| Edit: yep I was right. Against mosquito larvae, Bt produces
| multiple _Cry_ toxins that bind to specific protein receptors
| in the microvilli of midgut epithelial cells and _Cyt_ toxins
| that directly interact with membrane lipids [1]. It's a
| triple whammy because there's six major toxins ( _Cry4Aa,
| Cry4Ba, Cry11Aa, Cyt1Aa, Cry10Aa_ , and _Cyt2Ba_ ), _Cyt1Aa_
| creates _more_ binding sites for the _Cry_ toxins to attack
| the cell, and _Cyt1Aa_ itself has two mechanisms of action,
| one of which disassembles the cell membrane, leading to cell
| death. That is an incredibly difficult evolutionary hole for
| an organism to dig itself out of.
|
| [1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0505494102
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| I don't know if it's some anomaly of climate change but in recent
| years in this part of Central Europe there are less mosquitos and
| more common horse flies.
| ryantgtg wrote:
| I did this last year and checked on it after the first day to
| find a drowned baby opossum.
| floatrock wrote:
| Must have been a rough morning, sorry.
|
| Not the first one this happened to. Article offers a
| suggestion:
|
| > If you want to keep squirrels, chipmunks, and other small
| critters from getting trapped in the bucket, you also could put
| a piece of hardware cloth or chicken wire over the top of the
| bucket. To keep it in place, you can use zip ties.
| ape4 wrote:
| There are "Honey Pot" programs. "Mosquito Bucket of Death" is a
| name waiting to be claimed.
| maxbaines wrote:
| Yeah lets just kill all the bugs, good move.
| dpassens wrote:
| You have read the part where the sticks provide "good bugs that
| fall in [...] an escape path", right?
| maxbaines wrote:
| good bugs lol
| svantana wrote:
| With modern electronics, wouldn't it be possible to build a
| device that detects bugs using some type scanner (radar or
| whatever) and zaps them with a microwave laser? That seems like
| it could be 100x more efficient than this solution.
| mbreese wrote:
| The Gates foundation funded research into just such a device.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser
| xnx wrote:
| "Laser-wielding device is like an anti-aircraft system for
| mosquitoes" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44478171
| hedgehog wrote:
| According to the Indiegogo campaign they are expecting to
| retail these for US$900.
|
| https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/worlds-first-portable-
| mos...
| lambdaone wrote:
| Buckets of bacterial muck sound a lot more efficient and
| environmentally friendly than expensive high-tech devices that
| need to be powered and maintained. And buckets are unlikely to
| blind anyone if their safety system fails.
| svantana wrote:
| Interesting, I had the opposite idea, where the bacterial
| solution seems destined to give rise to resistant mosquitos
| and god knows what other unintended side effects.
|
| The energy needed to kill a mosquito shouldn't be more than a
| joule or so, and regarding blinding, I suggested the
| microwave spectrum specifically to avoid that problem.
| tim333 wrote:
| People have made prototypes but I think there may be hazzard if
| it gets your retina rather than a bug.
|
| There was an interesting idea the other day for a mini drone
| that bashes them with its prop - top comment here
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44702833
| fanatic2pope wrote:
| Note that instead of the mosquito dunks you can also buy
| "mosquito bits" which are the same thing in granular form. Last
| time I bought one they were cheaper per unit cost and they easier
| to use because you don't have to break them up.
| hangonhn wrote:
| For some reason mosquito dunks can be shipped to California but
| not mosquito bits, according to Amazon. They look to be the
| same thing to me. Anyone know the reason? Maybe it is an Amazon
| data error?
| armen52 wrote:
| I've seen several cases like this on Amazon, where products
| are not available to ship to California but should be. In one
| case I even spoke to the manufacturer who said they got it
| fixed, then weeks later it was unavailable again.
|
| There's clearly something going on where their systems are
| being extra cautious on what can and cannot be shipped to CA.
| nicolaslem wrote:
| I ended up building this entirely by accident. Last summer I
| wanted to have aquatic plants in my garden, so I made a small
| container pond.
|
| As you can imagine it quickly got invaded by mosquito larvae. By
| the time I realized I was getting raided by mosquitos each night,
| much more than previous years.
|
| After getting hold of the bacteria (not sure if it's completely
| allowed here, only Amazon would sell it to me) mosquitos are
| completely gone, in the pond and around.
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| Other natural solution is having either fish, ducks,
| dragonflies, frogs, toads or other of the many things feeding
| on mosquito or their larvae
| amluto wrote:
| You can also add some small fish -- many species of fish think
| that mosquito larvae and pupae are delicious.
| AngryData wrote:
| I would be surprised if it isn't allowed anywhere. This
| bacteria has been known about and well studied for many decades
| and the cry toxin it produces has been bred into numerous crops
| starting 40 years ago.
| filleokus wrote:
| Many people with mosquito issues around here (Sweden) uses
| something like https://www.clasohlson.com/se/Mosquito-
| Magnet/p/31-7190 which burns propane to produce Co2 to lure in
| mosquitoes and then sucks them in with a fan towards a metal grid
| to zap them with electricity.
|
| Non-poisonous and from what I've heard fairly effective. Not sure
| if these exists in the US?
| Hotbasil wrote:
| Very cool where can I get on?
| lantry wrote:
| I have seen a similar thing at https://us.biogents.com/
|
| Haven't used it so I can't comment on its effectiveness
| beala wrote:
| My in-laws use a system like this, maybe the same one. It
| uses a CO2 tank rather than burning propane. He runs it
| 24/7 and he needs to refill the CO2 tank every 1-2 weeks
| iirc so it's definitely more expensive to run than the
| death bucket. I think it's a 20 pound tank like you'd see
| on a homebrew keg system. When he showed it to me, it had
| caught an absolutely nightmarish number of mosquitoes over
| the course of a couple days. Like maybe half a liter to a
| liter in volume squirming around in the net. It made me
| queasy honestly. I didn't notice anything like bees or
| butterflies in the trap but I didn't look very closely.
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Don't worry, when you press them into a party and fry em
| up, they're quite moreish
| Damogran6 wrote:
| We have one with a fan and a coated UV light that does similar,
| it just sucks them in till they dehydrate/starve
|
| https://www.costco.com/dynatrap-1-acre-insect-and-mosquito-t...
|
| catches moths as well, so it's not as eco friendly.
| neuronexmachina wrote:
| Does it actually attract mosquitoes? I didn't think they'd be
| attracted to UV light.
| iamtheworstdev wrote:
| you usually use a chemical attractant insert along with the
| device. I have one of these. Success seems to be hit or
| miss. I've run one for a year and it seems to only
| accidentally catch mosquitos, and that's not a unique
| outcome. But then others seem to have massive success.
| badc0ffee wrote:
| I'm going off-topic, but what's up with that font with the ugly
| square-bottomed lower-case g's? I've been seeing it everywhere.
| It's not good.
| dpassens wrote:
| I thought it couldn't be that bad but wow, that's bad. The
| first font-family entry is Clas Ohlson Sans Web, so
| presumably a font developed for Clas Ohlson? Looking at
| samples online, J and to a lesser extend t are similarly
| hideous.
| NoGravitas wrote:
| You might even say it's... Grotesk.
| nsksl wrote:
| How is that better than what the article describes? You need
| gas, electricity (outdoors!) and get constant fan noise.
| filleokus wrote:
| I guess it depends a lot on your situation, but for OP's
| method to be effective you need to out-compete other breeding
| grounds in not only your backyard but also X feet/meters away
| (whatever distance mosquitoes typically fly to "hunt").
|
| If there's a nice shallow pond on the property line 100 feet
| from your porch (or water filled tires at the sloppy
| neighbour or whatever it might be), I seriously doubt the
| efficacy of the method in the article.
|
| This thing would lure in any mosquitoes (and unfortunately
| other things, as per sibling comment) that fly in your
| backyard, wherever they come from.
|
| For electricity: That also of course depends, but around here
| it's not uncommon to have an outlet on the outside of some
| garage or outbuilding or something. The product I linked have
| a 50 feet cord as well. The fan noise has not been noticeable
| at all when I've seen it.
| HelloMcFly wrote:
| I used one of these for two weeks. It killed many mosquitos,
| yes, but it killed far, far more non-mosquito pollinators which
| ultimately is not acceptable to me. If I didn't care about the
| other insects, I'd just spray my yard with poison and be done
| with it.
|
| As always, YMMV
| amluto wrote:
| I tried one of these once. It was annoying, seemed kind of
| dangerous, and wasn't especially effective. This is much
| better:
|
| https://us-shop.biogents.com/products/bg-mosquitaire-co2
|
| Admittedly, it is more annoying to refill.
|
| That being said, depending on your mosquito species, the
| Biogents chemical attractant may be even more effective than
| CO2.
| because_789 wrote:
| Anyone else use mosquito fish? I got some from the pet store, put
| them in our small koi pond, and the mosquitoes really died off
| dramatically.
| zokier wrote:
| Problem with mosquito fish and other similar biocontrols is
| that they easily become invasive/noxious and disrupt the
| ecosystem in unintended ways. So if you plan to use them you
| need to be careful that they do not escape to nature, and in
| general it would be preferable to use native species instead
| toast0 wrote:
| Some vector control programs give out mosquito fish, worth
| checking in. Where I live, mosquito fish are specifically
| discouraged in waters that may flow into natural waters because
| they can feed on native fish and amphibians. Unfortunately, I
| haven't seen any advice about what native fish I could put in
| the small, mucky, pond on my land. :( (Kitsap County, WA)
| jiscariot wrote:
| I'd love to find a way to encourage more dragonfly's to come hang
| out in my yard (middle of forest). I think of them as little
| organic mosquito-eating drones.
| FlyingSnake wrote:
| We were promised mosquito laser zappers!
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Set up some bat houses around your property, they eat mosquitoes
| right out of the air.
| Damogran6 wrote:
| We have pantry moths in the house (came in from the bird
| food)...is there anything similar for them? We use pheremone
| traps, but that's pretty late in the lifecycle and not 100%
| amluto wrote:
| Not that I know of. You can eliminate them from individual
| containers of food by freezing or by heating to fairly low
| temperatures (120degF?) that shouldn't damage the food.
|
| Food grade diatomaceous earth is somewhat safe, and you can
| sprinkle some around the corners of shelves.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| Kill kill kill and discard grains. We have taken to freezing
| all grains that come in (flour, rice, bird seed) for at least a
| week before releasing it into the pantry.
| noelwelsh wrote:
| The fan trap (e.g. https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Get-Rid-
| Of-Mosquitoes-w...) is another low-tech solution that is quite
| effective.
| Matticus_Rex wrote:
| The one thing this needs to really scale up the murder is a CO2
| source behind the fan to attract mosquitoes actively.
| adamgordonbell wrote:
| Ok, now what is the solution for hornets?
| AceyMan wrote:
| Obligatory,
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamethrower?wprov=sfla1
|
| More seriously, Hornets vs Spray Glue
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCLCewL5NVg
|
| (note: he's still wearing a full bee suit--so hornets are
| probably best left to pros--unless you're properly equipped &
| very brave!)
| NoGravitas wrote:
| High pressure poison spray. There is an organic kind that IME
| works about as well as the synthetic ones:
| https://www.groworganic.com/products/ecosmart-wasp-hornet-ki...
| sanj wrote:
| I wish there were an equivalent for ticks.
| jquinby wrote:
| That'd be Guinea fowl, but all you've done is created a new
| problem unless you have a large area for them to range and a
| high tolerance for bird guano.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| If you're able to keep a few free-range chickens they'll eat
| ticks, at least those on the ground.
| bob1029 wrote:
| I recently moved ~70 miles from a relatively open plain to a
| hilly forest biome and the reduction in mosquito density is
| shocking to me. I suspect predation is the biggest factor given
| the climate is virtually identical.
|
| I make a very strong point to _not_ kill arachnids and similar
| creepers. I 'm not a fan of gigantic spooky looking spiders and
| their homes, but I recognize they are much more efficient at
| killing my enemy than I am.
| michaelbuckbee wrote:
| We moved into a new home recently that backs up to some woods
| and there is a stunning number of huge dragonflies in our
| backyard (and very few mosquitos).
|
| It just seems like luck though, I wish there was a way to
| better support the dragonflies as they seem so helpful.
| throwup238 wrote:
| The best way to support dragonflies is to dig a small pond
| (2ft deep with shallow edges) and plant supporting flora in
| and around it.
|
| Add aquatic plants like water lilies, cattails, or submerged
| plants like hornwort that provide egg laying sites and
| habitats for dragon fly nymphs. Around the pond plant native
| plants like tall grasses, sedges, and wildflowers - dragon
| flies use these as perches for hunting and resting. They
| especially like plants that grow 3-4 feet tall. You can also
| plant tall stakes, bamboo poles, or dead branches around the
| pound and other water features which the dragonflies use as
| perches for ambush hunting.
|
| You'll also want to maintain some algae and organic matter in
| the pond to provide food for the nymphs. It'll take a year or
| two to establish themselves, but once they're going a single
| dragonfly can eat up to a hundred mosquitos a day so they're
| excellent pest control.
| giardini wrote:
| Thinly-veiled SPAM for the trademarked products Mosquito Bits and
| Mosquito Dunks, which ARE excellent products.
|
| But skip the bucket - just buy a bag of Mosquito Bits. Scatter
| them whereever water settles. Once the organism is established
| nature takes its course.
|
| I used Mosquito Bits for years to minimize mosquitoes in our
| condominium project. After two years of doing this, mosquitoes
| were almost absent.
| logankeenan wrote:
| Has anyone had luck with bat boxes to help control the mosquito
| population?
| bitbasher wrote:
| Does this even cull the population down? If you're creating a
| perfect nesting area and then killing off the babies, you haven't
| really culled any of the active/dangerous mosquitos.
|
| Am I missing something?
| firesteelrain wrote:
| If everyone did it then you might see a big reduction but it's
| really only for the infestation near you not around you.
| 8organicbits wrote:
| yes, the lifecycle of the mosquito is quick so the adults die
| off with age and the next generation dies in the bucket before
| they become adults. It doesn't help if you are at a camp site
| for two nights, but it does reduce population at your house.
| bitbasher wrote:
| I see-- but by providing a possible breeding ground, are you
| not inviting more adult/dangerous mosquitos into your home
| vicinity? It seems like this would be ideal if your neighbors
| did it, but you didn't.
| 8organicbits wrote:
| My neighbors and I have been using the dunks and mosquitos have
| been significantly reduced this year in Northern Virginia.
|
| I'd prefer not to use the dunks as I'm uncertain they _only_
| impact mosquitos, but my insect population seems healthy. I saw a
| stag beetle two weeks ago! There are certainly fewer spiders
| though.
| ckozlowski wrote:
| Thanks for the endorsement. I'm in NoVA as well, and this
| piqued my interest. I have a company that does spraying
| monthly, but it seems to have mixed results. The technician
| doesn't spray my herb and vegetable gardens (or my neighbors
| lawns), which makes suspect that these areas just replenish my
| area after the insecticide goes away.
|
| One thing this won't help with are the chiggers which also
| populate my yard. But I'll happily deal with less mosquitos.
| I'll look forward to giving this a try.
| 8organicbits wrote:
| I checked on my bucket just now- I see three adult mosquitoes
| dead in the water (incidental? The dunk isn't targeting them).
| There is a spider web above the bucket with a trapped mosquito.
| I sat outside for a couple minutes and saw two adults flying
| around me. In prior years I'd be swamped by them even with bug
| spray; so this is a big improvement.
| brianjlogan wrote:
| Interesting. I am a native of Florida and happen to have a really
| horrendous backyard for mosquitoes. I've had county officials out
| to examine the area and can't find sources of water causing them.
|
| I'd like to know how to empirically measure a population of
| mosquitoes to be able to evaluate the over time effectiveness of
| the treatments I've used as nothing seems to help.
|
| Mosquito tubes with pesticide placed around the property, butane
| dispersers, zappers, citronella candles. I've tried everything!
| More than willing to try this.
|
| That being said on an ecological level I am concerned about
| wiping out sub species non biter mosquitoes.
|
| https://www.alieward.com/ologies/culicidology
|
| Great episode going over them but I'm curious as to whether
| science should step in and eliminate human menacing mosquitoes.
| Why? Well clearly we're trying to accomplish it ourselves and
| there's no selection for sub species here.
|
| We always hear about mosquito science rumors down here in the
| land of UF inventing love bugs (myth). I wonder if it would be
| capable of impacting only a single species. (Neutering males with
| a generic modification ruining breeding efforts.)
| mmh0000 wrote:
| I live in an area with a large number of mosquitoes. After a
| lot of trial-and-error, here's what I've found works.
|
| Don't use a bug zapper. The zapper does kill things, but... the
| zapper also attracts bugs from far away into your area. If you
| have a large property, a zapper placed far away at the boundary
| can pull bugs away from the living area.
|
| You can pay a company to come spray your yard frequently, but
| it gets expensive over time. I bought a gas-powered fogger
| (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0746S92WW) and the chemicals:
| Insecticide and Insect Growth Regulator
| (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RW197XG and
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CT9IDO)
|
| Spray everything once a week initially, then you can try
| dropping down to every other week. Very few mosquitoes remain.
|
| Further, look into repellents:
| https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-bug-repellen...
|
| Mosquitoes are weak flyers; if you want to defend a static
| area, like a picnic table, a large fan can be used to keep a
| breeze up over the area and keep mosquitoes out.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| One question - how does this prevent mosquitos from breeding in
| other bits of standing water that I can't locate?
|
| I have no idea where ours are coming from; I suspect they hatch
| somewhere, and then migrate to the shaded areas of my yard, which
| is where I typically get bit.
|
| Adding a bucket will prevent some mosquitoes from laying eggs
| elsewhere, but not all, right? Or is the bucket so attractive to
| mosquitoes that they ignore other water sources?
| zeta0134 wrote:
| My intuition is that you are correct: the bucket doesn't
| eliminate all breeding grounds. It's a numbers game: you want
| to lower the population as much as possible. If you reduce the
| population enough, nature has the opportunity to handle the
| rest, since mosquito reproduction is _also_ a numbers game:
| mates have to locate one another. This also frustratingly means
| it won 't be an instant solution even if it eventually works.
| It takes a few generations to realize the benefits of the
| lowered population.
| supermatt wrote:
| They don't. The basic idea is to put many of them up, so the
| chances of them using one instead of a puddle, etc are greater.
| I have about 20 smaller ovitraps up around my property.
| forty wrote:
| Keep in mind that many mosquito species don't fly far too far
| from where they are born (in particular the very annoying tiger
| mosquito does'nt fly more than 100m) so treating your own
| garden might somewhat be effective (depending of housing
| density where you live).
|
| treating your own garden means not leaving stagnant waters
| (including in water pots etc). then you can consider trap. also
| try to convince your close neighbours to do the same.
| schiffern wrote:
| After checking the obvious like old tires or stagnant ditches
| or tire tracks, the more hidden breeding sites include house
| gutters, French drains (under the gravel), buried yard drains,
| and garage floor drains.
|
| The general rule is that mosquitos need a pool of water the
| size of a bottle cap, and it needs to be there for at least a
| week. Good luck, and good hunting.
| zargon wrote:
| I didn't even think of my rain gutters. I haven't cleaned
| them this year. Thanks
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| My neighbor's shed gutters are completely blocked. That
| definitely means that there's a limit on what I can do to
| help mitigate the issue.
| abakker wrote:
| you toss a dunk on their roof.
| jrs235 wrote:
| Or mosquito bits
| bink wrote:
| Or a small amount of diesel fuel (the dunks are safer).
| People sometimes do this with abandoned pools.
| bobafett-9902 wrote:
| beware the undulated lids of garbage bins standing outside
| your house ... or an uncapped recycling bin
| carlosjobim wrote:
| Water suitable for mosquito breeding i nature is probably
| three million times more common than the man-made.
| devonbleak wrote:
| Our pest control put in a bucket called In2Care that has a
| little net with some powder suspended above the water -
| mosquito lands on the net, gets the powder on 'em, carries it
| to the next site and that site gets neutralized. They're
| designed for commercial campuses but for ~$200/yr it's well
| worth it for residential also.
|
| They do take a while to take effect, and they do take
| maintenance, but my experience so far is that they're super
| effective.
| jlg23 wrote:
| > One question - how does this prevent mosquitos from breeding
| in other bits of standing water that I can't locate?
|
| It cannot and that is not its purpose. Practically you should
| be able to locate any other breeding grounds by mere
| observation and then you have to eliminate them one by one
| until the mosquitos are left with the ones you set up.
| anon84873628 wrote:
| You can also get traps that target the mature biting
| mosquitoes. Defense in depth!
|
| Check out Biogents brand. They use attractants like urea and
| CO2 to draw the mosquitoes to the trap instead of your body.
| You'd put these closer to the areas you inhabit.
| lagniappe wrote:
| I just keep a bucket with some guppies in it. They eat the momma,
| the baby, and the eggs, the fish poop goes in the garden.
| dm319 wrote:
| How does this affect other insects?
| supermatt wrote:
| These are a form of ovitrap:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovitrap
|
| There are many forms that require even less investment. I made
| some out of some plastic water bottles and a few pairs of old
| socks, for example.
|
| There are also lethal ovitraps, which kills the mosquito, but I
| havent experimented with those.
| whichquestion wrote:
| Something to consider is that BTI kills many species of Diptera,
| not just mosquitoes.
| Footkerchief wrote:
| TLDR: you can put tablets of mosquito-killing bacteria in
| buckets.
| beala wrote:
| A bit of a tangent, but BT is also great for getting rid of
| tomato hornworms. The bacteria is harmless to humans, but fatal
| to the hornworms. A single application saved my tomato plants
| last year.
|
| That said, the more I garden, the more I find the entire process
| a bit horrifying. Waging biological warfare on the critters is
| not what I thought I was signing up for.
| rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote:
| Yep - it's not too difficult to coax a thing to grow. Life, uh,
| finds a way.
|
| Gardening is often much more about preventing the stuff that
| you _don 't_ want to grow from growing, whether that's weeds,
| microbes, fungus, insects, critters, etc.
| Terr_ wrote:
| > Waging biological warfare on the critters is not what I
| thought I was signing up for.
|
| Alternate framing: A grey-goo apocalypse caused nanobots to
| consume and occupy all the convenient parts of the planet, and
| after billions of years of assimilation and hacking, some of
| the survivors formed a mobile hivemind megafortress which can
| "garden" and feel conflicted about it. :p
|
| In other words, it's biological warfare all the way down.
| krunck wrote:
| There is also a BT alternative: copper
|
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4940706/
| johnthedebs wrote:
| The comments saying that other sources of water need to be
| removed are spot on.
|
| Another technique I've tried which works (observably) well is
| described in this video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV-o77RqQ
|
| tl;dw: Get a big drum fan with a screen on the back, attached
| with small/powerful magnets. Mosquitos are such poor flyers that
| they get pulled against the screen and can't escape, and they
| pretty quickly desiccate and die. Most other flying insects don't
| get caught, although there is a bit of collateral (some moths and
| lacewings, unfortunately). Another benefit of the fan is that you
| can hang out in front of it and mosquitos mostly won't bother you
| there either.
|
| I did this in our shared backyard space in Brooklyn and would
| catch hundreds/thousands of mosquitos per week. Despite that,
| there were still a ton of mosquitos in the area so it's best
| combined with other methods of control.
|
| edit: better/updated video link
| arwhatever wrote:
| Unclear from the video: do you need to use any sort of bait or
| lure to attract mosquitoes upstream of the fan?
| metabeard wrote:
| Nope. They're so light that when they enter the airspace,
| they get sucked into the net (back) or blown away (front).
| johnthedebs wrote:
| I changed the video link to an updated version where he goes
| into much more detail. You don't need any lure (I didn't use
| any), but you can see in the updated link that he places the
| fans around where his dog sleeps and also uses a bottle of
| soda with the cap slightly unscrewed to slowly leak CO2.
|
| In general though, if there are enough mosquitos around they
| will get caught in it without any additional effort.
| progbits wrote:
| The fans in that video are probably 200-400W, running that
| nonstop seems pretty wasteful.
| yrcyrc wrote:
| Forgot to mention this startup doing good work and it's a
| promising lead. Getting lots of traction recently.
| https://terratis.fr/
| fho wrote:
| I heard about a similar but different method:
|
| Put some cloth in a bucket, fill it with water and wait. Once in
| a week, remove the cloth. This removes all eggs and larvae.
|
| Apparently this is quite effective as mosquito "pheromones" (?)
| build up in the bucket. This makes the bucket a preferred
| breeding ground .
| jvanderbot wrote:
| I live near a swampy lake. I _thought_ these would not make a
| dent in mosquito populations. But all summer I've been able to
| sit outside without many bites, as long as I keep them rotated
| every month or so and stay away from the lake. 4 home depot
| buckets + a pack of dunks are magic.
|
| For those asking - a bucket of sticks and leaves gets stagnat
| pretty quick. My guess is that it's _so attractive_ that it just
| manages to attract most the mosquitos? I put one near the shore
| in two places, and two near the corners of my property. Our lake
| has just enough surface distrubance that the bucket might be
| better for them.
| pfdietz wrote:
| I wonder if the Bt bacteria were spreading beyond the buckets,
| affecting larvae elsewhere.
| elif wrote:
| I think it's probably mostly that the bucket is more
| appealing place for offspring than a big open swamp with
| predators
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| One thing I never see discussed about these is what you're
| supposed to do when rain inevitably fills the bucket.
| pentamassiv wrote:
| Wouldn't you be able to just set up buckets of water and then
| dump the water every few days before the mosquito larvae hatch?
| Is the point of the bacteria that you can set and forget about
| them?
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| The longer the water sits, the more suitable it is for the
| larvae and the more likely it is that the adults will lay eggs
| in it. If you refresh it frequently, it won't be as appealing.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| If you'd like to use tap water without waiting, you can add
| ascorbic acid to water straight from the tap and it'll neutralize
| the chlorine and chloramine.
|
| Ascorbic acid is a great, environmentally-safe reducing agent
| that readily donates electrons to these compounds. A 500-1000mg
| Vitamin C powder capsule will contain enough ascorbic acid to
| neutralize 5 gallons of even the worst city water with a good
| buffer to spare. What's left is harmless to most life, so you can
| throw your organic matter straight in.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| Prevents scurvy too!
| jrs235 wrote:
| Is it possible to get the dunks/bits wet in some water then use a
| hose sprayer attachment to disperse the bt laced water around
| your yard to get the bt into soil and other places that are
| holding water (like spray anything along the side of one's house
| if they have a bunch of stuff that might be holding water sitting
| next to the house)?
| throwup238 wrote:
| You can just buy the _Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis_ as a
| concentrate on Amazon [1] and use it in one of those mixing
| sprayers. It's the most used pesticide in the world and
| considered nontoxic for the most part so it's really easy to
| get in whatever form or concentration you need.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006JLMQG
| mchusma wrote:
| I tried the water based approach before and didn't work, but this
| may be a good one. What does work for me is a CO2 based trap. I
| have 4 neighbors on the street using them now. Mosquitos follow
| CO2 to find their targets, and get sucked into the bucket. Its
| kind of expensive (upfront cost of about $200 then about $60 in
| CO2 per summer, but I have a large bag full of mosquitos
| regularly so i know it works. And I can tell when the CO2 runs
| out because mosquiotos are back.
|
| No affiliation: https://us.biogents.com/
| Matticus_Rex wrote:
| CO2 seems to be extremely effective in general, but what I
| really want is for someone to create a commercial version of
| something I saw DIY'd on Reddit. They used safely-contained
| smoldering coals placed behind a high-speed outdoor fan, with
| mosquito netting secured loosely (but with no gaps) to the
| front of the fan.
|
| The fan intakes CO2 from the coals... and blows it out into the
| neighborhood (I think he claimed it was detectable at 60 or 80
| feet?) to essentially advertise. When mosquitos approach,
| they're sucked into the fan intake, and can't get out past the
| blades and netting. Most are dead by morning, and the rest you
| spray down before removal. IIRC he said he only needed to do it
| one night every few weeks to keep the population unnoticeable,
| and he'd wake up to thousands in the netting the next morning.
|
| I'm sketched-out by the CO2 mechanism, so I've never tried it,
| but figuring out an extremely slow release mechanism from a
| small tank seems doable. Maybe one day I'll get around to
| tinkering with it. My neighborhood started spraying, so it
| hasn't been bad enough to put much effort into.
| ruralfam wrote:
| Mandatory if you have water troughs/tanks for animals such as
| goats or horses. Also a very good idea to encourage swallow
| nesting. Many an evening I watch a dozen or so swallows on our
| property dipping and diving in a sort or aerial mosquito feeding
| dance. Swallows are very cool btw. HTH, RF.
| auselen wrote:
| African or European swallow?
| zokier wrote:
| While swallows are definitely cool birbs, I would be very
| surprised if they had any noticeable effect on mosquito
| populations. There is even one study proposing that swallows
| _attract_ more mosquitos!
|
| https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/39/1/115/879132
|
| choice quote:
|
| > Cliff swallows occasionally eat mosquitoes (Brown and Brown
| 1996), but they represent an insignificant part of the diet
|
| https://www.mosquitoalert.com/en/depredadores_naturales_de_l...
| telecuda wrote:
| Related, I've found this to be the most effective gadget to stop
| the itch of a mosquito bite: https://www.amazon.com/Vibis-
| Rechargeable-Mosquito-Chemical-... (Source: Floridian who has
| tried everything)
| jrs235 wrote:
| I've heard of some other possible additions and improvements to
| this setup. One is to cover it with Saran wrap and poke or cut a
| small hole in the middle of it and let it drape down a little bit
| so that any mosquitoes that find their way in can't find them way
| out to lay eggs again elsewhere. Another option is to add some
| yeast and a little bit of sugar so that CO2 is emanated from the
| bucket particularly the little hole if you use the previous
| "improvement".
| CommenterPerson wrote:
| We have a wooded area in the back, with small shallow pools of
| water that appear and disappear depending on rainfall. I tried
| mosquito dunks for a few years and gave up. Felt it needed too
| many to cover the area.
|
| I will try again with buckets. The HW store actually has green
| buckets so it won't even look like a dump! Thanks for the
| posting!
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