Mosquitoes were made to hunt people, with their complex eyes capable of detecting the slightest movements and receptors so sensitive, they can detect the smell of exhaled breath. Fortunately for us, the same abilities also lead them straight to mosquito traps.
The traps work by imitating the smell and the look of the victim, deceiving mosquitoes to feel the bruise on hand. But when they approach, powerful fans capture them and force them into containers. Having entered inside, they cannot get out, and mosquitoes die.
A good mosquito trap, properly placed and used, can attract and kill thousands of mosquitoes in one night, while you remain free to enjoy your yard serenely. For several months, a trap can destroy, perhaps even destroy, the local mosquito population.
All that is required is a little work to set up the machine and some regular, but minor maintenance to ensure maximum performance. The rest of the mosquito trap.
Unfortunately, the fight against mosquitoes is a difficult task, and there is no simple solution. Mosquito traps alone will not completely eliminate your insect problems, but they are an essential part of providing your home with comfort and safety.
Mosquitoes are just breath
To understand how the mosquito trap works, you first need to understand how and why we hunt mosquitoes.
Well, have you ever wondered how mosquitoes can always find you, even in the dark? This is basically your breath. I'm not kidding. A simple exhale is enough to draw a bloodthirsty mosquito.
When you breathe, tiny amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the air. These small CO2 plumes rise and drift along the breeze.
Mosquitoes have extremely sensitive receptors on their antennas that can detect trace amounts of CO2. They fly to the wind, looking for these passages, and when they find them, they follow the smell of exhaled gas to its source.
According to researchers at the University of Florida, CO2 emissions from human breathing can cause a sense of mosquitoes up to 40 miles away. Fortunately, most mosquitoes can fly only one to three miles, tops.
As mosquitoes approach the source, their two complex eyes — large rounded globes covered with tiny individual lenses — raise movement and color, while their eyes or simple eyes illuminate the light waves.
People moving around in bright colors, near electric lights, will surely attract their attention.
We smell like mosquitoes.
Once mosquitoes are within 20 or 30 feet, other odors begin to be detected by their aromatic receptors.
This includes lactic acid on the skin and octenol, a chemical found in our sweat and exhalation of cows. In addition, human skin produces more than 340 chemical odors, and some - more mosquitoes than others, although some and why still remain the subject of research.
The task of identifying odors is difficult, because mosquitoes are attracted not by individual odors, but by their combinations. Finding out the right combo depends primarily on lengthy trial and error.
US Department of Agriculture scientists know that mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of dirty socks and Limburger cheese - apparently the same bacteria develop on both - and they are also addicted to certain soaps, lotions and perfumes, combined with the natural odors of some people.
Mosquitoes have shown preferences for people who release large amounts of uric acid and cholesterol through the skin, as well as people with a high content of B vitamins in their systems. They also tend to choose larger people and pregnant women, probably because of the large amount of exhaled CO2.
Basically, the more you sweat and the harder you breathe, the more attractive you will be mosquitoes.
Mosquito moves for a bite
The ultimate giveaway is body temperature.
Sensors on the antennas can sense the heat emanating from the human body, helping the mosquito to wear in its prey. Stress, alcohol, even wearing dark clothing that radiates heat can make you a hotter target.
Mosquitoes use heat sensors to find capillaries that pulsate with blood near the surface.
Now it may surprise you: when the bite comes, it will always come from the female mosquito. Both males and females feed on fruit and vegetable nectar, but only the female takes in the blood supply.
Females do this not for food, but to help in the reproductive process. Their eggs are fertilized by males for several days after leaving the pupal cocoon. However, their eggs do not develop fully until they are taken from protein from the blood.
The mosquito lands and lowers the proboscis into the skin. The proboscis is a long, thin mouth with a pointed end for piercing. It contains two tubes, one of which is in the blood, and the second, which injects anticoagulants to maintain blood circulation.
She feeds until her stomach is full, then flies away to rest for several days until she is ready to lay eggs. At least the way it should happen.
Error research leads to mosquito traps
Entomologists and mosquito controllers need samples to study, and this means they need to catch them.
For years, they did this using the New Jersey trap. Like its name, it is a simple device that uses a simple 25-watt light bulb to apply mosquitoes to a cylinder with a hidden fan that sucks mosquitoes into the catch zone.
But since scientists learned more about attractants, they began to include them in standard light traps. For example, knowing that mosquitoes lure carbon dioxide, they began to add dry ice, which releases gas, increasing the number of mosquitoes lured for catch.
Studies have shown that mosquito traps that use CO2 can catch 10-15 times more mosquitoes per night than the New Jersey trap.
At the end of the 90s, private companies entered the study, experimenting with human skin odors and UV waves, and soon new, more efficient commercial mosquito traps appeared on the market for home use.
All mosquito traps use some variations of the same four main attractants to draw insects: CO2, octenol, light and heat. The differences are in the design of attractants and how to use them.
How do mosquito traps work?
One of the most successful mosquito trap brands, the Mega Catch, depends primarily on its unique light grid and the automated dispersion of synthetic human fragrance.
The machine starts the vibrational frequencies of visible and ultraviolet light, which, as has been proven, attract the attention of mosquitoes. At the same time, the machine produces octenol plumes to excite insects. odor sensors.
Inside the Mega Catch traps, infrared heat sources emit heat similar to a human body, luring mosquitoes even closer. As soon as they are close enough, the fan catches them and forces them into a container.
Some trap models also use cans that release trace amounts of CO2 for mixing with octenol, increasing the trap efficiency by a factor of four. Mega Catch traps, especially models that use both CO2 and octenol, can infest insects up to 150 feet away.
According to the American Anti-Mosquito Association: “A number of studies have shown that traps using CO2 and (octenol) usually capture the number of mosquitoes several orders of magnitude more than their own similar CO2.
Although the organization does not support specific products, it reports that the science behind the traps is strong.
Australian public health researchers tested the Mega Catch mosquito trap against another popular brand in 2004 and found that the Mega Catch mosquito trap outnumbered the rest by 10 out of 12 nights, capturing more than 44,000 female mosquitoes from 17 species. Another trap cures 24,000 mosquitoes.
In another test conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture, Mega-catch overnight captured more than 3,700 mosquitoes in a residential area of Florida, which is about three times more than another trap brand.
Air cleaning of mosquitoes
Again, mosquito traps, even highly effective, are not going to completely eliminate your problems with mosquitoes.
You still need to practice good control of the mosquitoes around your house, preventing standing water, using biological control and, perhaps, spraying. You should also remember that you use the mosquito trap correctly and regularly maintain it.
One of the key ways to get the most out of the mosquito trap is to make sure you put it in the right place.
Do not put it next to people, because it simply attracts mosquitoes to their goals. The best place to place is downwind, between the source of mosquitoes — the neighbor’s overgrown courtyard or the neighboring pond — and the place where people probably gather your deck or patio.
If possible, put a trap somewhere in the shade, because mosquitoes try to avoid the sun.
And not only turn on the trap, but you are outside. Spend it continuously through the mosquito season, especially during peak hours. Pitfalls, such as the Mega Catch, have settings that can turn the machine on and off at certain pre-selected times.
Remember, the more female mosquitoes you trap and kill, the less you will lay eggs. After six to eight weeks, the population will decrease to collapse.
Apparently, you will need to clean the catch containers, add new CO2 cartridges and change fresh octenol bands.
And then it should not be long before the nagging of the biting insects becomes an unusual sound in the backyard.
