Author Topic: mosquito bait  (Read 7914 times)

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Offline jack11

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mosquito bait
« on: April 29, 2013, 03:36:18 pm »
does anyone know a good mosquito bait to draw the mosquitoes away from a campsite?

I've tried some commercial bates in my portable zapper, they weren't too great, but they were expensive. The black light in the zapper also not very effective by itself.

Looking for some natural or everyday use products, for example some foods, household chemicals, etc., that'll draw the mosquitoes to the zapper.

Offline tomw

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2013, 03:47:18 pm »
They home in on carbon dioxide and maybe warmth so that may be a place to start. Maybe a CO2 cylinder slowly bleeding out gas at intervals?


Read that CO2 bit somewhere.

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Offline MadScientist267

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2013, 12:51:27 am »
 Yeah that's essentially how a mosquito trap works...

Tiny amounts of propane are burned and something resembling a heatsink inside the device its maintained around the 100F mark. The mosquitos are attracted to the CO2 drifting away from the device, and the closely matched heat signature is too much to resist.

They have to find their way through a short "maze" of netting that let's them in with relative ease, but is not easily escaped. Once inside, they perish in the collection bag at the bottom of the trap after exhausting their energy reserves trying to find their non-existent victim.

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Offline Wolvenar

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2013, 02:06:54 am »
Many are just how MadScientist describes, but add a fan to pull them into the screen and keep them there until they dehydrate and die.
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Offline dang

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2013, 05:39:47 am »
There is an added attractant that closely resembles cow saliva smell in some baits.

And that is definitely an item to buy end of season on closeout, Ive seen them for 70% off in some chain shops.
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Offline hiker1

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2013, 12:22:40 pm »
eat a few cloves of garlic the day before you go out[gives you extra energy]--that keeps them from bitting you !
on time out i really loaded up on some garlic-dam near ate the whole bulb..
one lone mosquito zeroed in on me..landed sunk his drill..and froze up..so it seemed..i moved my arm around no response....garlic knocked him dead on the spot !  :}
just do it

Offline jack11

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2013, 02:08:57 pm »
this garlic, sounds interesting, I bet it also keeps people away ;-). Seriously, I can't tolerate large amounts so I doubt that whatever I can eat would be effective.

However, I've never tried to remove saliva out of cow's mouth, but I have a cow pasture nearby and I may try, maybe next time we go cow-tipping ;-)

I've seen several CO2-based traps on the market, I thought they were based on a catalytic reaction as opposed to flame-burning propane.
I always have propane tanks with me when camping, and tubing, regulator and metering valves would be no problem.
But, I am not able to find any small catalyst that would oxidize HC to CO2 + H2O, just like a car's CAT, and heat up in the process to around 100F.
If I had one, then putting it inside the zapper is easy, and the rest is taken care of by about 1000V on the zapper's grid.

Has anyone ever seen a small CAT like that?
It would need to oxidize HC fed to it at room temperature, as opposed to car's exhaust that's already pre-heated, (so, maybe such a CAT does not exist).
So, the next best solution maybe to put a very small burner inside the zapper.

Offline rossw

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #7 on: April 30, 2013, 04:09:47 pm »
You're collecting your saliva from the wrong end of the cow.

In many parts of the world, they collect and burn cow/camel/whatever dung upwind to keep the flies and mozzies away.

Offline Wolvenar

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2013, 04:32:36 pm »
Most I have seen actually have a small flame, not catalyst. Yet they are $100-$350 lat time I checked.
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Offline BenandAmber

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2019, 03:42:33 pm »
Wrong end of the cow.      Lmao

Offline Pete

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Re: mosquito bait
« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2019, 05:25:01 pm »
Some people are much more attractive to Mozzies than others.
I have found that taking an English person out camping is pretty good.
I had one friend who used to have clouds of mozzies around him all the time, we had none.
Best mozzie bait I ever came across
Pete