Mosquito Traps?

I saw what was described as a mosquito trap. A very ordinary 1.5 litre plastic soft drinks bottle. Cut around its middle the top half with the spout had been upended and partly inserted into the bottom half.

Presumably the insects descended through the neck of the bottle, into the bottom half and became ensnared. Judging from the number of trapped mosquitoes it was effective. It didn’t indicate if some substance, attractive to mosquitoes, was in the bottom section. Anyone know?

Because mosquitoes are attracted to the CO2 we breathe out, I started looking for ideas that used CO2 as the bait for the mosquito trap. I did think of dry ice but it does dissipate fairly quickly.

I found a cached link on Google here. It seems to be active again now. I've rewritten the instructions some and hopefully it will work as well.

Thanks to the students for their hard work on this project. I've used some of their photos for illustration.

Supplies:

• 1 2 liter soda bottle
• a sharp knife
• black paper
• tape
• candy thermometer

Take a 2 liter soda bottle. Cut off the top right below where it starts to narrow for the top, invert and place inside the lower half.

Make a simple sugar syrup.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups cool water
• 1 tsp. active dry yeast

Directions:

Bring 1 cup of the water to a boil.

Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water.

Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in 2 cups cool water, stir well.

Check the temperature of the syrup to make sure it is no hotter than 90 degrees F, if hotter, let cool to 90 degrees F, add 1 tsp. active dry yeast, no need to mix. Put syrup in the bottom part of the bottle, using the cut off neck piece, leave in place.

Be sure to seal the two parts of the bottle with the tape. The fermenting yeast will release carbon dioxide. Put black paper around the bottle since mosquitoes like dark places and carbon dioxide. This mosquito trap will then start working.

TIPS: Put the trap in a dark and humid place for 2 weeks, you'll see the effect. You'll have to replace the sugar water + yeast solution every 2 weeks.

In Singapore we used a lot of mosquito coils;I have seen these in the Chinese shops here.

 Well done John for finding that one!

Looks horrible but effective!

 Judging by the search I have just done about "mosquito trap bottle" it does not seem to be very effective. Lots of people seem to have tried it but noone seems to think it works. A lot of people are saying "why don't the mozzies just fly out again" and "if it's so effective why aren't Walmart selling something like it?"