The gist is that they work by luring biting insects with a UV light bulb and a fan sucks them into a collection chamber where they dry out and die. It’s not supposed to harm beneficial bugs.
I get tons of mosquitoes, midges, gnats etc so my patio is pretty much useless. I rent a town house and am not allowed to have open flames so no citronella candles or tiki torches and I don’t think they work anyway. If the Dyna Traps work it would be a godsend.
So I’m wondering if anyone here has used one and if it does work like they say. I have read online reviews but as usual the only people reviewing either love it or hate it.
I don’t know about Dynatraps but I’ve had really good luck with a couple of regular oscillating fans. It’s not some vinegar, essential oil mixture so it doesn’t get a lot of likes but mosquitoes are pretty weak fliers and a fan is like a hurricane to them.
I don’t know about that brand name, but my neighbors have one of those traps that works with a combination of mostly CO2 (generated from a can of propane) with a little of some other chemical attractant. And yeah, it’s supposed to trap them and dry them.
It works really well. It works so well that I noticed we didn’t have a lot of mosquitoes all summer, and then in early fall we suddenly did, and I mentioned it to the neighbors, who had put away their trap for the season right before we got those mosquitoes.
I’ve heard of the CO2 type devices, and mixed results. Sounds like it does what it says in catching mosquitoes but maybe not as effective as advertised in ridding your yard of them. I think the surrounding areas and conditions must be a factor. If you live next to a swamp there will be a never ending supply no matter how many you remove. The device may even be luring them over.
We’ve mounted bat houses in several locations on our property. As thanks, the bats eat mosquitos.
Interestingly, an egg-laden female mosquito is slower in flight, so bats eat a disproportionately higher number of them, resulting in an even bigger impact on the mosquito population.
The pheremone-lured Japanese beetle traps are similar. (Maybe more so.) They work great to kill the beetles. But if you are the only one to have one, you may be attracting all the beetles from your neighborhood, and some of them may not find the trap.
I think the trick is to strategically place the trap away from where you plan to sit.
Last night I used a floor fan I could point up at me. It worked pretty well at keeping the bugs off and the breeze felt pretty good on a humid night. I’m glad I posted here before I spent a bunch of money on something that wasn’t going to work.
