I somehow seem to have gotten a big (breeding?) population of mosquitoes in this apartment. I’ve been swatting them, and of course that’s knocked down their numbers, but I’d like to know if there’s something that will trap them besides the $100 CO2 emitters. Something cheaper would be great.
I know they’re attracted to CO2 and humidity, but is there something else too, so that they can be tricked into a trap or onto a strip?
Malathion. $14 / quart, Use the $6 Ortho sprayer.
Get rid of any standing water. Haul the old tires to the dump.
Assuming you have already removed the tires from your second-floor apartment balcony, the previous suggestion is still good. Empty bird baths in the surrounding yard(s) every few days to break up the breeding cycle. (You can then refill them for the birds.) Make sure that there are no flower pots or dishes that have standing water in them. Check the gutters to be sure that they are not plugged or warped to hold standing water. If someone nearby has a fish pond, make sure there are fish in it (which will eat mosquito larvae).
I think we wre told i, Biology that something about adding a drop or two of detergent to any standing water (such as rain water barrels - when you want the water) thus breaking up the miniscus and preventing mosquito larvae attaching their breathing tubes to it.
An old wives tale from Italy is that they don’t like the smell of geraniums (hence all the flowers in Venice), get a few pots for your windows. In a similar vein try burning a bergamot or citronella scented candle.
Deploy some pheromone traps to attract the biting (females) mosquitoes. Without the females, the guy mosquitoes will wander off to look at cars, talk about football, etc.
If they’re really breeding in your apartment, look around. First, do you have any drains or toilets that are rarely used? If so, pour hot soapy water in every few days. Some species prefer to breed not in water, but in damp stuff; houseplant soil, dishrags, a windowsill that never quite dries, etc. Do you have the kind of old refrigerator with a drip pan underneath?
Let a couple bats fly around in your apt?
This is extremely weird. Being bored and averse to spreading poison all over the bathroom, I spent about an hour last night swatting mosquitoes out of the air. I got it down to only a few being visible, but when I came back today, there were seriously about a dozen in the air at the same time. The focal point is thebathroom, with a few in other rooms. I can wear repellent to bed, to take care of the bites, but I can’t firgure out where they’re coming in, or what is so attractive about my bathroom. There’s nothing to bite in there. It seems like they’re coming in for a small reason and then being trapped in there. No, the window isn’t open.
I guess I’m going to have to “bomb” it and see what happens.
I have heard of mosquitoes breeding enthusiastically in the dish of water a pot of african violets were standing in. Are you sure they’re not breeding in the toilet cistern or something?
Maybe they are coming in through a concealed vent/overflow pipe of some kind? Have a look at the outside of the building and see if there are any airbricks, pipes or other openings in the wall.
That’s what I’ve thought, too. I don’t know how they’d get into the air conditioning, but there might be a hole in the wall somewhere that I can’t get too, behind the sink or something.
Actually, after I dry-fog bombed it, they were mostly gone. Then I killed probably ten more, and today I can be in there for many minutes and not hear one. So they’re very few if any, now. I wonder if a pregnant one had gotten in and laid a few dozen eggs.
You are seriously underestimating the productivity of a female mosquito!
She will lay eggs in ‘rafts’ of 50-500 eggs at a time (average 200), and will do so 8-10 times during the few weeks of her lifetime. Within 2 weeks, the first bunch will have hatched, and the females of that bunch will be laying their own rafts of several hundred eggs.