# mosquito magnet - does it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2002, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371 "2002-04-29T22:40:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/1 "2002-04-29T22:40:12Z")
Did a search - nothing that really fit the bill. the mosquito magnet is suppose to be able to ‘colapse’ a mosquito population in about 4 weeks - or so the manufactuter claims. Does it really work or is it just an expensive way to get rid of 2 tanks of propane? Also if is does work - I see Home Depot is selling their generic equivlient the mosquito deleteo at about 1/2 the price (IIRC $200 instead of $400). will that do the trick? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/2 "2002-04-29T23:15:29Z")
It works, but only on steel mosquitos. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/3 "2002-04-30T01:10:35Z")
[Commercial and Experimental Mosquito Trap Field Evaluations in a Malarious Area of the Republic of Korea](Commercial and Experimental Mosquito Trap Field Evaluations in a Malarious Area of the Republic of Korea) > [@](#): > > A concurrent 5 x 5 test found significant differences in trap catch where: (1) Mosquito MagnetTM with octenol \> (2) New Jersey light trap ³ (3) EPARTM Mosquito Killer with CO2 ³ (4) ABC light trap with light and dry ice \> (5) CDC light trap (manufactured by John W. Hock) with light and octenol. For the September 7 X 7 test, only 6 traps (due to a malfunction) were included in the final evaluation that found: (1) Mosquito MagnetTM with octenol \> (2) Shannon trap \> (3) ABC light trap with light and dry ice \> (4) Miniature Black Light trap (manufactured by John W. Hock) ³ (5) New Jersey Trap \> (6) ABC light trap with light only. For the June trials, significant differences in trap attractiveness were noted for several species including: Aedes vexans, Anopheles sinensis, An. yatsushiroensis, An. lesteri, Culex pipiens and Cx. orientalis. Similarly, the September trials found significant species differences including: Ae. vexans, An. lesteri, An. sinensis, An. sineroides, An. yatsushiroensis, Cx. pipiens, and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus. In some or all trials, An. lindesayi, Ae. albopictus, Ae. alboscutellatus, Ae. dorsalis, Ae. lineatopennis, Cx. bitaeniorhynchus, Cx. rubensis, Cx. vagans and Mansonia uniformis, were collected in insignificant numbers for analysis. CFG traps including Mosquito Magnets captured up to 20 times more mosquitoes than traditional New Jersey or carbon dioxide-baited CDC (ABC) style light traps. Traps baited with octenol captured significantly fewer Cx. pipiens pallens than those not baited with octenol. Likewise, no Cx. orientalis were captured in octenol-baited traps. These results have the potential for use by ecologists, epidemiologists, and mosquito control personnel for improving the collection efficiency of selected mosquito species and in developing vector control strategies. The results also demonstrate that various traps can be utilized for isolation and detection of arboviruses and other pathogens. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/4 "2002-04-30T03:37:30Z")
Link bad. ☹ Hmm. Google HTML cache will not make a link. Find Astro’s article by Googling for “A concurrent 5 x 5 test found significant differences in trap catch” which will bring you the Microsoft Word 2000 doc. and then you can click on “View as HTML” for yourself. It sounds to me like it’s saying, “Yeah, it works, sort of, but it depends on which species you’re trying to catch, and it depends on what time of year it is”. This looks like the summary: > [@](#): > > CFG traps including Mosquito Magnets captured up to 20 times more mosquitoes than traditional New Jersey or carbon dioxide-baited CDC (ABC) style light traps. > > Traps baited with octenol captured significantly fewer Cx. pipiens pallens than those not baited with octenol. Likewise, no Cx. orientalis were captured in octenol-baited traps. So, where do you live, Dave, and which species of mosquito are you trying to trap? Also bear in mind that it probably isn’t physically possible to remove _all_ the mosquitos from your back yard, as more will simply fly in from your neighbor’s yard. This study doesn’t mention the effectiveness of Mosquito Magnets at removing pesky biting annoyances from your Hawaiian luau patio party–they’re just looking for better ways to trap some disease-carrying skeeters so they can take them back to the lab and look for viruses. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/5 "2002-04-30T03:57:15Z")
Was this the link you were trying to get, **astro**? [www.afpmb.org/docs/2b-Tue-Med%255CBurkett-Abs.doc+%22Commercial+and+Experimental+Mosquito+Trap+Field+Evaluations+in+a+Malarious+Area+of+the+Republic+of+Korea%22&hl=en](http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:m0hwbGy-jQUC:%5Burl)"]Commercial and Experimental Mosquito Trap Field Evaluations in a Malarious Area of the Republic of Korea ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/6 "2002-04-30T10:01:28Z")
[try this one?](http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:m0hwbGy-jQUC:www.afpmb.org/docs/2b-Tue-Med%255CBurkett-%20Abs.doc) ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/7 "2002-04-30T10:11:28Z")
No, **Chronos** is not stupid. 😉 He just wanted to point out that he found a bug of the **Automatically parse URLs** function. Seems it gets confused by an URL with two WWWs or HTTPs in it. Had to do the coding by hand. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-magnet-does-it-work/106371/8 "2002-04-30T10:41:05Z")
Or, rather it interferes with the normal [url=""] code.