Jump to content
Chapala.com Webboard

Anyone Have a Good Weapon for Fighting Mosquitos This Year?


moonhill

Recommended Posts

Steren has a huge insect trap just as you walk in the door. It is not a zapper but draws the insects in with a light and then sucks them down into the bottom.

I've been thinking of buying one and trying it out. I think it was on sale for about 1700P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 55
  • Created
  • Last Reply

The UV light or blue bulb or fluorescent light traps, with a fan to suck in mosquitoes don't work very well, but ... if you add a little stink-bait mosquito attractant to the light & fan unit, they can work very well.

If you are faint at heart, STOP READING NOW.


A dirty sock (foot-stink dirty - not muddy dirty) put into the fan intake grill lures the mosquitoes in the final few inches needed for the fan to suck them in.

Dirty body-stink, like pit stink or crotch stink also attract them in to be sucked in by the fan. When your hubby gets a little ripe, have him wipe his pits, etc with a little piece of toilet paper, and put the small wad of smelly paper in the grate of the fan. This draws the mosquitoes in the last few inches needed to trap them with the fan's suction.

This all works because mosquitoes use at least 4 different systems to track us, find us, and then finally bite us.
1. Distant mosquitoes follow either UV light or the CO2 in our breath.
2. As they get closer to us, they change their tracking start to follow our body odor and/or the heat (IR) from our bodies - which is why the often bite our *hot) feet and ankles.
3. At their very closest approaches, they switch over to going for our body stink to make their final landings.

Since the UV light/bluish fluorescent light plus fan traps do not have either of the final 2 keys to lure in mosquitoes (no IR heat and no stink), they fly into the general area of the trap, but relatively few are trapped.

Add in the final chemical lure/bait body-stink attractant and the light plus fan traps work very well.

Some Home Depots carry a synthetic chemical octanol attractant that smells a little like an old urinal cake, but the human body stink attracts work way better.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Mosquito-Magnet-Octenol-Biting-Insect-Attractant-3-Pack-OCTENOL3/100620804

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mosquito repellent. They really are bad, aren't they?

You bet they are Maincoons and I hate to use them.

On a recent trip to Zihuatanejo and in fear of the Chikungunya epidemic there, I did my research on natural alternative and went prepared. About a week prior, I started ingesting B-1 and B-12 and swallowing a large clove of garlic every morning. In addition, I made a concoction of lemon grass, clove and cinnamon essential oils mixed with a natural citronella bases repellent from Walmart to spray on myself. I reluctantly bought 100% Deet as a backup as well. NOTHING WORKED! They ate me alive and all I managed to repel was my WIFE! In desperation I defaulted to the Deet (better a little neurotoxin than Chikungunya I decided). Again, the mosquitos responded as if I had spread frosting onto their cake! Somehow I lucked out though (prayers?) and never came down with that dreaded stuff.

I've had dengue twice and it's the sickest and worst I've ever felt. Chikungunya makes dengue feel like a holiday! Less dangerous but much more painful and debilitating with symptoms that can last 3 years or more. The mosquitos Lakeside are nothing compared to those "voracious vampires" on the coast and I hardly notice them here and as long as they don't transmit tropical diseases, I can tolerate them.

I'm wondering if the Garlic Barrier can be sprayed on our skin as well? Natural doesn't always mean non-toxic though. Anyone with thoughts about using it as a topical repellant for Humans?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Consumer reports in the July 2015 issue conducted controlled testing of numerous Insect repellents for 2 types if disease carrying mosquitoes and ticks.. By far the two best products were: #1. Sawyer fisherman formula Picaridin, and#2..Repel Lemon Eucalyptus, they each sell for approx $8.00 per spray bottle but both worked extremely well against mosquitos and ticks..No deet in either of these listed repellents and they were much more effective..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can buy them on Amazon after checking to see if they ship to Mexico. I am growing Lemon Gum, and I have already given away many plants. The up and comer is Cake Bush - no, not the music of Kate Bush, but rather the herb Piper Marginatum. You would have to import this through a broker like iShop or Sol de Luna. Here is a source of tincture and/or seed. I have had zero luck growing from seeds, but will try again.

http://www.tropilab.com/cakebush.html

The Piper is used by Capuchin monkeys in Central America. They have also discovered that it kills the larvae of Dengue Mosquitoes. These scientists are outright nuts! Read some of this book by a researcher in Central America.

https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=mDIscrh_u-cC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=piper+marginatum+insect+repellent&source=bl&ots=rR27XQcLlt&sig=bO_lqV6gfShiLJjV_EV84CO2_rA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC0Q6AEwA2oVChMIh92PgLmQyAIVDwiSCh0Qowp9#v=onepage&q=piper%20marginatum%20insect%20repellent&f=false

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can you get windows screened with a fine mesh that the mosquitoes cannot penetrate? Do you need to sleep under netting? We are moving to lakeside and need to know these things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can you get windows screened with a fine mesh that the mosquitoes cannot penetrate? Do you need to sleep under netting? We are moving to lakeside and need to know these things.

Ordinary window screening works fine for stopping mosquitoes. The more important key is to to get well-fitting screens with no gaps where they contact the window frame. If your screen frames have gaps, stuff the gaps with pieces of rolled/folded mosquito screens (tela mosquitera).

Sleeping under bed- nets: We get about 2 mosquitoes a month inside our home, which I kill with a zapper-raquet, so you only need to sleep under netting if your window screens and door screens don't work right. We had more mosquitoes entering our home when I had only a single nylon curtain over our main entry door. When I added the magnetic-closures curtain (that opens in the middle and closes automatically with the magnets) paired with the other nylon sheer curtain covering the doorway, we get almost no mosquitoes in the house.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

I don't think I saw anything about using Vicks Vapo rub, but I read an article recently about it being wonderful to repel mosquitos.  I camp a lot in the Summers up here (Oregon/Northwest Ca) and I know the mosquitos actually swarm at times either at the beach, or up the rivers from the coast.  I plan to try it, but was wondering if any of you have tried that method?  I do understand some years will be worse than others, at least here, depending on how cold it gets in Winter.  I am thinking of moving to Chapala (retired lady) and your temps look very similar to where I live now although of course not tropical.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have found that wearing the little springy citronella coils around my ankles, and even my wrists, helps a lot. I aslo use a bit of tea tree oil diluted with water to go up on my ankles. 

However, as I child growing up on the swampy Gulf Coast, we learned to use a fan or two to make it difficult for them to get to us.

Grandma always had a ceiling fan going, and another fan on the porch blowing from behind her out to the direction of whaterver was " away." Sometimes, when it got really bad, they brought out another fan to make the flying even more difficult. 

The fans never were blowing on us when used as a mosquito deterrent. It was used to make air flow towards the mosquitoes and away from us.

Walmart probably has the little coils. You will smell like citronella, though.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok I live on the hill in  Upper Ajijic and mosquitos are not a problem here but when I lived down on Zaragoza by the plaza they were horrible so I bought a 1 ft by 1ft Steren bug zapper with the bulb.  Willing to loan to someone in lower ajijic with problem and lets see if these things work.  PM me if you want to give it a try. Not really interested in selling it as I may move and need it again. At the old house we used it to clear our bedroom along with my wife and her fly swatter every night.  She does not miss the routine.  We do have the ultimate sympathy for you folks with skeeter problems. By the plaza they were just awful and our house had no screens.  We love our secure privacy HDuty screens on our upper ajijic house. 

So if you borrow bug zapper you must write a simple report is the price you pay for a loan of unit.

Basically this unit has a bulb that attracts bugs and than they hit the electrical wires and get zapped and fall into a tray.  Brutal if you are a vegan I know but have you seem the pictures of Zika damage?????   Need AC plug.  Steren has them in the mall store across from Walmart. if you don't want to wait.

 

I opened up another string on Zika if you folks want to discuss this.  I would appreciate some well thought out opinions please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just arrived back in Ontario "Cottage Country" where the mosquitos are thick.  A friend of mine here is a pharmacist and says to take large  doses of Vitamin B-1 (Thiamin). every day.  The body secrets what it doesn't need through the pores and mosquitos (at least Canadian ones) are repelled.

Someone there will have to see if you can find it there.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Homemade Garlic Mosquito Repellent

An Internet blog suggests a “do it yourself” organic approach that some of you might want to try. Mince a few cloves of garlic, barely cover with some mineral oil. Allow these to fuse for at least 24 hours. Then mix 2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Strain through cheesecloth and use in a spray bottle, shaking before each use. Best of luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's something you will like better xena - garlic pickled in natural honey. You can use the garlicy honey for cooking or health, or crunch on a sweet clove. google it.

The season ended last year, before I had a chance to try it. Look for homemade mosquito traps (google again), made from 2 litre plastic bottles. To attract mosquitoes, put water, bread yeast and sugar. That makes CO2, run a plastic tube into your normally useless UV light bug zapper. If the zapper doesn't get them, the trap will. JR in PV reports hundreds of dead mosquitoes in his trap. I would put black construction paper around the trap, to make it more attractive to mosquitos, and more attractive to the humans who have to look at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I built one of the GOOGLE mosquito traps last year.  (I really do need to get a life)

I found the best place to put it was in a far corner of the patio where the wind didn't disturb it.

It collected a lot of mosquitoes but I'm not sure if it really did all that much.  I wonder if it didn't just attract every mosquito in the neighborhood to my patio.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At Soriana you can get a device that you put a small blue strip into and plug into the wall.  We have found it very efficient at keeping our bedroom free of flying critters.  Change the strip daily.  They also have some that you put a small bottle of liquid into and it should keep the room mosquito free for a month.  I did not notice an odor from either of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Colo-Rick said:

At Soriana you can get a device that you put a small blue strip into and plug into the wall.  We have found it very efficient at keeping our bedroom free of flying critters.  Change the strip daily.  They also have some that you put a small bottle of liquid into and it should keep the room mosquito free for a month.  I did not notice an odor from either of them.

Those work well for me also. You only need to change them about once a week (who knows what you are breathing in). For outside the only repellant that is proven to work is something containing Deet. I'm beginning to think that different things work for different people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I swear by the B-1 also, I take 250mg once a day and haven't had a bite in years. I use to look like I had chicken pox.

Mosquitoes don't seem like they are here yet. I haven't seen any.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...