Propane fired Mosquito Killers

[IllMarty1]

Anyone have any experience with these? With the cool wet spring and now wet summer in Wisconsin, my place is super infested.

 

[MrJimi]

We live in Florida and the bug zappers work good, get ya some
early mornings and early evenings are primetime for them here

 

[bmac]

I read a thread about these on another site and one guy had mixed feelings. He thought his Mosquito Magnet was very effective, but was displeased that it quit working after 1 season.

A dealer joined in on the discussion and talked about the need for regular maintenance (like many things) to keep them running.

In the end, the guy bought a Skeeter Vac to see if it was as effective as the Mosquito Magnet and, hopefully, more reliable. While he has only had the Skeeter Vac for a few weeks, his subjective opinion is that it seems to be as effective as the Mosquito Magnet. Too early to comment on reliability.

A key consideration (in addition to costs) is the fact that they take about 3-4 weeks to reach maximum effectiveness. So don't think that if you put one out this afternoon that you will be mosquito-free this evening. You may need repellants / foggers until the propane unit has had time to work.

 

[Phils]

...Wisconsin, my place is super infested.

I've been to Wisconsin many times and always thought the state bird was the mosquito ;-)

Are you saying this is unusual or an especially bad year?

Phil

 

[3RRL]

I too am interested in those type units, so hopefully someone else will share more information about them.
Like what brands or type works best, etc. and what to expect as far as performance.

 

[mahlers]

At one point, I had five Mosquite Magnets running on my property, and they do "OK" when placed in a good location. Three of mine went completely inop, though, and dealer support was horrible. And, with the cost of propane these days, I found it just wasn't worth it. Spraying myself with DEET is a lot cheaper and more reliable.

What I have found works really well are the mosquito dunks that you can get at Home Depot or online. Just pop one in each small body of water, and the larvae die off in a few days. It's totally safe and sound -they have some kind of bacteria in them that is lethal for mosquito larvae but don't hurt anything else. Since using them, I've noticed a HUGE decrease in the mosquito population around here.

If you don't have bodies of water around where the mosquitos obviously breed, you can use five-gallon pails full of water set strategically around your house. The mosquitos will lay their eggs in them and the larvae will then die off. It really works.

 

[forgeblast]

I worka second part time at dicks sporting goods, (for the discounts and goodies) and we used to sell those large mosquito killers. it seemed that everytime we sold one it would come back. for some reason there was a design flaw not sure what but we dont sell them anymore. You could go and buy the bio dunks that you throw in standing water. They have a virus that messes up the life cycle of a mosquito but doesnt harm us.

 

[shvl73]

I've got a SkeeterVac. It's about 4 yrs old. I can swat more mosquitos than it catches. I tried moving it around to different locations with no real improvement. After a $20 20lb cylinder of propane, I'd expect to see more than a couple hundred mosquitos killed.

 

[schmism]

what works really well is off the shelf malithion spray concentrated for a screw on hose sprayer.

Spray around the yard/ woolly area's and enjoy a marked reduction in the skeders for a week or so.

reapplication is easy and cheep.

 

[IllMarty1]

I've been to Wisconsin many times and always thought the state bird was the mosquito ;-)

Are you saying this is unusual or an especially bad year?

Phil

Phil,

We have had a few good dry summers and I got spoiled. When those things are attacking all during the daylight hours, its time to take action.