How I trapped mosquitos

Thekla McDaniels wrote:I can’t wait to try it!

At first I thought sheer window curtains would be perfect, but I think the mosquito larvae have to be able to crawl through, but I don’t know how big they are!

I am thinking the first might be too fine to let them through , and the second might be too big, and a hatched mosquito might crawl out!

Can anybody help me out?

I'm not sure the larvae have to crawl through it. I was thinking the eggs fall through.
So the holes can be quite small.
I have used screen that has holes as small as the top pic in your post.
It looks like noseeum proof screen that is used on tents.
It works for a while but there is algae and stuff that grows on it and clogs the holes, making them even smaller.

 And the second screen might have holes that are too big, maybe. Maybe not. Algae will fill the holes in some and the idea of using 2 layer would probably work great.
My plan is to use screen with holes as big as they can be without the adults being able to crawl through, so they don't get clogged up.
I have even used window screen.

Mark Reed wrote:I don't understand the logic of allowing them to mature in order to capture them, when its fairly easy to prevent them from maturing at all. Only thing I can think of is a case where it isn't possible to prevent, so capture is the second best. I did have that very issue in my rain barrels that I don't want to dump out every few days like I do with my bucket traps. Like I mentioned, my buckets trap eggs and larva, not adults and the purpose is to destroy the next generation in its infancy rather than capture it as adults.  

With my rain barrels, the tops are tightly covered with screen cloth, but I noticed I sometimes I still had mosquitos inside and when I opened to dip water, adults would fly out. I figured out that when the barrel was completely full the water was in contact or even an inch or so above the screen which apparently allowed them to lay eggs through the screen. I solved that by drilling a one-inch hole about an inch below the top screen and covering it with a small piece of screen.  This prevents the water from getting all the way to the top and has worked well.

I'd love to know a way to effectively trap adults before they lay eggs and before they bite me but so far, I haven't had a lot of luck with that.

It seems like you had a setup that was capturing adults before they could bite you or your pets then lay eggs.
You saw them escape when the screen was lifted.
Then you drilled a hole so they would go somewhere else to lay eggs and hatch.
I don't think you solved anything by drilling that hole.
You could have caught millions of adult mosquitos before they did any biting. Now you catch none in the screened barrel.
Or if you do they enter and escape through the hole.
You say, "its fairly easy to prevent them from maturing at all".
In a previous post you mentioned having to empty the bucket instead of using screen.
You are basically doing the same thing, with more labor and if you don't get the buckets dumped in time they hatch.
I do like the bucket dump method and do go around looking for buckets that have gathered water but am not on top of it like I need to be.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that when mosquitos lay eggs and hatch larvae in water it puts out a scent that says it's a safe place for other mosquitos to lay eggs. It draws more mosquitos to the trap.
I like the point about throwing some grass in the water.
From the research I've read, maybe even a piece of rubber would help draw them in.
It suggested that might be the reason they lay eggs in tires.

I have a spigot on the bottom of my rain barrel and that's how I discovered how many mosquitos were getting trapped in the barrel.
I drained half to water my garden, remember this trap was a mistake, it was just a rain barrel.
I didn't intend to capture mosquitos, I just didn't want my rain barrel to get filled with leaves and sticks.
I lifted the screen and looked into the barrel a few days after draining half to water my garden and the light grey barrel was black inside.
Covered with so many mosquitos I couldn't see the sides of the barrel. I bet there were hundreds of thousands.
I put the screen back on real quick and filled it back to the top.
I'll see if I can drain half and take a picture of that happening this year, like I meant to do last year.

I did look at the amazon link with the screens. It doesn't look like they droop down into the water much, and the screen holes could be bigger.

Those that escaped when opening the rain barrel were from eggs that made it past the screen because it was in contact with the water. The drain hole just below the screen keeps that from happening but at first even that small hole was enough to let the adult females in to lay eggs, so I covered it with screen as well. I want, if possible, for no eggs at all to be laid in the rain barrels but instead in the buckets that are dumped frequently.

The rain barrels are for watering plants, the buckets are for killing mosquitos. None escape from the barrels because none get in to lay eggs, none escape from the buckets because they are killed before they mature. A mosquito can lay a couple hundred eggs, if just five of them lay eggs in a bucket that gets dumped every few days that's maybe a thousand that never reach adulthood, so don't need to be captured at all.

It's those five adult egg layers that maybe hatched in the gutter of the abandoned house down the road or in a hollow treen in the woods, that I would like to capture because they are the ones that bite me. For now, I just give them an attractive place to lay eggs that will never mature, so they don't go back to whatever unknow place they came from.

Mark Reed wrote:I don't understand the logic of allowing them to mature in order to capture them, when its fairly easy to prevent them from maturing at all. Only thing I can think of is a case where it isn't possible to prevent, so capture is the second best.

Craig (the OP) said that he thinks that allowing some air under the screen so that mature mosquitos can emerge from the water and fly around under the screen emits a smell that signals other free mosquitos to come and lay their eggs in the trap, rather than in any other water that might be around. That's the logic. Of course you try to prevent other water from standing around but there might be some anyway.

Very clever! I am not a fan of leaving buckets for mosquitoes because they have to be emptied and refilled...why add another chore to my list? And if it is forgotten, even once, the whole things feels counterproductive.

I wonder if the volume of water plays a role.

I wonder if the location matters much. I'm thinking near the mushroom logs would be good, rather shady and on the periphery of the busy garden.

I, too, was thinking those nylon squares we bought to use for holding mash while apple pressing (that we don't use after all) could be perfect.

Do you clean out the bucket or barrel periodically? It seems it could be a good job for chickens or waterfowl.

I have a rain barrel setup that is very similar to this-- I don't have the water piped in a closed system, it comes off the roof gutter, goes through a large pipe and then cascades into different rain barrels. Here we face drought as well as mosquito-borne illness, depending on which way the weather decides to go, I need to collect water and be careful with the mosquitoes.
My rain barrels are discards from an olive-curing operation, so they have a lid that locks on with an outer ring. I cut a smaller hole in the lid for the water to come through (they're large), and then put a piece of window screen between the barrel and the lid, lock it all on with the ring. I've used metal but it tends to rust, and anything fabric doesn't last more than a month or two since our sun is brutal. So far the best option has been plastic window screen. When the barrels are full mosquitoes will lay eggs on the surface, and I make sure to reduce the level below screen within a day. When I empty the barrels I do notice mature mosquitoes trapped inside, so I know they're hatching in there and not able to get out.
I don't filter the rainwater (other than the screen) so it does get nasty in there, and every so often I hose it all out in the garden.

M Waisman wrote:Very clever! I am not a fan of leaving buckets for mosquitoes because they have to be emptied and refilled...why add another chore to my list? And if it is forgotten, even once, the whole things feels counterproductive.

I wonder if the volume of water plays a role.

I wonder if the location matters much. I'm thinking near the mushroom logs would be good, rather shady and on the periphery of the busy garden.

I, too, was thinking those nylon squares we bought to use for holding mash while apple pressing (that we don't use after all) could be perfect.

Do you clean out the bucket or barrel periodically? It seems it could be a good job for chickens or waterfowl.

I wonder if volume matters too.
I put the 5 gallon bucket trap next to the 55 gallon barrel trap,
in the same shade and temperature, and got few to no mosquitos.
Might have been because the bucket and top were a light color too.

I haven't been cleaning the barrel. Each fall it gets dumped, spring it gets scrubbed a little before setting it back in place.

I kind of think with dead mosquitos added to the water it might add some fertilization when watering plants.
I have a large 350 gallon rain cube now, that sits higher than the trap, along with another 55 gallon rain barrel in the sun.
It's a recent thing. The plan is to use the faucet/valve on the bottom of the trap to empty half the barrel, to water the garden.
Then fill it back up from the 350 gallon cube.
They are all connected with garden hoses, connected at the bottom valve, but the trap gets its water from a small, 9ft satellite dish and needs a good couple rains to fill it.
The rest collect from a larger area near the house.
I do get some mosquitos in the barrel in the sun, and need to screen it if the water is cold enough.