How to Control Mosquitoes

RON HAZELTON:
Warmer weather brings out the best in Mother Nature.  But it also ushers in something that evokes not oohs and ahhs but ouches.  Yep, we're talking about mosquitos.  In the past I, like my young friends here, have tackled this problem  with plenty of mosquito repellent.

But this season I'm gonna take a different approach.  I plan to eliminate them completely.  That's right.  I just won't have any.  I'll show you how I plan to do this but first, a few interesting and useful facts about mosquitos.

Only the female mosquitos bite. They can lay hundreds of eggs in a few tablespoons of water.  Mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide.  And the odors that emanate from our skin.  Some of us smell better to mosquitos than others.

Mosquitos typically fly into the wind in search of a human meal.  Ouch.  Armed with this information and more, scientists at American Biophysics Corporation came up with a way for homeowners like me to rid ourselves of these pests. Simply put, this device does a better job of attracting mosquitos than we do.

This device aptly named a mosquito magnet connects to a standard tank of propane.  When the unit is turned on, the propane gas is burned in a flameless catalytic converter, producing carbon dioxide.  Yep, the same CO2 we generate.

An internal fan powered in this case by a solar battery exhausts the carbon dioxide through this nozzle. The CO2 which is heavier than air, hugs the ground and travels downwind where blood hungry female mosquitos pick up the scent.

They follow the flume back to the unit and are sucked inside where they're trapped and starve to death.  Every few days I'll simply open the unit and empty out the collection bag.  To make itself even more irresistible, the mosquito magnet uses an attractant that's expelled along with the carbon dioxide.

This combination of CO2 and scent is just too much for any bloodthirsty lady mosquito to resist. A single device can cover up to an acre and a half.  The unit should be placed upwind so it can attract biting insects away from the areas where people gather.

The good news is, mosquitos don't migrate. So all I've gotta do is to get  rid of those that are in my yard and that will take about 4 weeks.  But I'm gonna keep this running throughout the summer just in case any neighboring mosquitos decide to blow in.

And if they do, they'll be more attracted to this magnet than this one.