During the summer, homeowners head outside to soak up the sun with their families. From backyard barbeques to simple evenings resting with a good book, your lawn is the place to be as the temperature rises!
However, some insects may make your property inhospitable. It’s hard to appreciate the weather when mosquitoes are flying overhead!
Don’t let these pests keep you from enjoying fun days on your lawn! Check out our article to learn how to create homemade mosquito traps!
Use a Soda Bottle for Your Homemade Mosquito Traps
Try out this tip for a quick and easy way to eliminate mosquitoes with common household items! Any essential soda bottle trap starts with two basics: a plastic bottle and water.
To craft the trap, cut a soda bottle into two pieces at the top edge of the outside wrapper. Place this aside while creating the liquid mixture to go inside the trap.
Mosquitoes naturally gravitate toward the water to lay eggs, but you’ll need extra attractants to encourage them to enter your trap. Instead of just filling a bottle with water, add one of the following:
- Borax
- Dish soap
- Activated yeast
- Sugar
- Essential oils
To make a rudimentary homemade mosquito trap, combine water and sugar, and place the mixture inside the cut bottle. Point the mouth of the smaller piece toward the bottom of the bottle, and tape the two pieces together.
As the mosquitoes fly inside to reach the sugary sweet liquid, they will fly in and drown in the sticky water. Some may escape back out of the opening, but most of the mosquitoes will perish in the liquid mixture.
If this trap isn’t working as well as you wanted, add another substance to attract the pesky mosquitoes in your yard. Activated yeast mixed with sugar lures mosquitoes by creating carbon dioxide gas, mimicking the same emissions we exhale when we breathe.
If you want to ensure these pesky insects won’t find another way out, try adding a small dollop of dish soap to the bait. How does soapy water kill mosquitoes? As the wayward pests stumble into your trap looking for a meal, the dish soap bubbles will strip them of their protective coatings and prevent them escaping.
DIY Box Fan Mosquito Trap
If you want to remove mosquitoes and stay cool in hot temperatures, we have the perfect trap for you: an outdoor mosquito fan trap!
To create a homemade mosquito fan trap, you’ll need to collect the following:
- A box fan or floor fan
- Insect screens
- Zip ties or glue
- A hole puncher (optional)
Once you have all of your materials, creating the perfect fan trap is effortless! Either cut holes in the insect screen or use a hole puncher to create spaces large enough for the zip ties to thread through. You can also use super glue if you only intend to utilize this fan as a bug trap.
Attach your bug screen to the back of the fan with glue or zip ties. The bug screen should be pulled taut against the back of the fan while running.
Place the fan in areas where you regularly struggle with mosquitoes, and add a bucket of water behind the fan. Female mosquitoes regularly hunt for standing water to lay their eggs, and they will become trapped as they draw near.
If you’re staying outside around the trap, position the fan to blow air away from you. As the mosquitoes fly near you, the fan will suck them inwards and keep them stuck to the mesh screen.
Check out this video for more information on creating a mosquito fan trap!
Trapping Mosquitoes with a Bucket or Bowl
You can use other household items to craft another easy homemade mosquito trap. Grab a container, bucket, or bowl and fill it with water. Mix in some dish soap or laundry detergent, too.
After finishing the base of your trap, attach a clamp-on light to the bucket or place a lamp nearby with the light pointing toward the water. While this is an excellent indoor and outdoor mosquito trap, we recomment that you place your bucket mosquito trap away from electrical cords or wires to avoid causing electrical damage or sparks. Many outdoor waterproof lights or lamps will do the trick in case there’s an accident!
As female mosquitoes head toward the light and water to lay eggs, the soapy water will trap them and cause them to drown. You can capture handfuls of mosquitoes within a few days using this technique!
Check out this helpful video to understand how bucket mosquito traps work!
Other Ways to Keep Mosquitoes at Bay
Of course, these homemade mosquito traps are some of the most effective traps you can make at home; however, you shouldn’t settle for temporaty solutions to your mosquito problem. Invest in long-term protection with our professional pest control services. Schedule a consultation now and take the first step toward a mosquito-free home!
But what else should you do if your homemade mosquito traps fail to eliminate all the annoying mosquitoes in your backyard while you’re waiting for the professionals to arrive?
Should I Use Storebought Products?
Many traps you may find at your local hardware or gardening store operate similarly to some homemade mosquito traps. These products may contain a mosquito attractant that compels the pests to fly into a device and drown or mimic our CO2 emissions, encouraging the mosquitoes to fly into the trap for a potential meal. If you’re looking to spend more money, you could purchase electric mosquito traps that eliminate pests with a quick shock. However, we wouldn’t advise using this trap in your yard, especially if you live in a rainy climate.
Storebought pesticides aren’t as effective as many pest control products and could harm local wildlife, native incest species, or your lawn. It’s often safer to contact a pest control agency like proof. pest control to get rid of mosquitoes with larvacides or pesticides.
What Else Eliminates Mosquitoes?
Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. Most species prefer stagnant water filled with bacteria, but any open water sources may entice these pests. To keep them away from your property, empty standing water from:
- Tires
- Slides
- Buckets
- Gutters
- Birdbaths
- Unused pools
- Overturned toys
For better protection against pests, sign up for residential mosquito control treatments to keep the mosquitoes off your property! Here at proof., we offer a specialized mosquito pest control service that will significantly reduce mosquitoes and even complement your homemade mosquito traps!
We’ll search for and treat potential mosquito breeding grounds. Through follow-up visits, we’ll continue to apply our treatments and utilize a fogging solution to keep these pests at bay. Take the first step towards a mosquito-free home. Get in touch with the experts today!