Sean Martin
August 18th, 2004, 01:44 AM
The most dangerous animal on earth is the mosquito. It spreads a
variety of diseases that have killed more people than all of the
wars of Mankind combined. Such diseases as the West Nile virus
are spread through the ichy bites of these little flying
monsters.
To control this pest requires a knowledge of mosquito behavior
and habits. You do not need to be an expert in entymology to be
able to out-wit these creatures. Certainly a Man is smarter than
a mosquito, so let's look at the life-style of the average
mosquito and find its weak points.
Most, but not all, mosquitos hunt at night and they try to find
dark and cool places to hide during the daylight hours. So, to
keep them out of your house, you obviously need screen doors
and windows PLUS the knowledge of their habits.
They get into your house during the dawn to midday hours just as
you are opening the house up to go to work and doing your house
work. So, to outsmart them you need to open all of your doors
and windows AT DUSK, during the times when they are starting
to fly out into the night. Open the doors and windows at dusk
and stand outside for a little bit. You will see them flying
out in search of your blood. They find their victims through a
sense of smell and the ability to see infra-red emmissions of
warm-blooded animals. With no one in the house, and the sun
setting, they have no reason to remain indoors. After about a
half hour, go back indoors and close your screen doors and
windows, leaving the mosquitos wandering around looking for you
outside. You will be safe indoors for the rest of the night.
However, if you don't escape, then after biting you and sucking
some of your blood, the female mosquito then has the food she
needs to produce eggs. These eggs she wants to lay into some
standing water. But not just ANY standing water. She flys over
various water bodies such as tin cans, boles of trees, rain
water-filled tires, open buckets, drain ditches and ponds. What
her compound beady eyes are looking for in these places, is a
water body swarming with microscopic animal life. Swimming,
one-celled animals are the food that her wiggling little larva
eat. When she finds such a place, she lays her eggs. After some
little time, the larva hatch and wiggle about while eatting the
one-celled animals. Once these wigglers reach a certain size and
maturity, they crawl up to the surface and metamorphise into an
adult blood-sucker ready to fly into your life (and maybe bring
about your death) once again.
The trap that I use around my house is nothing more than many
containers of water. I keep these filled with water in sunny
locations so that they grow lots of moss and microbes. I provide
good places for the mosquitos to lay their eggs. I WANT them
to lay their eggs in my little larva nurseries. And I rotate
the times that I fill these nurseries with water so that I
always have both fresh and stale water available for use.
When the wigglers hatch, I keep an eye on their size because
I want their containers to attract as many egg-laying mosquitos
as possible before I dump them out on the ground. But of course,
I don't want them to actually grow to the size where they
turn into adults and come looking for me! It gives me a feeling
of satisfaction to see a container of wigglers in my power.
While scratching the ichy bites on my neck and hands, I gloat
and chuckle as I pour them onto the dry ground to their
doom.
Now, if you share this method with your neighbors, the size of
the local mosquito hatch can be drastically reduced. By keeping
all of the local open containers of water dumped out and only
keeping the containers full that you are monitoring, the
mosquitos will lay their eggs in your own, private traps. If
entire neighborhoods practice this method, the local mosquito
population will dwindle. Yes, they will still bite, but each
year there will be fewer and fewer of these little blood-sucking
monsters.
variety of diseases that have killed more people than all of the
wars of Mankind combined. Such diseases as the West Nile virus
are spread through the ichy bites of these little flying
monsters.
To control this pest requires a knowledge of mosquito behavior
and habits. You do not need to be an expert in entymology to be
able to out-wit these creatures. Certainly a Man is smarter than
a mosquito, so let's look at the life-style of the average
mosquito and find its weak points.
Most, but not all, mosquitos hunt at night and they try to find
dark and cool places to hide during the daylight hours. So, to
keep them out of your house, you obviously need screen doors
and windows PLUS the knowledge of their habits.
They get into your house during the dawn to midday hours just as
you are opening the house up to go to work and doing your house
work. So, to outsmart them you need to open all of your doors
and windows AT DUSK, during the times when they are starting
to fly out into the night. Open the doors and windows at dusk
and stand outside for a little bit. You will see them flying
out in search of your blood. They find their victims through a
sense of smell and the ability to see infra-red emmissions of
warm-blooded animals. With no one in the house, and the sun
setting, they have no reason to remain indoors. After about a
half hour, go back indoors and close your screen doors and
windows, leaving the mosquitos wandering around looking for you
outside. You will be safe indoors for the rest of the night.
However, if you don't escape, then after biting you and sucking
some of your blood, the female mosquito then has the food she
needs to produce eggs. These eggs she wants to lay into some
standing water. But not just ANY standing water. She flys over
various water bodies such as tin cans, boles of trees, rain
water-filled tires, open buckets, drain ditches and ponds. What
her compound beady eyes are looking for in these places, is a
water body swarming with microscopic animal life. Swimming,
one-celled animals are the food that her wiggling little larva
eat. When she finds such a place, she lays her eggs. After some
little time, the larva hatch and wiggle about while eatting the
one-celled animals. Once these wigglers reach a certain size and
maturity, they crawl up to the surface and metamorphise into an
adult blood-sucker ready to fly into your life (and maybe bring
about your death) once again.
The trap that I use around my house is nothing more than many
containers of water. I keep these filled with water in sunny
locations so that they grow lots of moss and microbes. I provide
good places for the mosquitos to lay their eggs. I WANT them
to lay their eggs in my little larva nurseries. And I rotate
the times that I fill these nurseries with water so that I
always have both fresh and stale water available for use.
When the wigglers hatch, I keep an eye on their size because
I want their containers to attract as many egg-laying mosquitos
as possible before I dump them out on the ground. But of course,
I don't want them to actually grow to the size where they
turn into adults and come looking for me! It gives me a feeling
of satisfaction to see a container of wigglers in my power.
While scratching the ichy bites on my neck and hands, I gloat
and chuckle as I pour them onto the dry ground to their
doom.
Now, if you share this method with your neighbors, the size of
the local mosquito hatch can be drastically reduced. By keeping
all of the local open containers of water dumped out and only
keeping the containers full that you are monitoring, the
mosquitos will lay their eggs in your own, private traps. If
entire neighborhoods practice this method, the local mosquito
population will dwindle. Yes, they will still bite, but each
year there will be fewer and fewer of these little blood-sucking
monsters.