CO2 mosquito traps

[Doug Yanega]

Jim Mason wrote:

>Since they cost ~$400 each, (not counting the CO2-spiking apparatus) I doubt
>they will get popular any time soon.  I also wonder how they can be
>effective.  If you have a party in the yard and several people are present,
>the trap would just look like one more food source to the skeeters rather
>than THE ONLY food source.  I would say you are better off to put up a bat
>house, (if you have colonial-roosting bats in the neighborhood).

The price is sort of a vicious circle deal: until the guy can go into mass
production, the cost per unit will be high, and demand low. As long as the
demand is low, he won't be able to justify mass production. Look at it this
way: people pay $100 apiece for "ultrasonic repellers" that DO NOT WORK. If
he can get his price down to about $150, and gets some marketing going,
I'll bet he could break into the market, especially when people see
hundreds to thousands of dead mosquito carcasses in the trap every morning.
As for yard parties, just state up front that the device attracts SO MANY
mosquitoes to it, that people should not stand in its immediate vicinity.
That'll impress them, not scare them off.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82