This Intrigues Me

I use one of these foggers at the crack of dawn or at dusk, when the wind is dead calm.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_1P47QQptM

I have gone through two of those Burgess units, one a year.

I have since switched to the Black Flag unit and am on my third year with it.

Yeah there's a problem of buildup if you overwhelm the burner with too much volume of liquid....My other weapon is

This stuff works great....

Not for this boy, I don't go outside with any poison (or inside either!), that might eventually end up in birds for example that eat Mosquitoes and the like.

Or any other insects, good or bad, Bees for example.....

Even my cat might get a dose if she eats one of the birds, even if its a tiny amount.

Having seen first hand in Florida just how potent some of the sprays that the firm Black Flag produces, I would want nothing to do with them.

My family use creams and oils that Mosquitoes do not like on their exposed skin, but does not kill the Mossies, outside of the house.

I also make sure that any standing water is prevented outside, but where it cannot be prevented, water butts for example, a teaspoon of kerosene, paraffin or other light oil seals the surface well.

This year I will be using Canola, I am sure it will work just fine and be even better for the environment!

In the house I hang my insect lamps. They DO kill all insects that fly into them, like these new special Lamps.

Mine originally had instructions saying something like " Do not use outside as you are then affecting nature, maybe adversely!"

Spreading poison around the yard sort of makes my lamps look like a BB Gun against a 10" Army Cannon!!

On their website (Blackflag!), they promise that it hangs around for 12 moths!!! See here:-

Blackflag

I cound not find any MSDS infos available onsite as far as I could tell.....I looked online for such infos, found nothing under Blackflag.....

DREADFUL!!

"Agent Orange" lives on in the USA!!!

You do what you want, its your family and pets.....

But I am pretty sure that most of Europe would not allow such "foggers" to be imported or used...there must be a reason for that!.

I looked on ebay here, only Video games came up.....

I just found this website:-

http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=brands&id=8010027

It really is dangerous:-

So it's pretty much harmless to humans and other wildlife....

Hey Andy, you have to remember this is the USA, home of Love Canal and a thousand other chemical disasters. Even a small town of 100 people in NW Pa, Westline has had an EPA Super Fund site. (wood alcohol plant in the early 20th century) Our oil fields intentionally discharged well brine directly to the ground in this area for 80 or so years. I have to watch for the old discharge pits in the woods out behind my house, because they are still full of petroleum residue. You really don't want to get stuck in that. I had to wash my dog 3 different times because of those nasty things. Old petroleum is tough to remove. It takes multiple baths to get most of it off. So what is a little pesticide compared to what we've already saturated the ground with?

"GULP!"

Brilliant, thanks for finding and posting it here.

It looks like a description of "Zyklon B"!! It must be really dangerous for people.....

See here for possible fly spray poisoning actions:-

http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/poison/bug-sprays/overview.html

Also, check here (just for fun! Remember it was also originally an insecticide too!):-

Zyklon_B

Again, thanks for posting.....

I read the Zyklon B link '...just for fun...' and regret to say I did not get much fun out of it - but in the spirit of the post - it makes the point that insecticide is nasty stuff.

I heard many years ago that if a cataclysmic disaster befell the Earth the only survivors would be insects.

I imagine this includes microbes and viruses, but whatever they are, it seems logical to assume that something able to kill insects will certainly be able to kill every other living thing.

All the pesticide spraying I see on TV reminds me of the DDT days. I wonder if it will cause more cancer that it prevents Zika virus.

Me too. I have to agree with you fully.

That's a great product. Is it a must for the three season porch? I've spent a lot of time with mosquitoes and they do wander into the light. I could find a place or two to give them a try, but I wonder how effective they are and how easy they are to clean if clogged repeatedly from heavy use?

On a whim one July I drove into Flamingo Florida which has the craziest layout and because it was the off season.. the most bare campground.. (aside from one other very spooky camper) The drive through the Everglades to this southmost spot was empty and awesome. Car camping that night took on a literal term as the mosquitoes were ravenous. Forget building a fire to smoke them out (despite the heat) ... It was a blood sacrifice to grab necessities(beer and food) from the trunk/cooler. That night I thanked the lord for A/C and reclining seats. No amount of 4XDeet spray could fend the blinding flocks of the buggers off. Much time had to be spent de bugging the car after any door opening no matter how brief.

...No amount of these bulbs could help on a night like this in a place like this. ..perhaps and igloo array?

It was a lot of fun lot not getting eaten alive.

I should wear a nicer suit.

I was thinking of this product as as a secondary way of attacking the problem. as in a bedroom. the little suckers can keep you awake dive bombing your head all night

I recommend Tobasco sauce...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZnDRrwcbTE

The sequel is even better.

Too bad you can't buy them.

This'll have to do till they are available, and no cost data either.

Gnats, on the other hand, don't have enough body size or wingspan to bridge over two oppositely charged bars, so they fly right through.

The lamps I use (for many, many years) have a much smaller spacing between wires, to catch very small flying insects.

Are very cheap at around US $10 each, run 4 or 5 summers or more before the UV tube needs replacement. Basically switched on in spring and switched off in late October.....

Mine look mostly like this one, but the wires in mine run in a spiral around the tube with about a 2 mm gap between them, this one appears to have vertical bars, also too far apart for all flies:-

"we're not asking $200.00 or $100.00 for this revolutionary product, but just three easy payments of $79.99. The first 500 to call will receive a second Zaplite at no addition fee."

AS SEEN ON TV

That'll sell well in America. No child left behind.

http://www.mosquito.org/faq#zappers

Does the light use some other attractant? Mosquitos are not attracted to just the light, which is why newer devices have been hitting the market over the past 5-10 years.

Norm

Really interesting post, many thanks.

Demonstrating that using devices and poisons outside are not to be recommended due to the effects on the songbird population, already noted in some areas.

Best way not get bitten was to sit near Dan - he was a mosquito magnet.

Of course that only worked if Dan was around - not too convenient if you were on vacation and he was working...

Firstly, great video, I think more countries need them and not just the ones with this dreadful disease, Zika(?).

Does anyone know, are Mosquitoes a "required" food for any other insect or animal that ONLY eats Mossies, that would be adversely affected if this pesky insect were completely got rid of (assuming that is even possible!)

Certainly, I will be buying some of these lamps once they are available here....I do have 3 more "conventional" insect lamps that basically keep the house insect free during the summer months.

They are now old (but still work!) and last year I had to replace a few UV tubes, but they are still a really cheap insect killing lamp if the length of life is taken into consideration....

I clean them once a year and test the high voltage power supply with a simple test using a piece of tissue paper. A method that I thought of years ago, that works really well and is less dangerous to my fingers and the lamp itself over more conventional methods.

Mosquitoes are not a problem to me in UK but sometimes a bit of a nuisance when cruising the canals here - horseflies are the nasty ones.

I bought a cheap portable UV zapper and let it run in my narrowboat until the batteries went flat in a couple of days.

Not any dead insects were caught in it - absolutely none!.

Does that mean there were no insects around at the time. Or did i buy a 'dud' zapper

How do you test them? Is there a supplier of Kamikaze flies.....?

You need to look out for one for camping, they run on 12 volts. I am assuming that your boat does too, correct?

If its higher or lower (I am assuming DC), then a small DC to DC converter will suffice.

If you want to test the high voltage (I read somewhere that many operate around 5,000 volts, but not having a HV Meter, I don't know.

This weblink mentions 2,000 volts or more, I can well believe that, as you really hear it when a fly gets zapped! A real loud "SNAP!". My wife jumps quite often when it actuates....

Bug_Zapper

I have also spoken with people that managed to get some appendage of their body (usually a finger I believe) and they all agree it hurts!!

I clean lamps each year, as over a summer, the wires get coated with dead bodies and as they are all practically then, parallel resistors, they will drop the voltage if not cleaned off. I have made a special screwdriver (you can buy hem as well) to allow me to open the unit for cleaning, as normal screwdrivers will not grip the special screw heads. A Dremel and a flat bladed screwdriver did it for me.

After cleaning, I use a "funny little" test that gives me a good result if everything is working as it should, without complicated lab equipment.

I cut or tear a strip of kitchen roll or paper handkerchief, about 1 cm wide and maybe 15 cm long.

I make a point at one end with scissors, wet the point lightly with saliva on my tounge and holding the dry end, switch the lamp on, then place the damp pointed end (!?!?) between the two wires.

If the lamp high voltage is in a good working order, the paper is charred within a few seconds.

I have used this method for at least 20 or more years, I have no idea when I first thought of it, its that long ago.....

You can use this to test yours, but as it sounds like it need loads of batteries, either convert it to your barge mains or buy one for that voltage.....but to save on batteries, it sounds like it does not have enough energy to kill much!!

I hope this helps.

Thanks Andy. It was a UV type. I am not aware of any HT. Power not a problem, it came with a re-charger.

I can't test it. It fell off the shelf behind the wood-burning stove during a cold spell later in the year and sort of melted by the time we realised it. I binned it.

I only mentioned it context of the OP because my experience was zero success. It caught nothing in the 2/3 days I used it.

I am glad to hear yours worked.

Over the years I have had maybe 5, two of which failed my test after some years and got replaced...

Buy one from a camping place or ebay.

Around here those larger standard sized bug zappers work fairly well but they are known to be fire hazard being it's pretty common to have them get so full of bugs in one night that they burst into flames which is not good being they are mostly plastic.

I've lost two that way and I think my brother has lost at least three zappers that way over the years plus a number of my friends have commented having had similar flaming bug zapper incidences from time to time over the years as well.

That can only happen outside, where they should not be used anyway.

The other fix is to remove the tray and put a big bucket under it instead....

The only way to control the mosquito population in the tropics, is an all of the above approach...there is no magic bullet, there is only an all out sustained assault on all levels...I can remember going down to the keys in the 50's, you would have to see it to believe how bad they were....We had to run from the car to the house one at a time, everyone would wait for you to beat the mosquitoes off after you made it to shelter....we would wear raincoats and wrap exposed parts in towels and shirts...That's about the time they started spraying DDT fogging neighborhoods and aerial distribution from airplanes, they still do with different insecticides now....

If they are so bad as you tell us, then why go there in the first place?

If you believe Mossies are bad, you have not experienced "Midges", which are (from memory) above a certain parallel, are in all northern latitudes at certain times of the year.

(I see the hats are sold in the USA too, to prevent bites on your head and neck).....I have experienced them several times first hand and I try and make my highlands visits before the "season" really gets going.

They make Mossies look like inexperienced beginners.....

I have lived in the far east for some years and some parts of Africa, so I know how bad Mossies and other biting insects can get. Even the Norfolk Broads, UK, are not "immune" to them and large clouds of them "sit" in the air over any boat, once you stop moving!

I have also lived and worked in Florida many times as we had a large manufacturing facility there for many years....

It has never stopped me travelling, but I do take precautions of course. For salmon fishing in Scotland, only full insect nets do any good, if you leave even a centimeter of skin showing, the Midges will "tell you where it is in seconds!"

The Scottish saying is, "Don't kill one, a million will come to the Funeral!"

But joking aside, such "shotgun" actions as you appear to support, will only damage the environment even more than it is already.

My personal guess is some spray that makes the males impotent, and only the particular insect that needs to be produced.....otherwise Bees and other needed insects and the insect eating birds and animals are also affected....

I don't know how long Mossies have been in this world, guessing, at least several million years, far longer than humans I would guess and I have no real problem with getting rid of them, but only in an environmentally safe manner, that has been carefully researched, and indiscriminate poisoning of the landscape won't do it right.

The methods you talk about, do not appear to have worked anyway......

Try thinking of leaving the world a better place for your and our children, not a worse one!!

Here are some "Anti Midge" head wear, which could of also be used if the Mossies are bad too. Buy one each for the whole family.....

I hope this all "helps" a bit!!

The second one costs only US$9,99 :-

Well first of all I guess you missed that it was in the 50's I was talking about, which was over 50 years ago.....and yes it did work and does work, and no it didn't kill off the birds...You seem to be waging a non-existent war in your mind about what you believe to be happening and what is actually happening...I might add that I live on the beach and haven't seen a mosquito for years, so I don't need some ridiculous looking screen enclosure for a hat...Florida is a very environmentally conscious state....

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/mainpage/default.htm

https://www.floridastateparks.org/

As you wrote it, you posted no dates to orientate anyone reading it.

The reason for this blog in the first place is "actual", that is available and being used today.....sadly.

If you had read the MSDS document for Blackflag, you might have been shocked.....I was, as many here were....

..."I can remember going down to the keys in the 50's"...That would seem to me to suggest strongly that this was referring to a time in the 50's...

Sorry but after using DDT for many years, Blackflag is like being shocked by WD40....or spray paint...or toothpaste....I mean really, you PC too far....

"I use one of these foggers at the crack of dawn or at dusk, when the wind is dead calm....."

So, if it isn't for mosquitoes, what is it for?

That was for the occasional mosquito outbreak when I lived inland a few years back, when I had to care for the landscape on a regular basis...That is no longer the case...

I remember for the late 1950's a local store had a florescent bulb in front of a small fan that was very effective,but non-selective in what it caught.

There was a screen/mesh bag to catch whatever was pulled in by the fan...mostly

moths and flies,but a surprising number of mosquitoes.

About once a week he would empty the bag,and there were always birds waiting for the free food.

I have noticed the decline in the number of moths over the years,and some of them were very beautiful,like the Luna,for instance;rarely see one anymore in my area of the country.

I attribute that to the rise of the bug-zapper.

In high school,we had to collect and identify 100 insects, and 100 leaves,and it was no problem.Now it is hard to find 50.

Pesticides and mono-culture of forests is the reason behind this,I think.

A friend of mine took the bottom off of his zapper and put it over his Coy Pond to feed the fish.

I put a 220volt 10 watt clear bulb Edison base light bulb in my hen house,but I wired it to 120 volts.

This increased the infrared emission,and attracted a lot of mosquitoes.

This and the CO2 from the chickens was a deadly combination for mosquitoes.

The chickens would perch near the lamp and pick mosquitoes and other bugs out of the air as they flew around the bulb.

An ecologically friendly method of reducing mosquitoes and increasing the protein in my chicken's diet.

Wired at reduced voltage,the bulb lasted 10 years,and was never switched off.

I remember several years ago that an associate of Bil Gates claimed he could design a laser that would target and shoot down mosquitoes with a low powered laser.

I have never seen one on the market;has anyone here heard of that?

a swedish company did, they made one for clearing a patch of a campsite, I don't know how successfully

https://youtu.be/rD_eIutuGtE

Now thats the way to do it!!!

ww.intellectualventureslab.com/work/photonic-fencemore here

The link is missing the leading "W".

Try this:-

http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/work/photonic-fence

I hope this helps.

That's a pretty cool idea. It doesn't seem to zap them very dramatically...but I suppose you only need to kill the mosquitoes, not blow them up like most zappers.

Interesting CR4 article:-
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/26953/A-New-Weapon-In-the-Zika-Virus-Fight?frmtrk=cr4digest&et_rid=419160512&et_mid=82898642