Tag Archives: mosquito

DIY trap to kill pregnant mosquitoes

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This post contains photographs and construction tips for a killer craft I made: an autocidal gravid ovitrap. Pregnant females enter the trap, lay some eggs on or near the stagnant water within, then are prevented from exiting and die. Their progeny also die because a screen at water level prevents larvae from reaching the surface to obtain oxygen. When similar traps have been deployed they bring down mosquito levels substantially and thus are quickly becoming one of the main ways to prevent mosquito outbreaks and disease. Every homeowner should have six. They’d make wonderful gifts.

Autocidal gravid ovitrap

The design features a clear dome that helps trap the females when they are done ovipositing (they go for the light), plus a completely unneeded observation window so I can watch the larvae and pupae (fun for the whole family, plus good for demonstration purposes). It borrows general methodology from gravid Aedes traps (GATs) designed by Dr Scott Richie (James Cook University) and colleagues that recently made news on NPR (here’s an overview; here’s their paywalled journal article). I’ve designed mine to capture species that also lay egg rafts, so it’s not just a GAT. My design doesn’t use insecticide because I wanted the odor of developing larvae to be an attractant to other females (it is, by the way).

What you need

  • Autocidal gravid ovitrap2-gallon bucket
  • bucket lid
  • 6″ plastic pot
  • clear dome from cake store
  • metal coat hanger
  • plastic screening
  • stapler
  • 3 paperclips
  • small neodymium magnet
  • silicone adhesive glue
  • duck tape
  • hardware cloth
  • 1-L soda bottle
  • 1/4″ foam weatherstripping
  • black spray paint
  • Dremel tool with cutting bit
  • drill with drill bit
  • knife
  • safety glasses (when Dremeling)

Construction photographs

If you’d like to see photographs larger just click on first image and navigate like a slide show. There are many ways to construct these so if you build one and it looks completely different, don’t worry. This is because if your device is the only stagnant water around, females will use it.

I’ve only just deployed it and it’s rather cold right now so I don’t have any victims yet. But I’m optimistic and am posting now with the hope that somebody will have suggestions on how to improve the design (I’m making more). One improvement I’m definitely going to make is to drop the funnel lower into the dome so it’s harder for females to accidentally fly straight up to escape. And pro-tip if you make the above: attach the lid to pail when spray painting to avoid unwanted buildup where they attach.

I’m also posting in the off chance that a biology teacher might take an interest. Having teams make these would be really fun and then they could deploy them in the woods near the school: bonus points for team that traps the most mosquitoes. It’s fun like the classic egg-drop lab in physics except useful. Students would then take their projects home where they’d continue to be useful. Would make for a great Girl Scout Gold Award / Eagle Scout project.

Other DIY designs

Where to buy

If all of the above sounds like way too much work you can buy them: Biogents GAT Trap (my favorite), Catchmaster Ovi-Catch AGO, Dalen Skeet-O-Trap, Springstar AGO, and Ultimate Mosquito Traps.

Useful articles

Barrera, R., A.J. Mackay, and M. Amador. 2013. A novel autocidal ovitrap for the surveillance and control of Aedes aegypti. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 29:293-296.

Maciel-de-Freitas R., R.C. Peres, F. Alves, M.B. Brandolini. 2008. Mosquito traps designed to capture Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) females: preliminary comparison of Adultrap, MosquiTRAP and backpack aspirator efficiency in a dengue-endemic area of Brazil. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 103: 602-605.

Mackay, A.J., M. Amador, and R. Barrera. 2013. An improved autocidal gravid ovitrap for the control and surveillance of Aedes aegypti. Parasites and Vectors 6:225.

Maire, A. 1985. Effect of axenic larvae on the oviposition site selection by Aedes atropalpus. J. Am. Mosq. Control Assoc. 1:320-323.

Paz-Soldan et. al. 2016 Design and testing of novel lethal ovitrap to reduce populations of Aedes mosquitoes: community-based participatory research between industry, academia and communities in Peru and Thailand. PLoS One 11:8.

Neighborhood Mosquito Watch

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During a run this week I passed an abandoned, 30-gallon aquarium with easily 10,000 larvae doing their thing (wriggling). I came back later, took some photographs (on my Instagram soon if you’re into that), and then dumped it, sending the larvae to their deaths but also releasing a cloud of perhaps 100 newly-eclosed adults. I suspect the aquarium had been there for years, pumping Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) into the neighborhood. Given the aquarium’s location at the edge of busy parking lot I’m sure that thousands of people have looked at it and thought, “Huh. Looks like an abandoned aquarium full of dirty water. Next to a Christmas tree. I bet there’s a story there!”, and then moved on with their lives.

Abandoned aquarium with mosquitoes

In case you are unsure what an infestation looks like, the next two photographs show what the adults, larvae, and eggs look like. Asian tiger mosquitoes lay eggs singly on the sides of containers or on moist objects floating on the water. They can last over a year as an egg, waiting for conditions to be just right.

Male Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) with larvae

Female Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) with larvae and eggs

Here’s a sample of the water I pulled from the tank.

But not all the eggs were Aedes albopictus (there are 60 species in PA alone). Here’s a raft of eggs in the aquarium from a different species (Culex sp.). The raft is lodged on a leaf but normally it just floats around until the larvae pop out. Anopheles (another common genus) has eggs that are deposited singly but float with the help of cute little life preservers.

Raft of mosquito eggs

But that’s not all! Yesterday I found a recycling bin behind a church with similar numbers of larvae. Given the amount of leaves decomposing in the bottom I suspect it has been like this for at least the whole summer. Again, it really is strange that nobody did anything about it. It’s right next to a sidewalk that gets lots of traffic (at least on Sundays) and is probably 10′ away from a playground at an infant/toddler daycare center. Poor kids. (I dumped it.)

Recycling bin with stagnant water

Given how much people hate mosquitoes it left me thinking how the public outreach about mosquito control has failed on the most basic level. Everyone should know enough about mosquito biology to know how and where they breed, and everyone should feel empowered to do something. Being proactive is so much better than adopting what I think is the common view, “Well if the mosquitoes get bad enough I’m sure the government will spray insecticides from planes.”

All it would take would be a nicely worded message from a town official to mobilize residents into a mosquito watch. Something like, “If you see mosquito larvae swimming around in a container when you are out walking your dog, please turn the container upside down or alert the owner about it. Thanks.”