Mosquitos are a constant pest as we head into spring and summer.
Aside from the irritation of being bitten, and contending with the itch, mosquitos can carry certain diseases like West Nile, Zika, or Malaria.
There are many ways to repel these pests that you can buy from any outdoor store, but there are ways to trap them that are easy and cheap to make.
How To Stop Mosquitos Without Traps
The first step in getting rid of these pests is to make your property less hospitable to the bloodsuckers. Mosquitos lay their eggs in standing water, so you should eliminate all standing water from your property.
Walk through the yard, looking for anything that collects water. The best time to do this is right after it rains.
Once you have identified all the places where there is standing water, look for where water collects to make damp areas in the lawn or garden. These spots could potentially be attractive breeding grounds.
Another place that can hold water is the gutters around your roof. Keeping them clean and free from clogs and debris will help prevent water from collecting.
Keeping your garden trimmed and neat can also help reduce the number of mosquitos your property will harbor.
Related: How To Grow A Food Garden Completely Hidden In Plain Sight
Preventing them from seeing your property as a good breeding ground is the best first line of defense.
Keeping Mosquitos Out Of The House
The best way to keep mosquitos from entering the home is to use screens on all the doors and windows. Using air conditioning rather than opening the doors and windows is also a good idea.
Certain plants and essential oils will repel mosquitos, and burning candles that contain these oils is a great way to convince them from not seeing the inside of your home as attractive.
- Clove
- Citronella
- Peppermint
- Rosemary
- Lemongrass
- Eucalyptus
- Lavender
⇒ Buy Here Lavender Seeds And Other Seeds You Need To Start Your Medicinal Herb Garden
Keeping your home sealed off from mosquitos will always be the best way to prevent the little buggers from ruining your day.
Do DIY Mosquito Traps Really Work?
You can find plenty of DIY mosquito traps online, but are they effective? The truth is that most of the homemade traps you will find may work in theory, but you will probably find that they do not meet your expectations.
The two I selected for this article attract the mosquitos by using standing water and will be effective in luring the females to lay their eggs in the water. They will not do much for the ones buzzing around you in the moment but will help deal with any that are choosing to breed on your property.
When constructing DIY traps, it is best to set out several traps in multiple locations around the property. Setting one trap out and finding no dead mosquitos is hardly cause to say it is a total failure.
Building DIY Mosquito Light Trap
The most straightforward trap I found that seems to hold the greatest potential to be effective is a simple light trap. Since this trap uses light to attract the mosquitos, it will only be effective in the evening, overnight, and early morning.
Materials
The materials for this trap should be easy to find around the home. If not, you can find them at any local big box stores. 
- Lamp or another light source that you can direct the light.
- Open top container for water.
- Dish soap.
Instructions
1. Fill the container with some water.
2. Add a few squirts of dish soap.
3. Agitate the water to make it soapy.
4. Place the container in an area where you have seen many mosquitos. Place the lamp so that it shines the beam into the water.
5. Leave overnight and check on its progress in the morning. If you find no mosquitos in the trap, reposition to other areas.
How The DIY Mosquito Light Trap Works
The light attracts mosquitos to the standing water in the container. This environment is attractive to the females for laying their eggs.
The dish soap you have added to the water will break down the surface tension. This makes it impossible for the mosquitos to land on the water’s surface. Instead, they will break through the surface and drown.
Building A DIY No Way Out Trap
There is another trap worth mentioning. This trap can be easily built using scavenged materials or readily available and inexpensive parts.
⇒ Backyard Projects That Might Get You Arrested
This trap works by using a fine mesh as a tunnel for mosquitos to enter, but when they get inside to lay eggs they are trapped.
Materials
You can build this trap in only a few minutes and for minimal costs. Aside from a sharp knife or scissors, you will need no specialized tools to make this trap.
- Large plastic water or soda bottle
- Fine mesh screen
- Tape
Instructions
1. Roll a section of mesh screen into a cylinder and tape it so it does not unravel.
2. Trim the cylinder so it will fit inside the bottle.
3. At one end of the cylinder, squish the end so there is about a 3mm gap. Secure with tape.
4. Trace the end of the cylinder onto the bottle about half way up.
5. Cut a hole in the side of the bottle.
6. Place the cylinder into the hole and secure it with tape. Make sure that the small end is inside the bottle.
7. Fill the bottom of the bottle with some water.
8. Place the trap in an area where you have been bothered by mosquitoes.
How The No Way Out Trap Works
As a mosquito is looking to lays some eggs, it will fly into the mesh tube, eventually finding its way into the bottle.
The mosquito lays eggs and then attempts to fly out of the bottle.
They will not be able to get out because they cannot find their way through the small gap you have left for them to exit.
These two traps are the ones that I found were the most likely to see success in a wide variety of situations and environments.
As I said at the start of this article, your best defense against mosquitos will be prevention and deterrence.
A good defense is going to reduce the need for even having to deploy traps like these.
If you do find yourself in need of dealing with these pests, these traps are cheap and worth your time to try out.
You may also like:
Meal in a Bag: Chili with Beef and Beans
What Happens When You Add Cinnamon To Honey (Video)
21 Items To Take With You In The Wild For Long Term Survival
How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Power Up Your Fridge?
Best States For Looters. Do You Live In One Of Them?
Other things, you didn’t mention. For those who collect rain water, if you can’t keep it bug proof, use mosquito dunks, in the water to kill the larva, and removing old tires, too. They hold water if outside, or crumble the dunks in small pieces and add to the standing water in tires or anywhere you know you have some that can’t be removed.
Also keeping the tall grasses down will also help a lot, as that’s where the males hang out.
Good idea for a DIY mosquito trap, simple, like the idea of using a dunk in the trap.
Understand FL has recent Malaria cases.
When we have illegals flooding across the Southern border with many diseases. We need to protect ourselves and family members too.
This project we add other ingredients that are not toxic to us. The city or federal agencies at times use toxic chemicals to take care of the pests. These have health risks when agencies use them.
Great idea to make our own traps.
Is there a post on DIY traps for mice and rats? I have them in the garden eating my vegetables and bothering the backyard chickens too.
The recent cases of malaria in FL and TX are in reality caused by warmer temperatures and increased rainfall … the weather doesn’t care about borders … or when you say ‘illegals’ did you mean those pesky Mexican mosquitos?
Not the illegals – rather a very legal person:
Bill Gates,
who already has released tens of millions of his Genetically altered (and even robot ) mosquitos onto Florida, for starters….
(HOW WAS THAT EVEN LEGAL???)
FYI: Malaria is not contagious and cannot be passed from person to person…
Tonga:Look up Peanut Butter Gang Plank.It works well mice,
rats,and Vols.
Yes I tried to use a water trap with a rotating pipe on top of the 5 gal bucket. This in the chicken coup area. So far no luck, trying not to use toxic stuff around the chickens.
Thanks for your suggestion.
I have a small tabletop water fountain on my front porch, which I don’t leave on all the time. Since I don’t and the water isn’t circulating it would get lime buildup, so I started added a bit of vinegar to the water. It not only helped with the lime buildup but also has kept the mosquitos at bay. Who knew?
Take a 5 gal bucket.
Fill 1/2 way with rain water.
Add in about 1/4 package of yeast and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Give a teaspoon of dish soap (Dawn is recommended).
Stir to dissolve.
Place in a shady spot AWAY from where you frequent.
The CO2 is what attracts the mosquitoes.
They lands in the water and drown.
Like that idea of adding yeast, does the yeast and sugar really create a CO2 gas?
I have used children’s bubble liquid in an aluminum pie plate, and it works well. Just place where you want it, empty the plate out after it gets full of mosquitoes and start again.
I have used home-made traps the past few years and they work great.
Bucket/pail partially filled with water, grass clippings, weeds, etc. and add mosquito dunks. Female lays the eggs, eggs hatch, mosquito dunks kill the larva. Females don’t live all that long, so no more mosquitoes. Works great for me. I have several of them, out front, out back and around the side of the house.
When the boogers get bad I treat my property with a product called Mosquito Barrier. It is 99.5% garlic juice stabilized with citric acid. I spray 3 oz/gallon of water on all the trees and shrubs and flowers around the house, also spray the walls of the house. It will not harm plants or pets but it also repels butterflies. The garlic smell fades after 2 days but the spray remains effective for 2-3 weeks.
I also discovered the septic tank is a favorite breeding facility for mosquitos so every month I crumble a mosquito dunks wafer and wash the crumbs down all the household drains. Bacterial warfare rocks!
@ArsePoetica: how do they get into your septic tank. It should be completely closed off …mine is or it would stink.
What is a “mosquito dunk” ?
Lowes sells them near the garden section. They are shaped like a fat, cookie donut. It can be floated whole or broken into pieces to.place in standing water to kill mosquito larvae. It won’t hurt plants so besides bird baths, pieces can be put in the water in bromeliads.
Mosquitos larva are a concern of mine. My slack tank next to my forge is a 30 gallon barrel. 2 things keep it “clean”. First is a bit of copper pipe. The copper will prevent algae and other ickies from making the water slimy.
The second is for mosquitos. A bit of vegetable oil. Just enough to get a layer on the surface of the water. Mosquito larva must breath. To do they they have a kind of snorkle they us to poke up out of the surface os the water. The layer of oil keeps them from being able to get their breathing pipe into the air and the suffocate.