Mosquito Trap

 

Supplies for a simple mosquito trap:

• 1- 2 liter soda bottle

• a sharp knife

• black paper or decorative paper

• tape - any kind

• candy thermometer

• 1- pot

Take a 2 liter soda bottle. Cut off the top right below where it starts to narrow for the top, invert and place inside the lower half after you put the syrup in.

Make a simple sugar syrup.

Ingredients for the attraction:

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup water

• 2 cups cool water

• 1 tsp. active dry yeast

Directions:

In a 2 quart pot, bring 1 cup of the water to a boil.

Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water.

Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in 2 cups cool water and stir well.

Check the temperature of the syrup to make sure it is no hotter than 90 degrees F, if hotter, let it cool down to 90 degrees F, once it's at that temperature, add 1 tsp. active dry yeast, and there's no need to mix it in. Put the syrup in the bottom part of the bottle, now take the cut off neck piece, invert it and place it on top of the bottle. The fermenting yeast will release carbon dioxide. This mosquito trap will then start working.

Be sure to seal the two parts of the bottle with the tape. Yes, you can use duct tape if you want. Put black paper around the bottle, since the pesky little critters like two things, dark places and carbon dioxide. If you want to decorate the bottles and make them more attractive, that's okay too. You can make a few of these and place them around where you going to be spending time outside. 

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

                         to return to the Tips & Tricks page.