bite-free summer | the nuclear option

Wall Street Journal

Excerpt from the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Bite-Free Summer.

Mega-Catch ULTRA Mosquito Trap

More into full-on slaughter than pacifist-like defense? There's a class of contraption (and they really are contraptions) designed to attract, trap and kill entire mosquito populations within an area. They use an array of LEDs and black lights that mosquitoes are drawn to. But more disturbingly, they generate false signs of human life, with heating elements that mimic body heat and CO2 emissions that mimic breath exhalations. The more well-known brand of trap uses propane for both CO2 and heat production. Mega-Catch's ULTRA Mosquito Trap ($600, megacatch.com) is less of a hassle, since the carbon dioxide is optional, fed by a dedicated tank, and everything else runs off a 12-volt extension cord. The ULTRA reels in mosquitoes within 1.5 acres, presumably killing enough of them to disrupt their reproductive cycle, and collapse the local population. Mega-Catch claims the die-off—which is impossible to predict, but should be a noticeable thinning—can take as long as two months.

Read the full article here.