Mosquito traps

[Loco Gato]

Anyone had any luck with those propane fueled ones?

TIA

[Binary_BillTheSailor]

A bat eats 1000 mosquitoes a day, requires no maintenance or refilling, and costs nothing except the cost of building a bat house.

BB

[Kyle Boatright]

I'm all for bats and bat houses. The problem is that there are no guarantees that they will choose to inhabit the structure you build for them. Even if they do eventually decide to inhabit your structure, it may take them years to discover it so they can colonize it.

There is a colony of millions of bats that lives under/inside a bridge in Austin Texas. Obviously an ideal bat habitat. Nonetheless, it took years for the bats to find and begin nesting in the bridge...

I'm all for bats and bat houses.

KB

[Jim Mc Namara]

search words: bat house plans

results: 191,000 possible hits

[Eric Scantlebury]

Well, looks like you already have one. Just happens that you live there too ;)

[Steve Hollis]

Here's a bat house link

[Jeff Cochran]

Except that for most bats, mosquitos aren't their preferred diet, and most bats are active after mosquitos have stopped being active. If you're looking for mosquito control, bats are notoriously ineffective. As are Purple Martens, citronella plants and most other natural forms of control.

Jeff

[John Gilmer]

Not only that but bat urine is the method by which most fatal of rabies are passed onto humans.

[Steve Hollis]

I don't think so, john. I believe Taxoplasmosis is a more likey danger from guano than rabies.

[Binary_BillTheSailor]

A day is 24 hours

I have heard that too, but I can tell you first hand that it doesn't seem to be true. My yard, which is not far from a wetlands is relatively mosquito free since I got bats. Before that, they were a major problem. That's what prompted me to build bat houses.

BB

[jmagerl]

for everyone that says bats work, there will be someone that says they don't. I used to have a barn that had a population of 79+ bats (large brown variety). For most summers, the mosquitoes just followed you around in a cloud, if you ever stood still and that cloud found you.....lets put it this way....you lost a quart of blood just going from the front door to the car (a distance of 20ft). The bats did couldnt control them.

I currently live in an area where I can turn on my outside light and watch the bats fly thru the light. Again, the mosquitoes are horrible. I can also say a Mosquito Magnet does nothing either

[A]

Tell 'George' bats are harboring WMD's - he'll whack 'em.

[Jeff Cochran]

Google the archives of alt.consumer.pest-control.

Jeff