Enhancement of mosquito trapping efficiency using pulse width modulated LEDs | Hacker News Reader

Enhancement of mosquito trapping efficiency using pulse width modulated LEDs

nature.com

62 pointsluu64 comments

What are the best practical ways of keeping away or killing mosquitoes, midges, black fly and house flies etc?

I've heard of propane burners called 'mosquito magnets', I've heard of chemicals you spread or leave out in traps, I've heard of sprays and tape. Obviously different things work for different pests. I've seen people wearing face nets and hoodies.

Anyone got any real experience and recommendations?

Mosquito nets and deet.

Having a partner who they find more delicious than you also helps.

Alas, I am that partner. Nothing but DEET works for me.

I got some clothes treated with permethrin and that is just as effective as deet for me.

If it’s very hot and humid, I still use deet spray, but if the weather is cool enough for pants and long sleeves, I’ll put on my clothes and I’m good to go.

Tip: I sprayed some Deet on our door, and it caused the paint to bubble.

Yeah, DEET is a plasticizer. It marred the body of my Canon camera after rubbing off of my arm and onto the camera.

You can get picaridin repellants that are as effective as DEET and won’t do that. It’s also way less greasy and stinky in general.

Almost as effective. But in a trade off picaridin is better vs flies and gnats. I feel a few percent less effective vs mosquitoes is worth what I hope is a less toxic repellent. It was first developed in the 1980s and is derived from peppers.

I spilled some DEET on a desk as a kid, and it stripped the varnish clean to the wood. Great if you want to take that long-procrastinated woodworking project camping?

Keep it away from musical instruments if you’re outside jamming around the campfire: strips the lacquer finish right off.

And apparently strips the finish off a lot of things, say sibling commenters.

Mosquito magnet here. The only trick I've used that worked was to move to a place that wasn't so infested.

Sorry - I realize that isn't very helpful, but that was my real experience and solution. I really hope scientists figure out what makes some people more of a target. I wish that all of those best place to live rankings had mosquito population as part of their equation.

Eliminate standing water. Remove landscaping or vegetation that harbors them. Traps. Repellers (e.g. Thermacell). DEET spray and long clothing.

We have an albopictus aka zebra aka Asian tiger mosquito infestation in our Massachusetts back yard. I found and dumped some standing water in the neighbor’s yard. I ordered BG-GAT traps. We use a Thermacell when we go out there and it helps when we remember to set it up 15 min in advance. Considering removing our English ivy ground cover as it’s a habitat for them.

What vegetation harbours mosquitos?

Bamboo definitely does.

Anecdote: I live in Texas. We had ~10 feet of bamboo against our entire back fence, something like ~70 feet. Bamboo isn't native, but grows very fast and provides a lot of visual cover, which is nice. In past years mosquitoes have been real terrorists, you could often have multiple landing on you at once. Nothing we tried made much of a dent except good bug spray all over the body and clothes, and even that wasn't perfect. They were relentless, often landing even on our dog, which surprised me given that he's a lab mix and covered in fur. Guests always commented on how bad it was.

This year we had a backyard office built, and ended up clearing ~10x40 feet of the bamboo for the office. There has been a massive difference in the number of mosquitoes since the clearing. We often go outside for a long time without bug spray at all, I never see them on the dog any more, and guests no longer notice the bugs at all. And we didn't even remove all the bamboo - we still have about 10x30 feet off to the side, and neighbors to both sides and behind our backyard still have some.

Curious, but in your parts, is bamboo synonymous with Japanese knot-wood or is it still considered a separate plant?

I’ve got my oldest kid trained to be on the lookout for knotwood shoots in our yard. It grows and takes over so dann fast.

(Japanese Knotweed is very distinct from bamboo. It looks quite different too.

Pulling up knotweed actually encourages it's spread! So don't do that. Google for lots of articles on how to determine if you have to treat it (if left alone and not pruned it doesn't actually grow fast nor spread; so just leave be!) or how to attempt eradicate it e.g. it is near a building or drainage.

Good luck!)

Thanks! I’ve read reports online about bamboo growing in North America, and didn’t know if it was actual bamboo or the knotweed we have growing in our parts.

It’s coming from our neighbour’s yard who seem to have taken a laissez-faire approach to their yard management.

We’re extremely careful not to let it fracture since, as you know, that spurs additional growth. In the hard to reach parts behind the shed, I did put down landscaping fabric with rocks over it.

After being diligent with new shoots in the early spring, it slows down significantly come the summer and fall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandina is another Bamboo like plant, it is invasive. I grew up with one in the only situation where it wouldn't go invasive, it's surrounded by pavement and stands alone by Mom's front porch. It has awesome flowers for bees. I think i'll remove it before I sell her house. I may pot some to have on a terrace. But it is another invasive.

Japanse knotweed's young sprouts are edible, BTW. But, depending on your climate, it might sprout faster than you can eat it ;-0

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/is-jap...

After googling, I don't think I've seen Japanese knot-wood before. I have woody stalks and long thin leaves. My layman's understanding is that what's in my yard is running bamboo.

In much of TX - certainly the Austin area - there's been a really awful drought, which denies mosquitoes a place for their eggs to grow. Are you sure that this isn't the cause of your observation?

I can't answer this question generally, but one example that is very close to home is bamboo. (Actually, it's no longer close to home. We moved, and despite being very close to our old house, have an order of magnitude fewer mosquitos.) Water collects in the broken culms, which can be very deep, and doesn't go away because they remain shaded.

Anything that makes a humid, dark under-layer. In our case, it's the English ivy ground cover.

After a few minutes searching, this seems like a good guide: https://www.gardenguides.com/12588077-ivy-and-plants-that-ha... Ivy, violets, tree holes.

I remember how my colleague expressed frustration after building system to use rainwater when he realized he essentially made mosquitoes resort in his backyard

Put mosquito dunks in it and then don't drink it.

Screen the water intakes before they reach the barrels?

if you have standing water a couple of drops of dish detergent in standing water will kill all the mosquito larva as the destruction of the water tension by the soap basically drowns them (at least that is my understanding).

Alternately, a layer of oil on top to prevent larva from surfacing for air.

Or for multi-month protection, Bt mosquito dunks.

I bought a Bug-a-salt and it’s been awesome for indoor use. It actually makes trying to kill bugs fun.

I have a lot of fun with mine, but have found that this season, it's not killing the bigger flies anymore. Might it lose it's strength?

The Executioner, basically an electrified tennis racket, is really satisfying too.

Isn't it a pain to clean up the salt afterwards? It seems like hauling out the vacuum to clean up after killing a bug would offset any advantage the gun might have.

Mosquito coils are very efficient for keeping mosquitoes away. I use them in the rainforest where there's a lot of mosquitoes. I light a coil before I go to bed, they last 8 hours. Mosquito nets are also efficient to keep them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV-o77RqQ

Effective Mosquito control requires attacking from multiple angles, consistency, and patience.

- Bacillus thuringiensis (or Bt). This is the bacteria used in "Mosquito Dunks"

- Garlic Barrier - I spray this all around my yard, trees, and bushes and works surprisingly well....

- Thermacell products

- A propane burning trap like Mosquito Magnet with an effective attractant, this can vary depending on your area and type of mosquito. - Removing certain types of vegetation, debris like dead leaves, etc. that attracts them.

Living in South Florida and I found these 2 methods to be efficient:

-The propane burning traps about ten mosquitoes a day. It's an expensive setup. The SkeeterVac is $600, and a $20 propane tank will last a bit less than a month.

-"Mosquito Dunks" or more specifically, BTI (Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis) has to be placed into standing water. Mosquitoes come to lay eggs that will die because of the BTI. I don't know how many it kills, but I've seen a demi-dozen of larvae in there at a time. Here I recommend going with the granules format as the chemical is powerful, and you don't need much of it for example if placed in a bucket. Better than having to deal with breaking down a big piece into smaller ones.

How about a bat box so more bats live in the area and eat the mosquitos. Salamanders also eat mosquitos but the materials most people use to kill mosquitos, like permethrin, unfortunately also kill salamanders.

I am a mosquito magnet too and spend summer in an area that's not quite subtropical but is pretty full of them. I find them to really just be a minor nuisance at certain times of day which I can avoid with the right clothing or staying behind screens. And I often don't even bother and just tolerate some minor itchiness from their bites. I don't really get all the fuss.

Apart from regions with malaria, I don't understand the lengths people go to eradicate them, especially since they are usually pretty ecologically destructive.

There's a lovely variety of mosquito-borne diseases, most notably malaria and West Nile virus, which lead to a Real Bad Time.

I've been helping out a bit in a project for mosquito eradication in Hawaii, where avian malaria transmitted by invasive mosquitoes is threatening a number of endemic birds species with extinction.

Unfortunately bats don't eat many mosquitos as they prefer other insects. They should eat a few though.

Establishing and protecting habitats for bats and dragonflies can be a big help.

A Bifen spray every month or so will work pretty well. I don't love it conceptually, because it's not super mosquito-specific, but it works.

Rural Arkansas, Mosquito HQ checking in.

Dynatraps. Tougher than Toms TNT bait. Gotta have it all out there and ready to go when the season gets started - you don't want to fall behind.

You can also plant things to attract barn swallows and the like, but then you have to deal with them dive bombing you every time you go outside anywhere near their nests.

Fans help with mosquitoes. They wander around until they detect exhaled CO2, and then zigzag their way to the source. An oscillating fan helps prevent them from honing in. I've seen fans setup at family barbeques at the park.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosquito_Homing.jpg

Standing fans or ceiling fans on a porch also prevent them from landing on you. Never considered the CO2 angle, I just thought it blew them off course.

They can't fly all that fast, so blowing them off course definitely helps too.

I haven't found a single "silver bullet" solution, but the combination that has worked for me is bat houses + citronella (candles as well as whole plants, planted around the patio/deck) + the classic electric bug zappers.

We wanted to avoid insecticides because we have a pretty significant pollinating bee population that we didn't want to harm, but if that's not a concern for you, just carpet bombing the yard with pyrethrins is a solid foundation.

I've had good luck with Mosquito Magnets in the past; the only reason I'm not using one now is because the bat houses are approximately zero maintenance, and I'm a sucker for fire-and-forget solutions

The one time I was at (many years ago) Disney World Florida I was astounded by the lack of any flying insects at lamps etc. at night. What ever Disney did or is doing seems to work but it might be effectively dropping a nuke on any insect life.

Another possible method of fairly environmentally friendly mosquito control, is create standing water, as in a barrel of water, but put enough dish soap in it to lower the surface tension.

Females come by to lay eggs, but instead get sucked in and drowned. Any larvae that manage to hatch will likewise drown.

Discovered this when I realized a roommates trash barrel had filled with rainwater, and subsequently been infested. I couldn’t just immediately dump it all over so. A squirt of soap and a quick mix with a stick made a graveyard.

A net.

Long sleeve shirts & pants. Loose clothing. Goal is to keep them away from your skin.

What's up with the abstract? It's as if it was written by a terrible LLM.

Just one sentence: > With specific PWM electric signals to drive the LED, it is found that no matter what the ability of catching insects or the consumed power efficiency can be enhanced thus.

Nah, I don't think that's a LLM, I think that's someone who speaks English as a second language and has been taught in the highly formal UK style.

Not great, but in context it could be made sense of without too much difficulty.

Rearranging the sentence and adding a comma improves it significantly IMO:

It is found that no matter what, the ability of catching insects or the consumed power efficiency can be enhanced with specific PWM electric signals to drive the LED.

More could be done to it of course to improve further.

At the start of spring or fall I take a walk down to my local creek and net some mosquito fish. Then I setup a few vases with water and a plant to make a nice habitat for the fish and the mosquitoes. I set these up around the house in shaded areas. The mosquitoes come by do there thing and promptly get eaten by the fish. The fish does its thing and the plant grows. At the end of the season I plant the plant and throw the fish back in the creek. Its overall a pretty pleasant experience.

I wonder if using light to attract mosquitos has a large kill-rate for other, more beneficial insects.

It does, unfortunately. Look at any light trap

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C6zmsxnKLD8

Looks the modes almost all kill more of the other bugs than mosquitos. The one that doesn't is linear with lens.

Remember that 2-32Hz is the hot zone for photosensitive epilepsy.

Sounds like quackery. How about some ASMR to lure them in too?

> it is found that no matter what the ability of catching insects or the consumed power efficiency can be enhanced thus.

"no matter what" ? Let's apply this technique recursively and gain infinite enhancement of catching insects or consumed power efficiency!

It’s weird, the abstract that you quoted from is so poorly-written that bits of it don’t even make sense, but then the writing in the Introduction section is fine.

All animals have some lure. Some miss-match from something with a biological drive, to something modern.

On safari in the city habitat, it has always been known you can lure the human animal into a trap with some ASMR, moaning, and Bacon. Sadly it does not end well for them, most often they are subdued with intoxicants and pilfered of their winter stores.

Place a small animal in the cage giant bug zapping cage (esp a dog). You'll catch 100x more mosquitoes

Reply on news.ycombinator.com