caretaker

I suspect the soap is necessary to make the right sort of film so it lasts, and the lemon in it is the actual repellant. The vinegar would be to break it down so it isn't too greasy. When you put it on it stinks like vinegar for a minute, then that evaporates and a thin layer of the soap remains. It's a little strange, but over all no nastier than deet. This is something the natives used up on northern reserves, my sister learned about it when she worked at Sask Federated Indian College. If it's hot or you're working and sweating it still lasts about 15 - 20 minutes, same as commercial repellants.

Piff Poff

OK thanks. Off to buy some lemon scented washing up liquid.

iaink

We have one of these out back

and one of these under the deck


Between them they have made a decent dent in the bugs this year. Its been a bad year and our old skeeter vac died last year after 7 or 8 years so we felt we ought to at least try and reclaim the yard.

The skeeter vac does not need power, just propane, and it mimicks human breath to attract the little buggers. In our largish yard its ideal as we can move it around from one end the other now and then to keep the breeding populations in check. Its not a total solution though, it does not seem to be able to catch the largest tiger mosies, but it does get the smaller ones and stops them breeding at least. Ive seen one of the bigger mossies land on the tacky trap and then take off again! Its fine for most normal mossies though. Tacky traps, octonol lures and propane costs add up, but at least the yard is mostly useable. You still take your chances going out there at dusk but in the day when it used to be awful now its fine, and in general the Skeetervac is a lot better than doing nothing.

The lentec one under the deck needs to be plugged in. It seems to have mores suction and works pretty well. No tacky trap to keep having to change. If you just have a small area you want to keep habitable then its probably enough. It was significantly cheaper and costs less to keep going. Its pretty indescriminate what it sucks in (ie lots of small moths)

Running costs on that one are just replacing the octonol bait every month or two.

Id take any acreage claims from the makers with a big dose of salt. Sure, it may cover half an acre in perfect conditions, but its seldom if ever perfect, and if you just want to clear a patio or deck near the house I would start with the plug in unit before paying the extra for the more sophisticated skeetervac.

Piff Poff

Thanks Iain, as helpful as ever I will show this to OH when he gets home and probably pick something up on the way out tonight. I was talking to a neighbour about them last night, she'd never heard of such a contraption, I am to be the guinea pig...

Almost Canadian

When I reviewed the Skeetervac, the running costs appeared prohibitive for what we require.

We went with a couple of Flowtrons from Home Depot. They seemed to do what we wanted.

BristolUK

This has always been the most annoying thing about them over here, the fact that they don't only come out at night.

Only ever a nuisance on holiday in France, Greece, Spain etc well into the evening, by which time you can be out of shorts and reasonably protected.

Piff Poff

And are they sufficient? Do you notice a difference?

Almost Canadian

Hell yes

We bought a one acre one and a half acre one. I have just cleaned them with a compressor, they were coated with dead mozzies.

Piff Poff

Right, we will check those out too then, im sick of being bitten this year, its the worst its been since 2005.

Piff Poff

Well, OH picked up a flowtron yesterday, i think we need one for the front and one for the back though, is that what you do with yours?

Almost Canadian

Yes

We put the bigger one where we had the biggest number of mozzies and put the other in a location were we tend to sit and watch the sun go down.

Both of those locations are some distance from our deck and I suspect we will get a third at a later date if those two combined do not provide sufficient coverage.

Make sure you have an air compressor. The number of dead things that need to be blown off on a regular basis is staggering.