How to kill Zika and Yellow Fever mosquitoes using a Carbon Dioxide Generator Mosquito Trap

You might want to go a little low Tech, my Kinesthetic and Visual Learners!

For such technically challenged people who are more into getting rid of Mosquitoes before they become a nuisance, here’s a very Low-tech solution; a Carbon Dioxide Generator Mosquito Trap.

This idea no different from the CIB (Coffee Industry Board) Pheromone Traps designed for the Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus hampei) that plagues Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee producers as stated in the article “CIB Sets Up Task Force to Fight Coffee Berry Borer”, published Monday, 20 February 2012 09:48, The Jamaica information Service.

The article “How to Make a Coffee Berry Borer (CBB) Trap”, viewed May 11 2013, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii describes how it’s done. The Carbon Dioxide Generator Mosquito Trap works on a similar principle by taking advantage of certain peculiarities about Mosquitoes:

1.      They’re attracted to Carbon Dioxide, which we humans and animals exhale

2.      They’re attracted to anything Black, which….well, Jamaicans are mostly Black People with varying shades of Dark Brown

So you know its DIY time for the construction of a Carbon Dioxide Generator Mosquito Trap.

How to Construct a Mosquito Trap – Large Scale Killer required to kill Mosquitoes

First, for the Visual and Kinesthetic Learners, here’s a step-by-step graphic of how to make a Carbon Dioxide Generator Mosquito Trap

If you are a Visual learner, here are the instructions as a video:

Ok, now for the Tactile (Read/Write) learners, you’ll need:

1.      1 cup Distilled water

2.      1/4 cup of brown sugar

3.      1 gram of yeast

4.      1 2 Liter Soda Bottle

The instructions for construction are fairly straightforward:

1.      Cut the plastic bottle in half.

2.      Mix brown sugar with hot water to dissolve and let it cool when cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.

3.      Add the yeast. It creates carbon dioxide via aerobic respiration, which attracts Mosquitoes.

4.      Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together with Black Masking Tape

5.      Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area close to where Mosquitoes are known to breed or even in the house

So if this tech is well known and tried and tested, why doesn’t the government of Jamaica and other countries make large scale versions of these devices and use them to kill mosquitoes.

GOJ needs to build large Scale Mosquito Traps – Innovative idea to solve a growing Problem

This you can also mass produce for sale to others using more sturdy material of course, such as glazed Ceramic or Laminated Wood.  It can even be done by the GOJ’s Ministry of Health on a large scale and scaled up to the size of a building with a few modifications of course to combat the spread of the Zika Virus and Yellow Fever.

The Carbon Dioxide Generator Mosquito Trap can also be sited strategically inside of each Mosquito infested community in Portmore to kill Mosquitoes. This Carbon Dioxide Mosquito Trap idea needs maintenance though, as the Yeast mixture need to be changed frequently, possibly tracked using a Carbon Dioxide detector.

Especially after the failure of the Western Mosquito Fish (Gambusia affinis) commonly called “Tiki-Tiki” Fish in Jamaica to eradicate Mosquitoes since August 2012 as stated in the article “Ticky-ticky flop! - Portmore back to square one”, published Sunday, August 26, 2012 BY COREY ROBINSON Sunday Observer staff reporter, The Jamaica Observer.

The Mosquitoes in Portmore will never know what hit them were such large scale Carbon Dioxide Mosquito Traps deployed. In the process Jamaica can gradually rid and eventually ban Mosquito Destroyer importation into Jamaica and thus make all Public places Smoking free.

Here’s the link:

How to Make a Coffee Berry Borer (CBB) Trap