Dump standing water weekly
Gutters, saucers, toys, tarps. Costs nothing, does more than any spray.
Misses one container and the cycle restarts. Doesn't touch adults already flying.
Smart CO₂ tank switching for outdoor mosquito traps. Never run out mid-session. Schedule-aware, always on.
Coming soonEven the proven approaches have real limits. Here's the honest version, and the one method that's purpose-built to crash the adult-female population in your yard.
Gutters, saucers, toys, tarps. Costs nothing, does more than any spray.
Misses one container and the cycle restarts. Doesn't touch adults already flying.
DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus on exposed skin.
Protects you, not the yard. Reapply every few hours; kids forget; pets can't wear it.
A bacterium that only kills mosquito larvae. Safe for pets, fish, pollinators.
Only works in standing water you find. Does nothing to adults flying in from next door.
Release a steady stream of bottled CO₂ with a touch of heat to mimic a breathing mammal. Host-seeking female mosquitoes (the ones that bite) fly to it instead of you, get sucked into a net, and dehydrate. Pulls them from up to an acre.
No pesticide. No spray. The bait is just exhaled-breath chemistry. Dogs, cats, and toddlers can walk right past it.
Bees, butterflies, dragonflies, fireflies, and pollinators don't host-seek for CO₂. They ignore the trap. Foggers and zappers kill them by the thousands.
Peer-reviewed field trials (Kline, USDA-ARS) show 60–90% drops in landing rates for Aedes, Culex, Anopheles, plus biting midges and no-see-ums.
Only works while it's running. Run out of CO₂ on a Saturday and you're feeding the mosquitoes until you notice.
We fix the catch. SkeeterSwitch sits between two CO₂ tanks, switches automatically when one runs dry, and warns your phone before the second one does. Your CO₂ trap stays on all season — no missed weekends, no surprise yard full of mosquitoes.
The backyard pest-control industry runs on myths. Some don't work. Some make your yard worse. Here's the short version.
Mosquitoes don't hunt UV. Zappers kill 99.9% beneficial bugs and almost zero mosquitoes.
Open flame puts out CO₂ and heat — exactly what mosquitoes home in on.
Same problem as candles, bigger flame. A beacon visible to mosquitoes for 30+ feet.
Wipes out bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and the spiders that eat mosquitoes.
Apps, wristbands, plug-ins. Cochrane review of 10 trials: zero effect.
Mosquitoes are under 1% of their diet. Martins eat dragonflies (which eat mosquitoes).
Oil is locked inside the leaves. Sitting next to the plant does nothing.
Every controlled trial: negative. Diet does not change how mosquitoes find you.
DEET has 65+ years of safety data. Natural oils evaporate in 20 minutes.
Spray pyrethroids on a schedule whether mosquitoes are there or not. Same damage as fogging.
Aedes mosquitoes breed in a bottle cap. Gutters and saucers, not ponds.
Aedes aegypti and albopictus are aggressive daytime biters. Sunscreen ≠ safety.