Oh Noes Mosquitoes! A DIY Bug Trap Review

Ohhhh Texas summers. As if the skin-charring heat weren't enough to put you off then the damn mosquitoes would be.

And its not just Texas (I looked this up) most of the U.S. is a veritable plague pit of mosquito-ness

Map of Mosquito infestation in the U.S. (www.mosquitomap.org) Be afraid. Be very afraid.

In fact the local newspaper from where I spent my early childhood was named The Mosquito

I was featured in their Summer 1985 issue pouring water on some kid's head...pretty sure that means I'm famous

Who doesn't hate mosquitoes? They suck. Literally. And because I read too much on the internet I'm totally afraid that me or the kids or the hubster will be bit by an evil mosquito one of these days with dire consequences...

Like maybe this:

I made this picture small because The Fly is pretty much completely terrifying. Believe it or not this was one of the least disturbing images I could find. I should also note here that I decided I needed to wikipedia The Fly last night..oh God why?!!! Thanks for the nightmares Jeff.

But then there is the reality of this:

And you know they've got some spare Bubonic Plague in there...and maybe leprosy

And if that didn't get your attention - check this poster from WWII

Rosie the Riveter be damned! Go fill those holes people!

Well, this weekend the Hubs and I decided to get rid of the gross lava rock on our front path and plant some nice flowers, but this meant fighting off the mosquitoes. And somehow convincing them not to eat the baby. 

I was going full throttle. I put citronella candles on the porch near Jamie (where he was watched like a hawk lest you worry) and I thought I'd make one of those DIY mosquito traps you see all over facebook and the internet. It looks like this:

Side note: maybe the best part is that this exact same recipe is found on both The Survivalist Blog and a blog on going green which are of notably different ..erm..slants.

After all the fighting..we've been making our mosquito traps the same way this whole time! <3

Anyhow, I thought it would not only be effective but a fun project for me and Cal to do. It was pretty easy to make and because I bake all the time, I had yeast on hand. YAY!

In fairness - it was really easy to make...

I even got the funnel of doom in there!

Now maybe I had high expectations - you know after seeing the mosquito carnage pictured in the directions, but I was kind of expecting something like this...

Wreck-It Ralph is a pretty darn good movie by the by

It was nothing like that. Nothing at all. Those mosquitoes could have given a rat's ass about the sugar/yeast bait. All they wanted was the baby...

Baby...the other other white meat

Luckily about that time I found some OFF! and sprayed us down, I moved Little Mister and Little Miss inside and we wrapped up the planting asap.  In the interest of fairness I thought I'd leave the trap outside in the backyard where the mosquitoes are awful.  Well, I went to check this morning - I've killed two gnats. 

Yay. 

Meanwhile I have about 5 mosquito bites. So, I'm going to call that trap a big fat fail. Anyone have any ideas? Suggestions? Success with this?

Otherwise I'm labeling this one:

I'm not affliated with MythBusters at all. But I wish I were..because they rock.