Mosquito Magnets
Many of us are forced to defend ourselves in any number of ways from the dreaded mosquitoes who make spending time outside of enclosed areas a nightmare. There are a variety of solutions that you can choose to try in your war against the mosquito, and the Mosquito Magnet is one of these.
The Mosquito Magnet is an alternative to insecticides and the classic insect traps that vaporize bugs, spreading their remains into the air we breathe. There are a variety of models in the Mosquito Magnet line, and they differ in power capabilities and range. These include the Mosquito Magnet Defender, the Mosquito Magnet Liberty Plus and the Mosquito Magnet New Pro. Many models are quite expensive, but a Mosquito Magnet + a discount could allow you to enjoy a mosquito-free outdoors at an affordable price.
Here’s how the Mosquito Magnet works: it fools mosquitoes into thinking that it’s a living, breathing organism – in essence, chow time for the nasty critters. It does this by emitting CO2, which is what usually attracts biting insects to their prey, and an added scent attractive. Once the mosquitoes are within range, the Magnet sucks them into a net and kills them by dehydrating them. The CO2 is produced with propane and the attractant is a synthetic octanol, which occurs in nature and is a potent attractor of mosquitoes when found in combination with CO2.
The Mosquito Magnet is reviewed on various websites and a comparison of Mosquito Magnet efficacy with other products gives mixed results. Many people consider it an excellent mosquito trap, outperforming competitors due to the fact that it captures more mosquitoes and a greater variety of species. Others have found it to be much less effective and still others somewhere in between; some people claim that mosquito nets and certain repellants will most likely have to be used in conjunction with the machine to provide maximum coverage.
The Mosquito Magnet Liberty Plus has been considered advantageous because of its compact metal frame and quiet fan. This particular model was designed to cover an area of about one acre. Another point in the Mosquito Magnet’s favor is the fact that these models have the option of using a lurex attractant besides the standard synthetic octanol attractant; the advantage of this is that lurex has been shown to be more effective than octanol in attracting Asian Tiger mosquitoes, which constitute problems in the southern United States.
Some negative comments regarding the Mosquito Magnet line include the dependency on propane and the subsequent generation of CO2. Many case studies on Mosquito magnet models, furthermore, noted various Mosquito Magnet problems of a technical nature; it has been stated that the cheaper models, such as the Liberty or the Defender, have less of a possibility of breaking down. Regular maintenance of these systems, including periodic refilling of the propane tank and attractant cartridge replacement every 21 days, have also been cited as negative points.