gnomic says:

Hmmm.. Now I can justify a moat to my wife who wants a screened-in porch. How do the ’squiter feel about fire-breathing dragons?

Leland says:

I’ll be installing my flowing moat just upwind of my Mosquito Magnet.

Andrew says:

Ha! The Mosquito Magnet is what got this whole story started. My wife wants one ’cause a friend has one. So I looked into it and saw there are a bunch of ‘em. Now I’m doing a story about the various ways to use technology to deal with skeeters, including the MM.

Leland says:

I’ve got one and it works. Here’s a week’s catch from last year: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/TVNews/2006_Misc/060709_DeadMosquitoes.jpg

(This year has been light for the little blood suckers due do lack of rainfall)

In fact I like it so much I upgraded to the larger wireless unit when the old one got hit by lightning.

We also have a bat house on near the house which is currently occupied by at least three bats: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/TVNews/2006_Misc/060901_BatHouse.jpg

Yes the bats help. It is great fun to watch the bats take out the mosquitoes that refuse to be assimilated into the Mosquito Magnet.

Emily says:

Wow, Leland, that’s a lot of skeeters! Just one week, really?
Bats work well but there is only so much they can do. I used to watch them when I was young, darting around at sunset eating bugs.

We get those little Asian Tigers that are really aggressive and hard to kill. The bug zapper style unit is popular here. It gives off a satisfying *ZAP* when one flies in. I’ve never seen the MM but it looks like a cool concept.

On the other hand, I have seen exactly zero mosquitoes downtown. Must be the rent.

Andrew says:

Ah, Leland and Emily, we have some wonderful consolation prizes for ya.

From my upcoming piece:

False: Bats, dragonflies and purple martins can eat a significant number of mosquitoes. (Mosquitoes make up less than 1 percent of a bat’s diet, while dragonflies prefer butterflies and honeybees. Purple martins are day feeders who stick to the treetops; mosquitoes come out at night close to the ground.)

Leland says:

Okay, I’ll buy that. But mosquitoes make up 100% of the Mosquito Magnet’s diet. ;)

Emily says:

Huh! I wonder what they are eating? I imagine if there is a mosquito in the way they won’t avoid it.

Asian Tigers are day and dusk feeders, by the way.

Emily says:

In fact, when the skeeters are so thick you have to wear a bandanna to keep from breathing them, I’ll bet the bats have a feast.

Andrew says:

I can’t think of bats without thinking of this:

Emily says:

The “fluttering of leathery wings”, what a great image!

You should see the cloud of over a million bats rise from the Congress Street bridge in Austin.

Andrew says:

When Lockheed Martin was developing the first stealth aircraft, the engineers would enter the hangar in the morning to find dozens of dead or injured bats. They had apparently flown into the plane because their echolocation was confused by the stealth coating.

Emily says:

So much for the terrorist bat threat!

Leland says:

Wait a second… I would check that before you run with it. Bats use audio location (sonar) for targeting and navigation. The stealth aircraft surfaces absorb and/or redirect radio frequency energy. I’m not certain about that surface’s ability to absorb sound the same way.

Andrew says:

Oh, that’s not for the story. That was an anecdote from Ben Rich’s Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed.