How to Make an Ovitrap Mosquito Trap

Do you have a major mosquito problem? Well, here’s a solution used by the military to drastically cut down their numbers.

Step 1: Watch the Video!!

Watch the Youtube Video!

Step 2: Getting Started

Grab a plastic bottle from your recycle bin. The bigger the better. This concept will work with many types of containers, but if it’s too small, the water may dry up.

Materials that I used:

• Plastic Container
• Sharpie
  
• Small Drill Bit
• 3/8” Paddle Bit
• Black Spray Paint
• 17 Gage Galvanized Wire
• Super Glue
• Gorilla Tape
• One Black Sock
• Pet Food

• Water

Step 3: Prepare Plastic Bottle

I used an orange juice bottle for the first one, but I think next time I will experiment with a 2-litter bottle.

I cut the top off of the bottle with a hacksaw and trimmed the rough edges with a pair of scissors.

Step 4: Drill Holes

I marked 2 holes on the top with a sharpie for a hanger wire and 2 bigger holes below for water overflow.

Drill out the holes. The drill bit size for the hanger holes will depend on the size wire that you are using. I used 17 gage galvanized wire.

I drilled the water overflow holes with a 3/8 inch paddle bit, but they could probably be smaller and work just fine.

TIP: Run the drill bit backwards in plastic for an easier cut.

Step 5: Paint It Black

If your container is not already black, then give it a quick paint job. I ran out of paint towards the top (old can), but the important part is to create a dark container to simulate a dark, pond type environment.

Step 6: Make the Hanger

When the paint has dried, make the hanger. I cut a piece of wire about a foot long and fed each end through the hanger holes. I made a loop and twisted the ends of the wire tightly around itself.

Step 7: Add the Screen

I used some scrap window screen and cut out some squares a little larger than the water overflow holes. I superglued and Gorilla taped them into place.

Step 8: Add Screen to the Top

You’ll also need to cut some screen for the top. I cut out a circle larger than the opening in the top and pushed the screen down inside. I also Gorilla taped the sides of the screen to the bottle for extra secureness. Keep in mind that metal screen may grip the bottle better than window screen which is a metal/plastic type material.

Step 9: Cut Up a Sock

Find an old pair of black socks. The fuzzier the better. I cut a strip out and pushed a bit down into the water to act as a water wick. Then, wrap the rest of the sock around the rim of the bottle and tape into place.

Step 10: Add Water

Fill the bottle with rain water. You can also add tap water and a few pieces of pet food or grass clippings to create stagnant water in just a few days.

Add water until it starts to pour out of the overflow holes.

Pour water over the sock until it is soaked. The sock needs to stay wet to attract the mosquitoes.

Step 11: Hang Your Ovitrap

Hang your completed Ovitrap in a tree in a dark, shady spot in your yard.

How it works:

* The mosquitoes will be attracted to the dark wet sock near the body of stagnant water and lay their eggs in the sock.

* Once the mosquito larvae has hatched, they will drop into the water to become adults.

* When the mosquitoes are full grown, they will be too large to fly out and will be trapped inside by the screen.

Key Points:

When designing your own Ovitrap remember to have a dark container with continuous, dark, wet material at the top with the screen being as close to the top of the water as possible.

Step 12: More DIY Videos

Watch the Youtube video!

Thanks for watching! This video was inspired by this excellent instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/Mosquito-Killing-Ovitrap

Subscribe and watch more videos at: http://www.youtube.com/c/ShowandTellVideo

Comments

[artsybohuna]

Interesting idea, but the water overflow holes with the screen could not serve as an escape for the eggs once the water overflow?

[AbbyL1]

How does it trap the mosquitoes

[kgaddy]

I know this is kinda old but in case anyone else was wondering during future readings.

[kedwa30]

It doesn't. It traps the eggs. Ovi means egg. It's an egg trap. The idea is that it reduces the population of mosquitoes in the area, not by actually killing mosquitoes; rather, by foiling their reproduction. It's not likely to eliminate all mosquitoes, but it will reduce their population density.

They're low maintenance. Once you set it up, you can leave it and it will continue to work for generations of mosquitoes. Just check to make sure the sock doesn't rot away allowing mosquitoes an avenue of escape. I think a design improvement may be to thread some black yarn through the screen to make the wick in such a way that even if it riots away, the screen will still be solid.

A local flower shop usually throws away black plastic buckets that the flowers are delivered in. I got some free just for asking. I plan on making several of these traps using these buckets. I intend to put them halfway down into the mulch under bushes and out of sight.

[HowieDoodle]

Hello! I think I'm being dense here, but how are the mosquitoes getting in to lay the eggs in the first place?

[chuckr44]

Great idea. I put a goldfish in my tiny pond every spring, they eat every bug that drops in there. I never feed them and they grow to be huge.

[alSteven]

Arent the holes in the wire too big for the mosquitoes?

or Am i wrong?

[WhyMeLord]

Nice video but some of us can't hear the audio for technical or physical reason Is there any possibility of adding a text file/description.

I'm told there are differen lures for differen types of misqutoes.

[RMP2003]

Nice! We have a SERIOUS mosquito problem... so thanks!

[delicia.ambrosino.1]

Betta aka Japanese Fighting fish LOVE mosquito larvae. In fact, it is their main source of food in the wild. However. if used for this purpose the larvae cannot be allowed to live in tainted water of any kind. I'm mentioning this because of a comment I'd read.

I like the concept. I have a huge 50 gal. homemade rain barrel with a screen on top. No food is provided. They {skeeters} can get in, lay their eggs, but nothing can get out. All the dead eventually sink to the bottom and decay. By the way, my barrel is white. I should use a dark barrel and on extremely hot days cover it so whatever is in there can "cook" as an extra precaution.

[ClaireMW]

RE: midges, in the eastern provinces of Canada, we call these nasties "little black flies". Boy, do they ever bite! The leave a little round hole in your skin that will bleed for about a full minute or two. Are we talking about the same creatures?

[jig10]

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing. I live in Scotland, where we are hounded by midges... I'm going to make one of these, as well as one with sugar/yeast added to the water. Fingers crossed : )

[KumoBob]

Maybe you call mosquito midges in Scotland, but midge and mosquito are different. Midge look a lot like mosquitoes, but they do not bite, and are very beneficial to fish. I just wanted to be sure you were not trying to kill midge.

[yebo77]

From what it sounds like I'm sure that the Scottish "midges" are a real pain...... but try hanging out in the Florida Everglades, I used to live near there and the mosquitoes are so huge that not only do they have hair on their legs but along with a nasty bite, their toenails can leave some serious scratch marks....... DO'OH!!!

[sallydaw]

Yes, I believe that the worst mosquitoes in the west are definitely with you guys in Florida :D

[LoganSix]

This probably wouldn't work for midges, they are much smaller than mosquitoes, but just as annoying (from what I remember).

[fenikkusu]

It appears not all midges are created equal!!!

Highland Midges apparently descent on human en masse and bite bite bite. The description sounds quite terrifying. Look up Highland midge

Also it appears that there are lots of different types and that there are over 4000 species of midges that bite!

By the way I'm not being a know-it-all here... before today I didn't actually know what a midge was, well I knew it was a biting flying insect but I thought it was one of those tiny gnat sort of things. This has been very eye-opening... now I know those mosquito things that have extra fuzzy antennae are the males.

KumoBob is correct though if you can find the ones that don't bite they are really important for the environment. Good luck with that ... they look like a mosquito to me...

This is what Purdue has to say:

http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publichealth/insects/bitingmidge.html

[jig10]

I can assure you that the Scottish midge bites. It is the bane of our Summers and Autumns here, as anyone visiting would know.

[rustyfox]

This device WILL reduce the population, but maybe not significantly enough to be noticeable. Any mosquito which deposits her eggs into this trap is not laying them where they can fly loose, and therefore has reduced the wild, at-large population. That said, unless you have dozens of these, I doubt that it will make much of a difference. In much the same way as every bucket of water you take out of an Olympic sized swimming pool has reduced the volume - but will anybody notice even 1,000 gallons missing?

I'm building one right now - but my goal is the same as another poster - to provide live food for my aquarium fish. It's so much easier than catching the odd mosquito by hand and hoping there is enough life left to attract the fish's attention. The odd wriggler (as we call the larvae in Australia) that I find in my spare aquarium water (aging before adding to the aquarium) is devoured within seconds. Thanks for the inspiration!

[rustyfox]

Slight clarification on my comment:

Any mosquito which deposits her eggs into this trap is not laying them
where they can eventually fly loose after maturing, and therefore has reduced the wild, at-large
population.