Simple Solution Wipes Out Mosquitoes

Simple Solution Wipes Out Mosquitoes MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Pest Animals 33-6-31 The Skeeterbag looks too simple to work, it's just a bag on a fan, but its inventor, Sid McCarty, believes in simplicity and says it really works. McCarty raises puppies and nursery trees on his Micanopy, Fla. property, which also happens to be "blessed" with lots of mosquitoes. During an especially bad mosquito season a few years ago, when the biting insects made life miserable for humans and covered puppies' heads with bites, McCarty tried several different mosquito traps on the market. None of them worked. He finally hit on the idea of duct-taping mosquito netting to the front of a 20-in. box fan. He set the back of the fan near the dogs on the porch. In the morning, there were thousands of mosquitoes in the netting. After refining the design, he put the Skeeterbag on the market. Rods at the top and bottom of the nylon net bag hook between the plastic grill and metal box of a fan. Most 20-in. fans work, but McCarty suggests using high volume or premium fans and avoiding ones that have screws on the corners, as the bag doesn't fit well on them. "Locate them so they are out of the weather, but close to where animals are living and especially where they are sleeping. Animals figure it out and move to the fan," McCarty says. "When you're having a picnic, stay within 10 ft. of the fan." One fan will cover about acre. Since mosquitoes seem to stay in certain zones, McCarty has fans set up in his backyard and front yard and one on the side. "When you watch them, it's like the mosquitoes sense the breeze is a free ride, and they head right for it," McCarty says. "At first it catches a zillion of them. After about a week it drops way off." "One thousand mosquitoes weigh one gram after they are dried out," he says. "When they're really bad you can catch 30,000 a night." During mosquito season, he averages about 10,000 mosquitoes a week. He dumps the bags weekly or when the ball of dead mosquitoes is the size of a pancake. Simply unhook part of the screen and let the fan blow them away. McCarty says he hoses the bag down occasionally for a more thorough cleaning. He leaves the fans running all the time ù he calculates it costs $1.50 to $2 a month/fan. He sells Skeeterbags for $19.95 apiece through his website. Besides mosquitoes, Skeeterbag captures no-see-ums, and white flies in greenhouses. Horse owners install them in stables. An added bonus is that the fans also supplement the ventilation. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Skeeterbag, Simonton Farms Inc., 22159 NW 75th Ave. Rd, Micanopy, Florida 32667 (ph 352 812-3351; www.skeeterbag.com).

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