The SkeeterVac

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Radio interview source: Bud Harris, general manager, Blue Rhino

I hate mosquitoes, especially when they get in the house and buzz around my head at night. We try to prevent them by not leaving water collection areas around where they can breed. It's not easy to do in a wet year.

It's time to bite back and reclaim our yards. There's an outdoor exterminator called the SkeeterVac that creates a combination of cues that trick the insects into thinking the trap is someone to bite. Bud Harris manages an outdoor products company and explains how it works.

"It burns propane, and converts it to carbon dioxide, water vapor and heat," Harris says. "Those are all attractants for mosquitoes. We also use light cues, contrasting colors, and octonel, which is a mild pesticide to draw the mosquitoes in close, and they either get sucked into the trap or get stuck on the sticky paper on the side."

Once trapped, they quickly dehydrate and die. The SkeeterVac runs continuously, so there will be bug bodies to empty out of the trap every now and then. Of course, how many collect in the device depends on how the wind's blowing, too, so you might snare a few of your neighbor's mosquitoes. I'm sure they won't mind.