DIY: Mosquito Traps

It’s Week 3 in Mexico and I may have breached 60 mosquito bites since arriving! There are 20+ bites alone on BOTH of my feet, so you can imagine my annoyance when it comes to a bad itch… I’ve used bug spray with DEET, lime juice, Raid mosquito coils, but I’m amping up my protection by making DIY mosquito traps!

DIY Mosquito Traps

Here’s what you’ll need if you decide you want to set some traps for your house or in your backyard:

  • 2L plastic bottle
  • 1 cup of water
  • some strong tape
  • 1/4 cup of sugar (I’ve seen brown and white sugar used)
  • 1 gram of yeast (this apparently can vary and you can experiment since different mosquitoes are attracted to different amounts of CO2)
  • black construction paper or black plastic bags

Steps:

  1. Boil a pot of water. (I made four traps so I boiled about four cups’s worth of water)
  2. While you’re waiting for it to boil, take your 2L bottle and slice it at the top of the label. You can poke a hole with a scissors and then cut the rest through, or take a sharp knife and slice it like a piece of really plasticky cake 😛
  3. Measure 1 cup of hot water and pour it slowly into the bottom half of the bottle, that way you don’t get any hot water splashing everywhere and burning you.
  4. Add 1/4 cup of sugar into the bottle and mix thoroughly.
  5. Wait for the sugar water to cool to at least room temperature!
  6. Add 1 gram into the bottle. DO NOT MIX! It’ll last up to 2 weeks if you don’t mix it.
  7. Take the top half of the bottle, invert it and place it into the bottom half of the bottle, and take your tape to seal the two pieces of the bottle together. This is to give only one entry way into the bottle and not let those annoying zancudos escape!
  8. Take your black construction paper or plastic bag and wrap the outside of the bottle, leaving just the opening exposed. Apparently mosquitoes like dark colors so they’ll be attracted to your trap!

You’ll want to place the mosquito traps somewhere with low foot traffic so you don’t accidentally spill it. Instructions say to keep it away from you, but I kept two in my room on the opposite side of the room where my bed is, since those annoying creatures like to hang out waiting for the moment I least expect them. I also left one by my bathroom sink since I’ve noticed they like to chill there too.

I’ll let you know if it ends up working!! Comment below if you tried this DIY idea before, or if you have other tried and true ways to protect yourself against mosquitoes and also what you do to kill mosquitoes in your home.