Taken from one of my blog entries:
Mosquitoes are a big problem in Asia, and even living up on the 7th floor, I still get insane number of mosquito bites during the summer. I used to use repellent sprays and they don’t smell very good and I hate having to spray myself down every day. I’ve tried liquid repellents that you plug into an electrical outlet, and I’m always thinking that they are bad for my health, especially when I have all the doors and windows closed during the summer due to running air conditioning. I also considered one of those bug zapping lights, but they are really loud whenever it zaps something, and that kind of loud snapping sound would keep us awake at night, which defeats the purpose in the first place. Finally, I found carbon dioxide-based UV lights with a running fan that traps mosquitoes and let them die of dehydration. We tried it for a week and found that it does work if you follow the instructions closely, and we ended up buying two more to disperse among the different areas of the home. They look something like this:
The trap basically uses the UV light in conjunction with chemical reaction that emits carbon dioxide that attracts the mosquitoes (mosquitoes find prey by following exhaled carbon dioxide). There is no snapping sound since the trap doesn’t kill mosquitoes that way–it just sucks them into the trap with the fan and then the fan will dehydrate them until they die. I’m pretty happy with this method so far, although you do have to follow the instructions on where to place the traps, what time of the day to turn them on, and to have them as the main light source whenever you’re not in the room–all of which makes them more effective.
