How to Keep Mosquitoes at Bay with Dry Ice

Mosquitoes are pests that always seem to bite us at the worst possible moment. They like to bite anything with a pulse, but it's how they detect their prey that is most interesting.

Mosquitoes can find living animals by detecting levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Every mammal breathes out carbon dioxide which means that it's a very successful system for mosquitoes to locate a source of food. The following article will show how to keep mosquitoes at bay using dry ice.

Step 1 - Buy Some Dry Ice

Dry ice is very easy to purchase, it can normally be found in grocery stores. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, which, when it melts, will release carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide which is released tricks the mosquitoes into believing that there is an animal there which is worth biting.

You need to handle dry ice with care because it can burn if handled without gloves. It's important to always make sure that you're wearing gloves or avoid making contact with the dry ice itself.

Step 2 - Buy a Mosquito Trap

If you live in an area with lots of mosquitoes, you probably already have an ultraviolet trap for mosquitoes. If you don't already have one of these traps, then you should buy one. You don't need to purchase a very expensive trap as the dry ice will do all the work of attracting the mosquitoes, just a fairly inexpensive trap will suffice. Once the mosquitoes are attracted to the area by the dry ice, the trap will then do the job of killing the pests.

There should be lots of mosquito traps readily available in supermarkets and garden centers. Remember, you just want to find a fairly basic trap designed to kill mosquitoes.

Step 3 - Locating the Traps

Spend some time thinking about where you want to hang the mosquito trap. Ideally, you will want to hang it somewhere which is quite a long way away from where you are cooking. To make the ultraviolet trap more effective you can put some pieces of dry ice in and around the trap.

Dry ice needs to be kept well out of the reach of children. To make it easier and safer to hang the dry ice up you can put it inside cloth bags and hang the bags from the tree.

Tie the dry ice and the mosquito trap up into the tree using some string. The most important thing is to find somewhere that you can hang it without it getting in the way.

Step 4 - Improving Results

If you still find yourself getting bitten by mosquitoes, even if you are using these techniques, then you might need to tweak the traps slightly. Try moving the trap and dry ice around your garden, you may have better results in certain areas. You may also need to experiment with different amounts of dry ice.