How to Build a Mosquito Trap

If your home or porch is plagued by mosquitoes, controlling them can be a nightmare. You should consider using a trap to reduce their numbers, but you don’t need to buy pricey ones from the store. Instead, you can build your own with a few common household items and these steps.

Step 1 - Setting Up

First, cut the top off of a 2-liter bottle with your knife. Cut at exactly where the bottle starts to curve, or as close as you can. You should have two pieces of plastic when you’re done—one cylinder that you can fill with liquid, and one curved top section.

Step 2 - Mixing the Ingredients

Next, heat one cup of water in the pot on the stove. Once it’s hot, add four tablespoons of brown sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the stove and add cold water to the mixture until it’s merely warm. Once the temperature has been lowered, add a pinch of yeast to the mixture.

The sugar will ferment with the yeast, creating carbon dioxide. These insects are attracted to both sugar and carbon dioxide, so this mixture will attract them to your trap.

Step 3 - Building the Trap

Pour the Mixture In

Set the bottom half of the 2-liter bottle upright, and pour the mixture of sugar, water, and yeast in.

Secure the Bottle

Next, take the top half of the bottle, turn it upside down, so it is pointing downward, and put it into the lower half of the bottle. At this point, no part of the upper half should be above the top of the lower half.

Push the lower half down as far as it will go without touching the liquid. You will want the upper and lower half to be sealed off completely, with no opening but the place where the cap used to be

Cover the Trap

Cover the outside of the trap with the black construction paper and tape.

Step 4 - Placing the Trap

Select a cool spot outside, preferably with high humidity, and place the trap there. A spot in the shade is best.

Check the trap every two weeks. You will need to empty it out and replace the mixture inside, both to prevent bugs from laying eggs in it and to replenish the supply of sugar and carbon dioxide. Though just one of the ways to control mosquitoes organically, this method should take care of your problem.