Product Overview. The Mosquito Swallow
TM traps mosquitoes before they become adults.
The Mosquito SwallowTM trap is an unobtrusive addition to your home's arsenal against mosquitoes. It uses no gas, no chemicals, no nets, and no replaceable parts. The only thing it needs is water and a few leaves off the ground.
Made of 100% recyclable ABS plastic, the traps are mostly manufactured, and completely assembled, right here in the United States. The traps are 6 inches wide, 4 inches deep, and 17 1/8 inches high. Patent pending.
The Mosquito Swallow
TM traps the difficult-to-catch container breeders, before they become adults. Mosquitoes that breed in clogged gutters, tree holes, puddles, flower pots, and bird baths will also attempt to breed in the Mosquito Swallow. While these other breeding sites come and go with the rain, the Mosquito Swallow offers an alluring site all season long. The eggs laid in the trap are eggs that would otherwise be laid elsewhere.
In one week, a single trap placed in an Austin, Texas backyard caught almost 100 eggs and larvae. A few weeks later, those same contents looked like this.
Many of the trapped larvae will never reach adulthood, and those that reach adulthood inside will not get out. Every mosquito trapped is another mosquito that will not bite.
A true environmental friend. CO2 traps emit greenhouse gases—right when the nation and world are attempting to cut back. Other traps constantly bombard chemicals into the local environment, potentially endangering other plants and animals, or even people, and threatening to create resistant strains of mosquito.
The Mosquito Swallow traps do neither of these things. They are 100% recyclable and use only water, and their size and design make them unobtrusive. Here is a photo of a shed with a Mosquito Swallow mounted on the corner. (Note that if you place a trap low, you will want to keep small children and pets away from the water inside the trap.)
How they work. Mosquitoes need water to reproduce. Mosquito Swallows provide ideal places for container-breeding mosquitoes—in particular, the Asian Tiger—to lay hundreds of eggs, but most will not even survive to adulthood. First, a high concentration of mosquito larvae in the traps compete for food, resulting in starvation for many. Second, those that reach the pupae stage can have their ability to swim to the surface disrupted, causing them to drown. Third, most that survive the pupae stage will evolve into adults while on the inside of the trap. Those adults will not escape, eventually drowning.
The more mosquitoes that lay eggs in the traps—rather than seeking out other available sites around your and neighbors' yards—the fewer mosquitoes you will have to fight. Here you can see a mosquito entering a trap. Any eggs she lays will turn to larvae inside the Mosquito Swallow. The vast majority will never escape.
Technology made simple. The trap provides a small amount of cover for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs in the shade, on black material, on or just above decaying leaves and water. In short, the trap is an ideal breeding spot for the Asian Tiger and other container or tree-hole breeders. The top is slanted and pointed, so that adding water to the trap is easy. Rain is directed directly into the open pool, as is water from a sprinkler system or even the garden hose.
Once the eggs hatch, the larvae and pupae will struggle to remain in the open pool. They will fall into the enclosed chamber in several ways. First, adding water at least once a week will cause them to fall. They will wiggle and tumble downwards, following the slope of the false bottom towards the front of the trap (where there is a small gap for them to fall through). From there, they will follow the slope of the true bottom towards the back of the trap. Second, the trap is designed to "flush" from the open chamber to the enclosed chamber, as the trap drains from the enclosed chamber only.
Mosquito larvae and pupae will also dive in response to passing shadows, if you place the trap in areas with foot traffic (next to your front or back door, for example).
The same forces that put mosquitoes in the back chamber help keep them there. Additionally, the hundreds of holes you see in the trap allow light and air into the inside chamber, giving the mosquitoes the false impression that they are outside. Our experience has shown that mosquitoes are content to remain inside the trap through maturity, as long as this outside light and air is allowed to penetrate inside.
For those mosquitoes that make it to adulthood inside the enclosed chamber, they will not escape, eventually dying and falling back into the water. This is a photo of a trap with the top removed and drowned adult mosquitoes floating in the water.
In addition to physical entrapment, the trap starves large populations of larvae. The drain on the side of the device allows food-enriched water to drain out when you add new water, leaving less than enough for the larvae inside the device to grow to adulthood. The top also helps keep falling leaves from entering the pool, allowing you better to control the amount of available food and to prevent blockage from too many leaves.
The Mosquito SwallowTM traps are proudly manufactured in the United States from 100% recyclable ABS plastic. Patent pending.
Learn more about whether the Mosquito Swallow is right for you; how to use the Mosquito Swallow; or frequently asked questions.
Or if you are ready, place an order now.
I have had good results with your trap. I'm glad to be rid of my mosquito magnet that I could never keep operating.
- D.W., Waco, TX
