I set up four traps in my back yard each one has the exact same bait but each one is a different size. The bait that I used for my mosquito traps is dog chow that was fermented for a few days.
The first trap that I set up was a small plastic water bottle cut in half then I placed the bait, then the wooden stick but the first trap was a complete failure since my dog ate everything inside the plastic water bottle.
For the second trap I used a bigger water bottle this was half a gallon and I put it in a place where my dog could not get it but when I checked back on this trap a week later and It got infested with ants instead of mosquitoes.
The third Trap was a gallon and was put In a similar place as the last trap this one was not infested with ants. Since I am traveling in Mexico I have not been able to check on my mosquito traps that I set up back in my AOI at home but so far I have not seen any mosquito larvae.
The fourth one was the biggest trap yet this one was a wheel barrel set up in my back yard in this one I have not found any larvae as of right now but I will check back on it when I come back from Mexico.
Here is a picture of the second trap (this picture was taken when I was setting up the trap I put In the wooden stick after the picture was taken.)
Conclusion: when I get or while I am here in Mexico I will set up more traps with a different bait since dog chow isn’t the best option.
update 7/21/2022: I have returned from my traveling and I went to checked back on my traps to find that only one of the traps had a successful result.
The trap that had worked was the biggest one, the fourth trap that I set up, as demonstrated in this image here.
As you can see the water looks disgusting but a least there seems to be a lot of mosquito leave, in this picture you can see at least more that 30.
So in conclusion dog chow is a successful bait especially when applied to large containers.
About the author: Miguel is a high school student. His virtual internship is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) to extend the TSGC Summer Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) internship for US high school (http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/sees-internship/). Miguel shared his experience this summer in this blog post.
