By Vic LeBlanc

In some parts of the world, folks have to deal with mosquitoes year 'round; in other areas, "swatting season" comes along with or soon after spring, when the temperatures climb into the 60s and there's enough moisture for the species to begin to multiply once more.

"A mosquito can breed in a bottle cap's worth of water," notes Ron Crittenden, of Mosquito Central (www.mosquitocentral.com). "In the south, Florida, Texas, Hawaii and the Caribbean, we sell our mosquito machines all year, and in the colder climes, interest picks up in the spring, with sales peaking in June and lasting through September."

Ron Crittenden of Michigan-based MosquitoCentral.com says that living by a mosquito infested lake drove him into the business of educating folks in the business of mosquito-killing and Mega Catch machines. Photo courtesy of MosquitoCentral.com

It was living on a mosquito-friendly lake in Michigan that literally drove Ron into the business of offing the critters in numbers.

"I spent an awful lot of time getting information on mosquitoes and started thinking there wasn't any place where you could obtain detailed information about mosquitoes. So I decided to investigate the products that claimed to kill them."

'Buggy' Beginnings

He adds, "References to mosquitoes go back tens of thousands of years. They have been a plague for a long, long time. One of the good things about the attempt to control them was the development of quinine by the British and the resulting gin and tonic.

"From what anyone's been able to gather, there is not any particular purpose that a mosquito serves, other than bugging people. They're not a major part of any species' diet.

"They are, however, one of the largest killers of human beings on earth, between malaria, yellow fever, dengue, the West Nile Virus, and list goes on. They are aggravating, disease-carrying and serve no beneficial purpose whatsoever. They can also cause heartworm in dogs."

"From what anyone's been able to gather, there is not any particular purpose that a mosquito serves...they are, however, one of the largest killers of human beings on earth," Ron Crittenden points out, all the more reason for offing the critters.

Subsequently, MosquitoCentral.com was hatched and took wing in early 2002, so to speak. "We bought most of the leading brands of mosquito machines at the time, trying them out, and began selling them," Ron recalls.

"There are a lot of people who sell products that claim to kill mosquitoes. I tried to provide a website that was as informative as possible about mosquitoes in general, that provided advice about what people could do, where to get more information, and to sell the machine that I thought was the best one on the market, along with providing full text of the studies that were quoted."

Enter Mega Catch

Ron came to find, over the course of his research, that one brand, Mega Catch, consistently outperformed the other mosquito machines. "We, of course, read the studies that the manufacturers put out, conducted our own tests, and decided it was the best trap we could find, and decided to sell only it," he explains.

What first interested him was the USDA's review of mosquito machines. "It was the first in a number of tests that came to the same conclusion: The Mega-Catch Ultra caught more mosquitoes than any other machine it was tested against. I have found no company that has published a test showing that there machine outperforms the Ultra." Ron states. "People might start off skeptical, but it's science-based and we have the documentation of the tests on the web site."

Mega Catch Ultra

Now in its fourth year of business, MosquitoCentral.com is experiencing compound sales growth, according to Ron; as a result, he is now soliciting inquiries from people who might want to become dealers.

So far, he says, his customers have been quite varied. "While they are mostly bought to protect people, we have had a number of people with horses buy the machines as well as military and government units. Individually, we've had people here and there in the landscaping and pool business show and interest, and some designers have called."

There's a (Blood) Sucker Born Every Minute...

"You can spend as little as $20 to $30 for some devices, up to $1,500. Many of them work poorly, if at all," Ron states emphatically. "Zappers, sound machines, repellents other than DEET don't work. Products like Off with DEET work as a personal repellent...machines with good success rates at attracting and trapping mosquitoes are generally priced beginning around $300.

"We sell two machines. One has CO2 capability and one does not. The one that does, the Mega Catch Ultra, currently costs $679 and has the best capture rate. Our other machine, the Mega Catch Premier, is $379. It does not catch as many, but it operates without CO2 and can be used indoors." For optimum results, Ron recommends placing the machines about 35 feet away, between people and the source of the mosquitoes.

According to Ron, the CO2 is a strong lure to mosquitoes because it resembles the breath that is exhaled by humans and animals. Other lures incorporated by the machines include lights and Octanol, a pheromone. Collectively, the stimuli provide ample attraction and mosquitoes that get close enough are subsequently sucked in by a fan to a container, either a mesh bag or (in areas with tiny flies like midges) a plastic bowl containing a liquid in which they drown.

How far away can a mosquito sense a lure, you might wonder? With CO2 maybe 150 feet depending on wind, according to Ron. The square of 300 feet times 300 feet, roughly 90,000 square feet is about two acres; but since the true effective range of the lures also depends on wind direction and strength, measuring is imprecise. "Typically, we advertise (coverage) of an acre to acre and a half," he says.

A Better (Mosquito) Trap...

Ron adds, while another manufacturer, Mosquito Magnet, is better known because of its company's longevity, widespread sales, product availability and advertising budget, the products simply don't do as well in the independent tests as the Mega Catch Ultra.

Mega Catch Ultra (inside view)

"A number of other companies use CO2 and use similar types of lures, but our catch rates seems to be better," Ron explains. "It could be the type and frequency of the lights and that the CO2 is directly released from the tank (instead of created by burning propane) and is then pulsed out in little clouds, which is apparently more attractive to a mosquito because it is more like a creature breathing than a steady stream of gas."

Ron recalls two recent testimonials with a grin. Last year, he recounts, a woman called, desperate that her son was going to be married within a week's time at an outdoor wedding for 200 guests but the mosquitoes that had taken over the family backyard had gotten to be so fierce that it was impossible to go outside.

Around the same time, came an equally distressed inquiry from two California promoters producing an outdoor film event for approximately 4,000 people in New York City's Central Park. Scouting the park just a few days before the event they encountered a significant mosquito problem.

In both cases, Ron dispatched Mega Catch machines (one to the wedding and two to the film festival) that, despite being employed in a last-minute "plug and play" style, performed impressively enough for these customers to exclaim they noticed a tremendous difference and successful results.

Feedback in general has been extremely positive, Ron notes; of the few complaints, most seem to have to do with people finding they have to clean their machines too often. "I heard that from a fellow who must have been catching over a thousand mosquitoes a day." He shrugs." It would seem to me if you have that many, you would be glad they were caught in the trap instead of still buzzing around."

In the absence of a good mosquito machines, Ron advises that like DEET on your skin, Permathrin on clothing will also repel mosquitoes. He adds, "Recently, researchers have been able to isolate a chemical from a particular human or certain humans that apparently is not attractive to mosquitoes. Whatever they're able to do with that will probably be out on the market in three to five years."

For more on mosquitoes and some of the best ways to abate them, including the Mega Catch machines, see www.mosquitocentral.com.