Cut the Mosquito Population in your neighborhood by up to 80%!

Mosquitos are rampant in the DC area and can quickly ruin an outdoor gathering. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve tried to eat dinner on our patio only to cut it short because despite bug spray, candles, and citronella plants we’re still getting bitten.

The DC area has two types of mosquitos: Asian Tiger and the Northern House Mosquito. The Asian Tiger Mosquito will happily bite you anytime day or night while the Northern House Mosquito comes out in the evening.

In 2018, the Sligo Park Hills neighborhood of Silver Spring, MD piloted a program where they installed roughly 150 GATs (Gravid Aedes Trap) in the neighborhood. Mosquitoes are attracted to the presence of water, so GATs are designed to hold a small amount of water with a bit of grass added to attract and trap female mosquitos. Females fly around inside the top bucket and get stuck to the sticky card inside. The results of this effort were studied by researchers at Rutgers University, who found an 80% capture rate in well covered areas.

The Sligo Park Hills community shared their results with DC’s Shepherd park neighborhood and there’s now an effort to install GATs in Shepherd Park as well. You can read the meeting recap and see the presentation shared at the community meeting on DCNorthStar.com. Since the larger the concentration of traps you have in an area the more effective they will be, go call your neighbors!