I Tried The Mosquito 'Bucket Of Doom' To See If It Actually Works

Plus, what a gardening expert has to say about the trend.

Last year it was especially hard to enjoy our yard because of the alarming amount of mosquitoes who seemingly could not be killed, despite a monthly spraying treatment. Nothing really seemed to help, which kept us out of the yard more than I would have liked.

So this year, when a woman perched outside a coffee shop I was visiting thrust a five gallon bucket and package of mosquito dunks into my hands and promised me that making a mosquito 'bucket of doom’ would solve my mosquito woes, I was intrigued.

I’d seen these ‘buckets of doom’ on social media but wanted to get an expert’s take on whether this simple, cheap, and natural solution could actually fix my problem. Read on to hear what they had to say and to learn how to make your own ‘bucket of doom.’

What Is A Mosquito 'Bucket Of Doom'?

Female mosquitoes are drawn to standing water. It’s where they lay their eggs, which leads to a never-ending new crop of annoying pests. 

It makes sense, then, that it’s a common best practice to make sure your property doesn’t have any standing water to help control mosquitoes. But with a 'bucket of doom', you create a trap by purposely creating the perfect inviting environment for females to lay their eggs. 

For mosquitoes, that means standing water along with things like grass clippings, weeds, and leaves. 

“You’re creating this gnarly or gross habitat and it’s exactly what they want,” explains Joe Lamp’l, founder of JoeGardener.com and host of long-running gardening show Growing a Greener World on PBS, of the strategy.  “Mosquitoes tend to find the murky, nasty stuff, which is why we're doing what we're doing [with the bucket of doom], and they'll come to that over just standing water.”

It sounds counterintuitive to create standing water in your backyard, but the trick is to add what’s known as a mosquito dunk to the bucket. The dunk contains a bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, or Bti, that kills mosquito larvae.

“It’s really a nice benign kind of beneficial bacteria that's really only lethal to mosquitos,” explains Lamp’l. It won’t hurt humans, pets or other insects.

Female mosquitoes are attracted to the bucket to lay their eggs, but their larvae will never turn into actual mosquitoes because of the Bti. This kills future generations of your current mosquito population, and as Lamp’l says “short circuits” the life cycle of any new ones that find your yard.

Pros And Cons Of Using A 'Bucket Of Doom'

Using a mosquito 'bucket of doom' is much cheaper than getting a pest control service to come fog or spray your yard. A six pack of mosquito dunks, which is all you’ll need for the summer, runs about $10 at places like Lowe's or about $8 on Amazon and a five gallon bucket is typically between $4-$8. 

We were paying $60 a month for spraying services. When you factor in the fact that Lamp’l says the typical mosquito season runs for about five months from June-October each year, the 'bucket of doom' represents a big savings opportunity.

This method also only targets pesky mosquitoes, while most fogging or spraying methods “kills anything it comes in contact with that's an insect,” stresses Lamp’l. Pollinators like bees and butterflies that are crucial for crop and flower reproduction are casualties as a result, while using a 'bucket of doom' doesn’t affect them.

That said, one of the potential perceived downsides of using a mosquito 'bucket of doom' is that it isn’t effective immediately like fogging is. It will take time to see an impact in your yard as the Bti works to kill future mosquitoes, not current ones. However, the average male mosquito only lives about a week, while females live for a few weeks, so your current mosquitoes will die out fairly quickly.

How To Make A Mosquito 'Bucket Of Doom'

For your 'bucket of doom', choose a dark colored five-gallon bucket. This most closely mimics what a natural breeding area would look like. Mine is black, but I’ve seen dark blue and green buckets for sale, too. 

From there, the set-up takes less than five minutes.

I set my bucket up after I mowed the grass, so I simply filled the bucket halfway with water and added in a couple of handfuls of grass clippings. I tossed a dunk in, put on the vented top that came with my bucket, placed it in a semi-shaded corner of our backyard and waited for the magic to happen. 

Although they’re not extremely picky, mosquitoes prefer a quiet, shaded environment to lay their eggs. I also didn’t want to have a random bucket on display in my yard, so hiding it in the corner seemed like the perfect win for both me and the pests.

A few weeks later I checked to see what the inside of the bucket looked like, and it was as gnarly and nasty as Lamp’l said it would be. It looked like a little mini swamp and definitely something that would attract mosquitoes.

Each dunk is effective for about 30 days, so you’ll want to set a reminder to add a new one each month. You don’t need to change the water unless you want to. 

The bucket my new friend gave me at the coffee shop came with a special lid that allows mosquitoes to get in but prevents critters or kids from doing so. If you don’t have a lid, Lamp’l recommends either covering the bucket with chicken wire so that nothing big can get in or adding what he calls a rescue stick so that things like squirrels can crawl out.

It’s been about five weeks since I set up my mosquito 'bucket of doom', and I’d say about two-ish weeks ago I felt like there was a noticeable difference in the backyard. It wasn’t immediate, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

I know the yard will never be completely mosquito-free, but this method feels like there are more pros than cons to use. Plus, it’s fun to tell people you have a 'bucket of doom'.

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