The mosquito bucket of doom works

According to LessWrong, a user in a heavily mosquitoed area successfully deployed an unconventional biological pest control method: the "mosquito bucket of doom." Previously, they were under constant attack—killing one mosquito every two minutes during peak season. The technique is elegantly simple: dissolve Bti—Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, a naturally occurring bacterium—into buckets of water and let mosquitoes lay eggs there. The larvae feed on the bacteria and die. The key insight: mosquitoes rarely travel more than one hundred meters from their birthplace, so eliminating nearby breeding grounds is far more effective than broad spraying. The user removed all stagnant water, then deployed five buckets scattered around their property, each treated with Bti powder and containing organic matter, with fresh Bti added monthly. Safety is not a concern—the bacterium is non-toxic to birds, dogs, and other animals. The result was a dramatic reduction in mosquitoes.

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