Not trying to promote this, but have any of you folks tried this? I use the donuts and pellets, but I let so many containers sit in shallow water and the donuts seem to work better on the larger bodies of water, though that may be my imagination. I just heard about this product and was wondering about it.

Donald, you did not mention the product, but I am quite certain that it contains BTK, (bacillus thuringensis) sp? a natural product found in the soil, which when ingested by mosquito larvae, caterpillars, etc. literally eats out their stomachs. It is a great product for any standing water, and for a zillion other uses! And it is safe! Use away! Any dead mosquito is a good one! Cheers!

fwmosher said:Donald, you did not mention the product, but I am quite certain that it contains BTK, (bacillus thuringensis) sp? a natural product found in the soil, which when ingested by mosquito larvae, caterpillars, etc. literally eats out their stomachs. It is a great product for any standing water, and for a zillion other uses! And it is safe! Use away! Any dead mosquito is a good one! Cheers!

Well, actually I just heard about the product. Spartan is the brand name. I've just been searching out stuff on the net :). Best I can tell, the active ingredient is Boron or some sort of yeast. It attracts mosquitoes. They eat it. Then they swell up and burst and die, disrupting the reproduction cycle of a mosquito. You hang it in shade away from where people hang out. It's attractive to mosquitoes in lieu of warm blood, so it works by pulling them away from the area, then subsequently killing the mosquitoes. Some sites said it took 1-2 weeks for it to fully take effect and after that it needed to be replaced in prox 90 days.

Here's one of several I've read apart from their own webpage. This one was from 2017.

http://www.wdam.com/story/3541...

I sort of liked this one because it had the inventor as well as a third party talking about the product. I'm hoping this will be a wildly successful product like the Weedeater was . Would sure be nice to have some safe outdoor control of mosquitoes. Everyone is always afraid of venomous snakes, sharks, big cats and alligators and the like, but mosquitoes kill far, far more people than all those fearsome creatures put together.

You certainly are entitled to your opinion! There are some serious inconsistencies however in your postings, and as someone who hates mosquitos as much as the next person, (and keeps quite current on new controls for same) I have some concerns with a couple of your comments: (a. "I just heard about the product" - but you claim you are already using it? (b. "I am using the doughnuts and pellets"- well if you check out Spartans site, they list one format, that being a long cylinder with Boron in it, that you hang from trees. Most major hardware chains do sell mosquito control "doughnuts" but they contain BTK not Boron and there are no "Spartan" mosquito product offerings through "the chains" that I can find. Boron, and one of it's relatives, Borax, is the prime ingredient in most "Ant Trap" items, and it works, because the ants carry it back to the colonies, and everyone feasts on it, and their stomachs expand and burst. To my knowledge, mosquitos do not have "colonies, "although sometimes I look down at my leg, and say "there's one now"!!) Further, Spartan's website is very unconvincing! No peer-reviewed papers, just a few "testimonials" from feed supply shops somewhere in the hinterland. Sorry, not convinced, that this is not indeed a "commercial"?

@fwmosher
I'm sorry if I haven't been clear. No, I am not using the product. It came across a Facebook friends timeline day before yesterday and caught my interest. I'd never heard of it until then.

I have and do use the products that contain BTK. They work pretty well for larger containers, but aren't very convenient for things like saucers and birdbaths.

Yes, as far as I can tell, to get the Spartan product it has to come directly from them and isn't available from retail outlets. It also sounds a bit too good to be true, but it also sounds like a new device originating from a creative person. That's why I put out the query here to see if anyone else was familiar with the product or perhaps used it. I may or may not try it myself, but the description of the results make it tempting to give a try.

The story was confusing because the product was a tube but then it was a bomb? How does that work? Even tho I haven't read the silly thing since I was a kid, it reminded me of something that Mad Magazine might cook up.

The other interesting factoid was that someone actually counted 27 mosquitoes at a Zika site. Another 'how'd they do that?'

Sounds like another W-DAM story.

It would be wonderful if it really does work. Seriously. Keep us informed if you find out more about it, Donald. I'm spending a lot of money on those little 'dunken donuts'.

This product seems to be more of a Facebook oriented outfit in re advertising. There are, in fact, a large number of retailers that presumably are carrying it in their stores. Most all of them are feed stores or building suppliers, that sort of thing. The two closest to my location are in Goldthwaite and Weatherford with Boyd and Springtown just a smidgen further. I didn't see any retail outfits that look like chains, e.g. no Tractor Supply stores. Looked like locally owned places. Maybe it will show up closer to me.

It was actually my niece in the Longview area who posted about it. She's going to try it out and posted about it. If it works get some for the grandkids in Louisiana . I don't think she much cares if hubby and other adults get bit or not! She has had a couple of her FB friends that have tried it reply to her query, so I'm watching to see if some more that have actually used it chime in.

I'm really skeptical, though. To their credit the company has left some extremely negative reviews of the product on their FB page and those were the ones I was most interested in. I might not be interested at all but the mud swallows aren't here this year. I don't know why. They should already be nesting. The barn swallows are here now and they are always several weeks later. I'm not seeing any mud swallows. Both eat mosquitoes, but mud swallows usually have 3-4 nesting pairs that raise two families a season. When they are feeding the offspring, there are very few mosquitoes around the house. There never has been more than one nesting pair of barn swallows and they haven't always been successful. Maybe if I gave up and let them come in the garage to nest like they want . Man, they are stubborn about wanting to nest there.

Those sparrows are worth the barn space. Doubt I could use the Spartan, tho I use the dunks, and bits on smaller waters. Also use a Repel so I can walk outdoors at all. The hummers and rainfrogs all eat the skeeters, but I like my porch to drink a cup and rest a bit. I see flying hordes of skeeters just at the Repel boundary, so I know they aren't too far gone for the hummers and frogs. It may be that some areas could use the boron, but I think in my humidity the stuff would be mold in a day or two, so dunks for me.

I put up 2 sets of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicators. It has changed my summer. I installed them on 3-19-18. I'm a "scientific method" guy and natural skeptic. I have over two acres by a pond. The mosquitos are all but gone. The north side of my house is where the pond is. We usually get run inside at dusk. not so now. MAYBE 1 mosquito. Usually none. South of the house is shady and where we stand and shoot bows. No mosquitos. I'm a believer. I used to fog, spray bushes, etc. Nothing worked. These things are amazing. Now 3 of the 4 houses on the pond are using them, and we are almost totally mosquito free.
Derek Dwight. Redwater TX

@dwdwight

to NGA, Derek. Thanks for the report. I was too skeptical to actually try them myself. I need to contact that niece and see how they are working for her. Longview/Marshall are further south than you, but still close to Louisiana. Mosquito country for sure, but I think they get everywhere. After the bit of rain this week followed by a warm up, they are out big time here and I was wondering if this product worked - or not - yesterday. I used a lot of larvae for fertilize on the plants yesterday trying to get some of the smaller ones empty. They were swarming with wiggle tails. More need to be emptied. I'm still wondering where my mud swallows are this year. I have two pair of barn swallows, but that's all. Not a single pair of mud swallows. The scissor-tailed flycatchers showed up yesterday, so summer is officially here.

I've got mud swallows trying to build on my front porch. I can't let that happen. they are certainly diligent and determined. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of the Spartan product. It's truly incredible the reduction.

Redwater,Tx, will have to look that up. Our skeeters run us in abt 10am. I might look into it, the Spartan might be out of its league down here. How to count 27 skeeters? Take a pic with a good camera. I have SEEN swarms of skeeters that number in the hundreds. I don't want to count them, I want them dead.. after all, it's only a drop in the bucket here. I wish I had purple martins, blue jays run them off.

Hello everyone, a newbee here.

I have a some hunting property with a trailer on it and had planned on putting a Flowtron Bug Zapper to cover around an acre of semi wooded and heavily infested mosquito's where my trailer is. Although not as much fun as watching and hearing a Skeeter getting zapped, the Spartan sounds like a more viable and consistent solution since I would only have the zapper on when there.

@needrain has your family had any luck with this product?

teacup754 said:@needrain has your family had any luck with this product?

I keep forgetting to ask my niece. Distractions around here are many. I'll try to remember to do that.

I'm interested in this. I'll have to travel to find one. Can someone tell me the approximate price? I see 10 kits are $197 wholesale cost.

We used a propane powered Mosquito Neeto or the one by Blue Rhino. I can't remember. It worked for 3 seasons. But I got tired of birds, butterflies and lizards getting caught in the sticky trap.

Now I spray Cutter Backyard Spray. Bit it doesn't last 12 weeks like the label says. More like 7weeks. That much bug spray can't be good.

Cheryl, the Dynatrap works well and isn't too expensive. It catches mosquitoes but also gets some beetles and moths. We're on our second year using it and it has cut the mosquito population down a lot.

We tried dynatrap last summer but it didn't seem to cut down the population of mosquitos. Seemed to have more beetles etc inside. So sent it back to QVC,

I thought that too, so I carefully went through the full trap. The mosquitoes are so small that they dry up into almost nothing. I thought it was all beetles and moths, but when I looked carefully I did find a lot of mosquitoes in there too.

@ShadyGreenThumb
Cheryl, I'm still not recommending this product one way or the other, but this is there website and it lists locations that handle it retail. Not sure how close those in the Houston area are to you, but several locations are listed in the general area. I was going to ask my niece, but I delayed that since she is a graduate of Santa Fe High School and considers Santa Fe her hometown. Now didn't seem to be a good time for it.

https://spartanmosquito.com/re...