There is a large number of mosquito killer traps available which claim to work on the principle that carbon dioxide generated from the reaction of titanium dioxide with UV light is used as a trap to lure and kill the mosquitoes. Is this setup effective in doing the job of entrapping even those rare, stray and scarce mosquitoes you might encounter in a room? and does this principle even sufficiently produce carbon dioxide to simulate human breath which they claim attracts mosquitos?
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1How does it create carbon dioxide from TiO2?– DumpsterDoofusMay 16, 2014 at 23:44
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@DumpsterDoofus read the second link– skept101May 17, 2014 at 4:59
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peakpureair.com/how-tio2-uv-photocatalytic-oxidation-pco-works– skept101May 17, 2014 at 5:13
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all of these gadgets have this same principle,hence the question– skept101Jul 27, 2014 at 8:06
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1 Answer
This link has reviewed several papers related to this technique , while they seem to agree that these traps do attract the mosquitos , but question the effectiveness in terms of the key outcome i.e reduction in mosquito biting rates, apparently what little evidnece exists points that there is no reduction in mosquito bites:
Results of studies that are designed in this way indicate that traps purchased by individual homeowners usually do not work to reduce human biting (see references below). For example, Mosquito Magnets do catch 1000′s of mosquitoes, but this does not change the biting rates in yards containing these devices.
The authors of the above link tried to measure CO2 levels from the trap and found no such emissions.