NosQuito CT100-NS - Does Not Work!
Every year my family descends upon Lake Crescent in beautiful Oregon for our family reunion/4th of July celebration. This year was more of the same… camp fires, beer, wine, marshmallows, boating, fishing, etc… The main difference this year was the amazing amount of mosquitos, BIG aggressive mosquitos! There were so many mosquitos that it was simply unbearable.
We tried everything to get some sanity. We went through gallons of bug spray (25% up to 100% deet), other than skin burns from the 100% product… it might as well have been water… the mosquitoes were unfazed. We tried a bug zapper lamp which seemed to catch more moths than anything else. On the second morning I was starting to go crazy from the sheer number of mosquitoes and mosquito bites, they were relentless. We had bites everywhere (not going in to details… but trust me… EVERYWHERE).
In a final attempt to get some relaxation we drove 1 1/2 hours into Bend, Oregon and stopped by Home Depot to buy a $300 dollar mosquito gadget (pictured above) with high hopes of being the campground heroes. We also bought and filled a propane tank, and an extension cord. We returned to the mosquito ridden campsite and quickly set the Stinger Mosquito Vacuum CT-100 unit up according to the directions. The unit was supposed to work for one full acre. This is where the massive disappointment begins. The unit caught 6 mosquitoes over 5 days! At a cost of $50 per mosquito this was a bad investment. I will write to Kaz (the manufacturer) and let you know what they say.
I am home now… scratching my wounds.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I always wondered about those things. They sounded good in theory.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Russ.
I am the Brand Manager for the NOsquito Mosquito Vacuum and happy to help answer any questions on the product. The trap is designed as a systematic approach to mosquito control by attracting biting female mosquitoes with CO2, heat, moisture, color, contrast and scent. Unlike foggers and chemical repellents that are used for immediate results, it is intended to run continuously to help reduce mosquitoes overtime. We ask consumers to give the trap 3-4 weeks to notice results in a reduction of mosquito populations in your yard. Our website, http://www.NOsquitoVac.com, offers some tips to help improve catch or Consumer Relations team is always available to help at 800-477-0457.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Surely the NOsquito Mosquito Vacuum should capture more than 1-2 mosquitoes in a 24 hour period…. right?
July 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
i agree - female or male - and the amount of skeeters you are talking about - you should have caught more than 6!
July 7th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Did the box say “wait 3-4 weeks for best results”? So you have to run this thing non stop for a month? OUCH! More expensive than a shoe and not as effective.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The box did have a picture showing week 1-4… but at the rate it was catching mosquitoes… it would only have caught 20-30 in a months time.
Keep in mind that a tech savvy group read the manual and worked with the unit… also keep in mind that there were TONS of mosquitoes.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Try one of these - http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&safe=off&resnum=0&q=bug%20zapper%20paddle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf
July 7th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I got one of those tennis racket swatters and they work great around the house. As far as the big expensive gadget, sounds like it sucks but not hard enough.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Sounds like you dropped 500-600 bucks on this thing with gas and all. You should get your money back. This thing sounds like a scam.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Like the company says - take 4 weeks to get the results you are looking for and also placement is critical.Once the population is controlled you will have less mosquitos.
No amount of accurate product description will overcome ignorance on the part of the consumer! For the record my Dad hooked one up in his backyard last night and already over 30 mosquitos in the basket.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Paul1967,
I am proud of you and your Dad’s 30 mosquito conquest. Good work!
I understand the 4 weeks for change bit… but 1 per day… come on! We were in a mosquito infested area, followed directions, and caught about 1 per day. I killed more in five minutes by smacking them with my hands.
By the way…does your paycheck say “Kaz” on it?
Russ
July 14th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Paul did your dad kill those 30 with a swatter first? As someone said earlier not as good as swatting them with a shoe but more expensive. After reading some of the review forums I tend to agree with the reviewer.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:44 am
You are correct. This machine does NOT work. Honestly, it doesn’t even attempt to work. We have 4 mosquitos trapped after running it for 4 weeks. it’s false advertising.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I bought one of these and it constantly malfunctions. I called Kaz customer support, really great people to talk to, they sent me a new one to try. The new one was giving the same problem as well, basically it runs for a day and then it needs to be reset, and it might or might not come back online. I thought it’s the gas tank but it’s not since I tried 2 and I bleed the tank so I get rid of the trapped air if any. I have till Sept 9 to return it to Home Depot, until then I am trying to figure out why this thing does not stay on. I live in MA where the temps been a bit hot 80-90 in the day but kools down at night, you think the machine should detect the temp droping and start working as intended but it won’t. I placed it in a shaded area thinking the sun is frying it, still nothing. I am really giving it my best shot and want it to work but it won’t. In my case when it’s working it catches 20-30 per day. So, I am kinda stuck don’t know what to do
July 19th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I had similar results with Kevorkd. I live in Saint Louis. After setting it up and getting the constant green light it would constantly go back to flashing green light every hour or so… kept on going on and off even though the temperatures when I first got it were in the 70’s to 80’s. I called the company and they sent me a new unit. Just set it up… hopefully it won’t do the same thing.
On the plus side it did seem to catch ~20 per day- I am sure it would catch more if it actually stayed on. I can assure you the temp was definitely lower than 85 degrees when it was doing the above behavior and there were MANY mosquitoes biting.
If you ask me, the temperature sensor is malfunctioning on the units. Either it is not calibrated or the CO2 generator is generating too much heat. Seems like the easy fix would be to remove the feature of shutting off when it is hot out side. Besides that seems like a dumb feature anyway. I can fully attest that I have been swarmed by mosquitoes here in Missouri in the middle of the summer at temperatures above 100!
July 21st, 2008 at 8:44 am
Just recieve the unit[stinger ct100] friday put it together saturday and got the same problem easy to assemble started up fine but drop out , turn off , went into stand by mode within 10min. let it run all day because I read in the manual and it stated the unit would go into stand by mode if temp were to high so I waited, waited ,waited, 10pm still waiting mid-night nothing still waiting of coarse tech support is not aval. on the weekend Sunday came ,no difference sunday night no difference. Today made the phone call they had me reset the unit WHY?? its two days old, even if its shutting down because its going into stand by mode WHY do I need to reset it, seems like BS , But I reset it liked the tech ask me to . IT started back up running GREAT!! 3 min. later NO.. back into stand by mode I called again , Ok great and plesent techs but I payed for a product to work[ catch mosquito] not be on a phone talking to a tech do this do that unplug this disconnect that. They are sending me a new UNIT , GREAT!! oh.. it will take Five days they said, WOW!!! that doesnt seem all that great.Now I’m on the computer writting this Reply. NOT SURE ON THIS UNIT . Charles Lyon Milford DE.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:32 am
I got one of these and returned it to home depot. The magnet switch on the top (see through) door was busted. This means the unit thought the top door was open and would never work. crappy build, made in china
July 21st, 2008 at 10:06 am
Ok, it’s me kevorkd back with an update. I called Kaz yet again, great customer service, they completely understood my situation and are sending me a 3rd unit to try it out. It will take 5-7 days to get it.
However, since I really wanted to eliminate my doubt about if the propane tank is the culprit or not, I went ahead and purchased one of those BlueRhino propane tanks. These tanks supposedly are maintained on a regular basis, their valves are tested and basically reconditioned as brand new everytime you pick on up. I got mine from a Walgreen’s in Marlboro MA. Friday I plugged the 2nd unit up to the new tank and it worked out great, Saturday morning I looked in it and almost 30 mosquitos were in there. I was really happy I diagnosed the problem, which I “thought” is the tank. Temps Saturday climed to 95, unit goes into standby mode, at night temp drops to 75ish and the unit is still blinking. 1AM I am out there with my torch trying to figure out what’s wrong with it, mosquitos all over the place, got bit a few times when reseting it. Came back at 1:30AM and pluged it back in. 2AM I go back it’s still blinking. I bring the original unit, plug it in and hit the sack. Sunday morning, the first unit is working fine. Sunday afternoon the temps go to 93, unit goes into standby mode. I wait till 10PM still in standby mode. I reset it, wait 30 minutes and still in stand by.
As a previous poster said it’s one of the following:-
1) The temperature senser is not calibrated right. Keeps thinking it’s 90.
2) CO2 burner is overheating the unit and the unit is getting confused with outside temperature.
I’d add a new switch to the unit and give the option to the user to have the unit run in “economy” mod if they want to the unit to shut down when cold or hot. Or they can run it in “regular” mode which keeps running all the time.
What I will do is wait for the 3rd unit to arrive. The first time it shows the same problem. I am sending the 2 of them back to Kaz and the original one to Home Depot where I got it from hoping they take it back.
Probably it’s like a prototype and it needs time to mature. I love every single detail starting from ease of assemble, the looks of it, the weight, the trap part where you don’t have to buy replacement bag, but if it only stays ON that would be awesome. I feel like I wasted my summer waiting for the mosquito population to die out, and this machine failed me.
I will update again in another week.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Ok Charlie from milford . first of all, wow, my spelling was off the previous day but a little upset at things.Got the second unit ser# 346192-0121 in five days just like customer service said I would , thank you. Would have liked it sooner but got it.Is it a refurbished unit or brand-new? hmmm.. Great it fit perfect to the T. replace the old won[five days old] ser#352190-0009 . to make the switch took five minutes tops. again I love the look , assemble process , its plastic , lite weight. Ok fired it up.. YES turn on perfect ran for ten minutes working great hold on I go look again…..STILL working.It is about ten mmm 8 degrees cooler than last saturday, so??. hopefully its stays working. If you have mosquitos and you place the unit in a good spot it does work[catches mosquitos]. It needs to stay running. lets hope they fixed the over heating problem. Dont forget if you have to replace the unit remove your bait lure from old to new.I will check back in 24-48 hours.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Here’s an update about my Nosquito vacuum. I recieved the 3rd replacement head in about 5 days. As Charlie mentioned, replacing the head is a cake walk and takes less than 5 minutes. I plugged in the BlueRhino tank which I purchased to test it with the 2nd replacment head to the new unit, moved the lure from the old one to the new one and turned it on. I turned it on Friday 7/25/08 and it’s been almost 3 days running non-stop (not to jinx it). However, the temps were not as hot as before and the system did not have to go into stand-by mode… yet. I am looking at the weather forcast and it seems we will be in the upper 80s this week in MA. Hopefully it hits the 90 mark so the system goes into stand by and then hopefully after the temp drops the system would turn back on and start the ignitor properly. Too soon to tell if they fixed the problem since the temp has been cool. The past few days while it was on, it caught a good amount of mosquitos. Not to jinx it, I hope the problem is fixed and it won’t come back.
Whatever the problem was , it would be nice of Kaz if they can contact the registered users to tell them that they have identified a problem and fixed it, and it’s not a fluke.
What guarantees that the units out there are going to work OK w/o any problems?
It’s a great device if it keeps working and I hope it’s fixed.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Ok, I am having the EXACT problem you guys are. The unit I got was a birthday gift. I started it up and in one day it started malfunctioning. The green light would flash in the “stand by” mode. I called customer service and was told how to reset the unit. I kept resetting it and working on it and eventually both red lights were blinking. I called them again. I got the temperature song-and-dance which totally did not apply to me. It is frustrating, for sure. I was sent a replacement unit. It was easy to install and has worked on and off for the last couple of days. I just checked it a minute ago and it looked like there might have been one mosquito in there. The temperature and humidity have been at rather pleasant levels lately. (I live in SC at the foot of the mountains.) I sat outside yesterday while the unit was supposed to be running and I got 9 mosquito bites on my legs alone. They eat me and my daughter alive! UH! I hope the store will take it back. It says on all the literature you get with it not to return it to the store. My mom is looking for the receipt so hopefully I can return it. I could buy tons of those Off lantern replacement for that kind of money and I know they work.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience Leigh. I am in the same boat as you are in terms of the unit malfunctioning.
The unit not operating properly is one problem, the unit not catching enough mosquitos is another. The 3rd replacment head I recieved (which is still working and did not go into standby mode yet since temps been pleasant) has been catching some mosquitos. Make sure you place it in a spot where the wind will blow the lure smell towards where you think the mosquitos are coming from. The nature of mosquitos they travel against wind to get their supply of fresh blood (eeek!) and they ride the wind back towards their hideouts. Don’t place it close to a wall or a closed fence, it needs air to lure them mosquitos. Make sure the little holes in the lure package are not clogged. I took a screw and made them a bit wider so more lure gets out. It will consume faster but I’d risk it to catch more. Just throwing some thoughts out there
July 29th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Just an update on the situation here in St. Louis. I got the second head… installed very easily. The unit went to solid green but kept going to standby even when temps were below 85. It kept on starting and stopping every 10-20 minutes during the night and constantly in standby in the daytime (temp’s in high 80’s and low 90’s… still getting plenty of bites on me in this weather). It then started up with an ‘empty tank’ error. Changed the tank (which wasn’t empty), no change… kept cycling off and on and then claiming the tank is empty every 12 hours or so. Reset. Starts. Solid green light. Flashing lights later. Red light later. I think the product has promise but not in its current state. Agree with kevorkd… need to have a switch for economy mode vs running all the time.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Time to order a new head then St. Louis. “Third one’s the charm!”
lol.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Just a follow-up update.. After getting the 3rd replacment head from Kaz and plugging it in the device has been working pretty good. It went into stand-by mode a few times when temps got to 90s and came back online afterwards. There’s alot of mosquitos being caught by it, but since we’ve been having alot of rain in MA there’s alot of other mosquitos out there. It’s helping to reduce them but not 100%, I will give it a few more weeks since it’s been working w/o interruption only for the past 3 weeks or so.
A word of advice empty and wash the trap on regular bases since if the little holes of the trap gets cloged, the air won’t pass through ti freely, mosquitos won’t get sucked in, and the lure won’t be pushed out.
Also, when previously I thought the propane tank might be the culprit with the older units, it’s not with this one. I plugged an old tank to the new head and it’s working fine.
In a nutshell, whatever problem the device had, it seems Kaz might have fixed it. I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s working OK now. I will update you in 3 more weeks or so.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Just bumpin this thread. I must admit I am completely caught up in the NosQuito drama. I live in a freakin desert and we have no mosquitos! I want to read about different lands, different bugs, and different methods of disposing of them. I want to read about corrupt corporations that make shoddy devices and crazy claims. I want to read about dropping six hundred bucks plus to kill a dozen mosquitos. Please post soon! Thank you.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Just a note to others. I have a Nosquito, and it works good. Let me give you all a great peice of advice… Take a black shirt (dark blue will work also), go out and mow the yard/work out/do something that you are going to sweet like crazy at. Take the sweet soaked shirt and drape it over the propaine tank. The next morning you will see tons of em buzzing around the shirt and the trap. I am catching 2x’s the number of mosquitos with this than just the trap alone. I live in FL with tons of tiger mosquitos.
Just an FYI.