INDOOR MOSQUITO CONTROL

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Close the S-trap, please!

Some of us get bitten by mosquitos, more indoors than outdoors. Ā Unless you’re a plumber, you may not be aware that there is a tiny swamp of standing water in the drains of your sink basins and shower stalls.Ā (This S-trap, desaguadero en estilo-S; estilo ese)Ā is designed to retain water as a plug while allowing spillage, locking septic gases below ground, yet still enabling drainage.) Ā This liquid plug isĀ an ideal hatchery, and needs to be screened or blocked to prevent those hatchlings from being deposited, and then biting and breeding indoors. Ā  But it’s easy, if you disrupt access to where they’re laying their eggs. Ā 

Go to a kitchen store, or maybe a plumbing supply, and get a mesh strainer, as shown above. Ā Or simply cover the drains when not actually draining — with those handy lids that cap off your waterĀ garrafa arrivingĀ from e-pura or Cristal. Ā For the floor drain in the shower, lids from those clear plastic containers of nuts sold at Costco are of a perfect size. (I’ve entered many articles on mosquito control, which can be searched in the white field at the upper right.)