Not in any meaningful way. Bug zappers attract insects using UV light, but mosquitoes aren't strongly drawn to it.
The sound of a bug zapper crackling away on a summer night feels productive. You hear a sound, you see a bug lying there and not moving anymore. There is a certain satisfaction to thinking “I just took out that mosquito before it bit me.” But the reality is that bug zappers usually take out other insects, and aren’t very good at handling mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes locate their hosts primarily through carbon dioxide, body heat, and skin odors. UV light, which is what bug zappers use to attract insects, ranks very low on the list of things that draw mosquitoes in. A widely cited University of Delaware study found that of the thousands of insects killed by residential bug zappers over a summer, less than 0.5% were mosquitoes or biting flies. The overwhelming majority were moths, beetles, and other non-biting insects, many of which are beneficial to the ecosystem.
Bug zappers might even make your mosquito problem a bit worse. There are a lot of predatory and pollinating insects that otherwise compete with or prey on mosquitoes. When bug zappers take out these insects, it makes life a little easier for the mosquitoes. The bug zappers might even work a little too well, drawing insects into your yard that otherwise wouldn’t be there with UV light, meaning you could see bugs being zapped that otherwise wouldn’t be there at all.
Some manufacturers have tried to address this by adding CO2 attractants or octenol lures to their devices. These do improve the capture rate for mosquitoes, but cost more, and you have to replace the bait.
The core problem with any trap-based approach is scale. A single female mosquito can lay 100–200 eggs at a time. Removing a few dozen adults each night with a trap doesn't come close to offsetting what a single productive breeding site can generate in a week.
If you're looking for mosquito control that will make a big difference on your Northwest Indiana property, Mosquito Squad of NW Indiana can help. Mosquito Squad treats the areas where mosquitoes rest and breed, reducing the population by up to 90% for 21 days at a time with regular technician visits throughout the season.
