Honest answer: we don’t know yet from firsthand experience. The evidence we’ve read is encouraging, communities with high participation rates have seen meaningful reductions, and Biogents has been remarkably willing to invest in and engage directly with our community rather than just sell us traps. If it works, we’ll be the first to say so loudly. If it doesn’t, we’ll say that too.

It’s also worth being upfront that GAT traps are only one piece of the puzzle — they target egg-laying adult females, but mosquitoes need to be tackled across their lifecycle for real results. Standing water elimination and BTi treatment knock out larvae, while Biogents’ Mosquitaire trap (a pricier, CO2-powered option) targets host-seeking adults. The GAT is a great, affordable starting point — which is why we’re pairing it with catch basin treatment, native planting, and broader community coordination.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

BG-GAT traps are about the size of a small bucket, roughly 10” x 10” x 8”, weighing just under 3 lbs. They're lightweight and easy to move around. 

For a typical DC row house, it's recommended to start with one trap in the backyard and one in the front yard. The trap’s coverage area is roughly 33 feet in diameter, so two traps gives you solid coverage of a standard row house footprint. That said, the single most important factor isn’t how many traps you personally run. It’s how many neighbors on your block are participating simultaneously. 

For those in tightly clustered townhouses or HOA communities with shared alleys and common spaces, the calculus is a bit different.  Biogents has offered to provide additional educational materials and work directly with HOAs to figure out the right setup for your specific situation. If that’s you, flag it in your response and we’ll connect you with them. 

Yes. The traps contain no chemicals or pesticides, just water and a sticky card inside a closed chamber that pets can’t access. Mosquito dunks (BTi) can optionally be added to the water to knock out any larvae, but they’re not required and are harmless to mammals regardless.

This is a fair and important question. The trap is designed to mimic a mosquito breeding site, attracting gravid female mosquitoes specifically: those that have already fed and are looking for standing water to lay eggs. The funnel entry is sized and designed for that purpose, not for foraging pollinators like bees or butterflies. Occasional bycatch is possible but minimal. For those who remain uncomfortable with the sticky card, a DIY Bucket of Doom is a good alternative. More on that below. 

Honestly, a little like a stagnant puddle. The water is infused with organic material to mimic a natural breeding site, which is exactly what attracts mosquitoes. It’s subtle enough outdoors that you won’t notice it from a normal distance, but you should also consider placing your trap away from where people hang out because you don’t want to attract mosquitoes right where you’re sitting. 

We get this question a lot, which makes sense. They’re cheap, easy to make, and pesticide-free.

The Bucket of Doom works on a similar principle to the GAT, attracting egg-laying females with standing water, but uses larvicide (BTi dunks) to kill larvae after eggs hatch rather than catching adult mosquitoes on a sticky card. This means buckets of doom only target the larval stage, while GAT traps catch adult females before they lay eggs at all. In principle they are all complementary tools, not competitors. So if you already have a bucket of doom going, keep it! And consider adding a GAT alongside it. 

We’re waiting to hear more info from Biogents, but they are planning to build us our very own landing page with links to heavily discounted trap packages. Everyone will be able to order directly through them. This landing page should be ready by the time of the town hall at the end of April.

We’ll share more details once we have them!