Mosquito Magnet Liberty Mosquito Trap MM3000

There's a much easier way to control mosquitos. Get a bunch of five-gallon buckets, put three gallons of water in them, add some dish soap, and finally spray some WD-40 on the water. Mosquitos will try to lay their eggs in the water, and will get stuck because the WD-40 breaks the surface tension on the water. The dish soap will take care of any larvae that do manage to hatch. Place the buckets around your property (high enough so that your dog doesn't drink the water - won't hurt the dog, but will give it diarrhea from the soap) and check them from time to time. You'll be amazed at the number of mosquitos that get caught.


My two cents   August 29, 2003
Lance Douglas (Orlando, FL)
106 out of 110 found this review helpful

I purchased this unit in June from Home Depot. It took 2 hours to assemble (and I'm pretty good at assembling things). It wouldn't complete the warmup cycle properly so I called their tech support line. The wait wasn't too bad for me but the result was that I had a defective unit. I opted to return it to the store rather than wait for the replacement. I complained to the manager about having wasted two hours and another trip to the store and he knocked off $25 bucks on the second unit. I complained because I had read several reviews from people that have received defective units and I think the dealers need to get a message that customers are not happy with quality of the merchandise from this company. Anyway, second unit has been working fine. It did start catching mosquito right away and I noticed a difference within a few days. It's quite fun to check the trap each day to see how many of the little blood suckers are in there. It is hard to get an accurate estimate because the do bunch up and dehydrate but you can see several still buzzing around inside the net and you can point at them and say - HA! For me, the results are proven by less mosquitoes biting or flying around me so I don't worry about counting. My other complaint about this thing is cost. You're dropping a pretty penny for this unit and then don't forget to add on the cost of the tank and the propane - another $40-$50. The propane lasts for 21 days and then you have to refill the tank. You are also suppose to replace the octenol cartridge which run you $20 for 3 (that's less than a three month supply), plus they tell you to buy CO2 cartridges (3 for $10) and run that through the system every second tank. So, doing the math, say a tank refill every 21 days runs you $15 (and that's cheap right now), $7 every 21 days for octenol, $1.50 for CO2, plus electricity - you're looking at upwards of $25 every 21 days in extra hard costs to keep the thing running. That's $35-$40 a month if you like to break it down that way. With that said, if that doesn't scare you off then give the unit a shot. It does make a difference. I won't say there are no more mosquitoes or no-see-ums but I can regularly go out in the yard for a few minutes and come back inside without any bites when before that would not have been possible. It's just hard for me to believe this company charges so much for this thing and then half of them don't work. That aggravates me, but mosquitoes biting my son aggravates me more.


Unreliable and short lived.   December 30, 2003
Tom Garrett (Seabrook, SC United States)
30 out of 30 found this review helpful

I have purchased 2 mosquito magnets that have both stopped working in their second season. These machines are too expensive to be this flimsy. Customer service is argumentative, and rude. A one year warranty is not acceptable for this price.


Don't buy the Mosquito Magnet   March 9, 2004
28 out of 28 found this review helpful

I am on my second unit: the first lasted one season and it took a whole season to get it replaced. They do not perform as advertised. I suspect them of stalling until the warranty expired and then offered a replacement for half-price. Would not buy another unit. Quality is bad; service is bad; they don't work as advertised.


Thanks for rescuing my frontyard   July 7, 2004
Bernard Farrell (North of Boston, MA USA)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful

July 7 (Original review)
I purchased the Mosquito Magnet Liberty with some hesitation after reading all the reviews here. Before buying it, I spoke with a friend who has two of these, and I also talked with the hardware store owner about their reliability and effectiveness. In both cases I got very positive feedback.

In summary, the Magnet Liberty has been running for a week and we can now use our frontyard, even in the early morning and evening, without resorting to bug spray or strange dance routines.

We have run it in all sorts of weather with no problems. It lost power during an electrical storm and had to be restarted. Starting it initially, and after the power loss, was a simple button press.

My two complaints are relatively minor. One is that the setup manual is a little unclear in places. I made two different mistakes in assembling and had to backup slightly -- and I have a LOT of experience in assembling devices, furniture, etc., from directions. It took me about one hour to assemble.

The other is that the manual doesn't make it clear that the Magnet comes with a power cord that is about 50 feet long. So I didn't need the extension cord that I purchased with the Magnet.

When costing this system, bear in mind that you will also need to purchase a propane tank (about $45 in Massachusetts), some CO2 cartridges for clearing the propane line ($10 and strongly recommended in the product manual), additional octenol cartridges ($15), and some spare catch nets ($25, the Magnet only comes with a single net). This added about $95 in total to the cost of the Magnet itself.

Based on needing to do the following every 21 days:
-- Replace the propane tank
-- Replace the octenol cartridge
-- Use a CO2 cylinder to clean the propane line (officially every 2nd propane fill)
the running costs are about $1 per day.

After running the Magnet for one week, the net currently has about an inch of dead mosquitoes in the bottom. I'm tempted to take the net out and count the number of carcasses to see about how many we're catching a day.

Placement is important. I found a location that is upwind from the yard and is under some small trees, so that the Magnet is in the shade for almost the entire day.

When I first set it up, it was in a less shady location and I caught far less mosquitoes (based on the number I saw buzzing at the top of the net) for the first 24 hours.

And the results are most excellent. The kids are getting far less bites. We not using bug spray as much. And I can prune my tomato plants without fear of losing a finger as a try and swat mosquitoes with my gardening shears.

July 30 Update
I changed the propane and put in new octenol cartridges on schedule. I've had to empty the net three times so far.

And the results - better than I could have hoped for! I didn't give this product five stars because of the setup problems described above, now I wish I had.

I spent 30 minutes in our front yard earlier this week talking with a friend about life (including mosquitoes). In that time, neither of us was buzzed by any type of mosquito.

Of course, this also means that the magnet itself is catching less mosquitoes. When I first saw this happen, about a week ago, I was concerned that it wasn't working properly. Now I realize there are simply less mosquitoes around for it to catch.