Girl Scouts of America is partnering with a renowned entomologist to keep campers bite-free using innovative traps that can prevent thousands of mosquitoes from hatching.
For Wisconsin residents enjoying summer outdoors, mosquitoes can quickly become an unwelcome companion. At Camp Juniper Knoll in East Troy, Girl Scouts are learning how to enjoy nature without the constant swatting and itching.
Watch: 'Bug expert' reveals simple tricks to slash mosquito populations
"It's honestly like — it's the highlight of my whole year," said Violet Lukareski, who has been returning to the camp every summer for nine years and is now a counselor-in-training.
To protect campers like Lukareski, Girl Scouts of America has enlisted the help of Stan Cope, the Director of Technical Services with Rose Pest Solutions. "I was the head bug guy for the Department of Defense," said Cope, who is also known as "Captain Stan the Mosquito Man."
Cope has placed specialized traps disguised as plants around the camp. These traps contain water that attracts pregnant mosquitoes looking for places to lay eggs.
"I'd like to stress that this trap contains no pesticides," Cope said as he opened the lid. When a female mosquitoes approach the trap, "she will land on our glue board," said Cope. That effectively removes her and potentially thousands of future mosquitoes from the environment.
For homeowners looking to reduce mosquitoes in their own yards, Cope emphasizes realistic expectations.
"First of all, there's nobody that can control all the mosquitoes in any place, it's not possible," Cope said. "We don't talk about eradicating mosquitoes, we talk about nuisance reduction or reducing them to a tolerable level."
The most important action homeowners can take is eliminating standing water, with Cope noting that "clogged gutters are a big one because people never look in their gutters."
Even tiny amounts of water can become breeding grounds. Cope demonstrated how mosquito larvae develop in stagnant water and the amount of water needed for mosquitoes to breed is surprisingly small.
"It doesn't take very much water. Here I have a regular bottle cap. Up to 100 mosquitoes can develop just in that bottle cap within about a week," Cope said.
With these preventative measures in place at Camp Juniper Knoll, campers can focus on enjoying wildlife from a distance.
"There's a lot of turkeys, and deer!" Lukareski said — creatures much more welcome than the biting insects that often accompany summer activities.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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