Mosquito Control: The Best Ways to Effectively Combat Mosquitoes

Mosquito-born diseases affect millions of people worldwide each year. The bite of a mosquito can result in anything from a skin irritation to contracting malaria. Clearly, mosquitoes are not just a nuisance, but also potentially harmful. By taking measures such as wearing long pants in wooded areas or disposing of standing water, you can minimize chances of attracting mosquitoes. These measures, however, are often not enough, and specialty products used to combat mosquitoes are required. Each of products used for mosquito control have varying degrees of effectiveness, and it is important to know that some may be better than others.

Mosquito Nets

There are a variety of mosquito nets available in different sizes, materials and shapes. Each style of net has its advantages, and ensuring that you are using most suitable one increases your chances of eliminating mosquitoes. It is crucial to find a net that has a mesh size large enough to allow air to circulate, but small enough to keep mosquitoes out. Mosquito nets can be used to cover small and large areas such as your bed or your porch. Mosquito nets are an effective way to naturally combat mosquitoes. You can find mosquito nets here: www.travelhealthhelp.com.

Electric mosquito zapper

An electric zapper works by using ultraviolet light to lure in bugs and then kills them upon contact with its lethal dose of electrical charge. Unfortunately, although this is a highly successful way of killing bugs, mosquitoes are not actually attracted to ultraviolet light, and research into this method of mosquito control shows that 90% of what electric zapper kills are actually insects that do not bite. In fact, some of bugs that are killed are those that help us eliminate mosquitoes by eating them. You can find electric mosquito zappers here: www.mosquito-zapper.com.

Mosquito Magnet

The Cost of Inaccurate CEM Calibration Gases

Utility companies and other users of Continuous Emissions Monitoring (CEM) calibration gases often mistakenly consider them a commodity, making price primary purchase consideration. Consequently, many are willing to settle for calibration gases that are less accurate than premium calibration gases, as long as they are also less expensive.

But many companies are beginning to see that buying less expensive and potentially inaccurate CEM calibration gases may, ironically, lead to losing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars! This is because use of inaccurate calibration gases often leads to overstatement of emissions that could otherwise be claimed as valuable emission credits which are trading at values ranging from $700 to $2,500 per ton.

For instance, if a company uses a calibration gas mixture that has been inaccurately manufactured and certified with a 100 ppm tag value, but in reality contains only 96 ppm, that company would unwittingly calibrate its CEM incorrectly, and overstate its emission levels. Noting image below, this inaccurate calibration gas would eventually lead to tons of lost emission credits that could have been sold, banked for future use, or traded for significant dollars. Now, they are lost forever.

Accurate CEM calibration gases not only allow companies to comply with EPA standards, but ultimately save significant amounts of money in emission credits that might otherwise be lost.

Failing to Measure Up

EPA regulations, as stated in Clean Air Act of 1990, require that protocol gases used to calibrate CEMs for Nitric Oxide or Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) emissions be within ±2% of accuracy value as stated by manufacturer on mixture’s certificate of analysis, or “tag” to comply with EPA-mandated 7 – Day Drift test. However, in a recent EPA blind audit, in which three cylinders of calibration gases were bought from fourteen different specialty gas manufacturers, it was found that 43% of vendors (6 of 14) failed to comply with ±2% accuracy requirement. The inaccuracies, in fact, ranged from 2% to as high as 8%.