Pack ACTO Mosquito Trap: UV LED Vacuum + Attractant Granules

This pack brings together the ACTO mosquito vacuum with ultraviolet LED and a 30 g sachet of attractant granules (Reference: PACKLAMP11). The unit attracts by light and captures by suction; the granules add attraction by smell. Two signals instead of one, in a unit intended for indoor use.

Light is not enough for a mosquito

A mosquito vacuum with ultraviolet light works very well on moths, flies and gnats, which are phototropic: they go to the light. The mosquito, for its part, hunts by smell. It locates its prey by carbon dioxide, by perspiration and by body heat. A violet LED does not tell it much if there is nothing else calling it.

That is the whole point of the granules. Their formulation mimics human body odour, and that is the signal the mosquito follows. Poured into the capture chamber, they turn a flying-insect unit into a true mosquito trap, including for the tiger mosquito, the most aggressive species and the hardest one to catch.

The pairing is not an idea of ours. The granule data sheet states in black and white their compatibility with U.V. lamps, mosquito vacuums and electric traps, and specifies that on a suction trap they are spread in the capture chamber. That is exactly this unit.

An indoor unit, and that is a choice

Do not try to put it on a terrace. Its data sheet gives it as indoor use only, and that is consistent with what it is: a housing of seventeen centimetres in diameter and fifteen in height, powered by USB 5 V. Bedroom, office, living room, hotel room, restaurant dining room: that is where it works.

The USB supply is the practical argument of this model. A wall socket, an adapter, a power bank: anything will do. There is no bulky transformer, and the unit moves from one room to another with no reinstallation. You can leave it fixed for continuous protection, or put it down occasionally in the room that is causing trouble.

If what you need is an open building, a cowshed or a sheltered terrace, this is not the model for you: look at the large mains-powered UV lamp with vacuum, sized for those volumes. The two units are not in competition, they do not cover the same places.

Attract, then suck in

The principle works in two stages. An ultraviolet LED emits the wavelength that attracts flying insects most widely. A continuous air flow then draws them inside the housing, where they are held in a removable transparent collection tray.

The suction is what sets this unit apart from a plain light tube: the insect that came close does not fly off again. And the transparent tray has a benefit that is underestimated — it tells you what the unit actually captures. At a glance, you know whether the room is infested or whether the device is running for nothing, which no grid allows.

Operation is silent. That is the condition for leaving it running in a bedroom during sleep, which is precisely the moment when mosquitoes bite.

What the pack changes about the chemical question

We have to be plain on this point, because the two items do not have the same status. The unit on its own is purely mechanical: a light, a fan, a tray. Nothing is released into the air, nothing is sprayed, and that is what makes it usable in a professional kitchen, in a child's bedroom or with a person sensitive to aerosol insecticides.

The granules, for their part, contain an active substance: geraniol, combined with attractants. They are made in France and comply with European standards, but they really are active granules, to be kept out of reach of children and pets, and kept dry with the sachet closed.

So the pack is not a set without an active substance, and we do not present it as one. If that is your criterion, use the unit on its own: it captures flies, gnats and moths without adding anything. The granules serve for mosquitoes, which light alone does not attract enough.

Where to put it, and where not to

The location makes everything. Place the unit between one metre and one metre fifty above the floor, and away from the other sources of light. It is the unit that has to be the light point that attracts: next to a lit bedside lamp, a screen or a lit window, it competes and loses its pull.

It gives its best in subdued light or in darkness, at dusk and at night, when mosquito activity is at its highest. A piece of advice you rarely read: avoid using it at the same time as a fragrance or essential oil diffuser. Those smells mask the attractants and the unit goes blind, literally and figuratively.

In a restaurant or a hotel, the manufacturer advises multiplying the units rather than relying on a single station: one at the entry points, one in the dining areas.

The calendar and the doses

The dose is 15 grams per application, half the sachet. Do not put in more: overdosing does not make the unit more attractive to insects. One application lasts two months, so the 30 g sachet covers four months, that is the core of the season.

Start early, as early as April or May, before the peak. The insects caught at the start of the season are breeders, and each one stands for a generation that will not happen. Carry on until October for the last ones. Write down the date you put it in place: that is the only follow-up to keep, and it is what stops the unit running with an exhausted attractant in the middle of the period.

Maintenance and precautions

Maintenance is minimal but not optional. Empty the collection tray regularly and run a soft brush over the suction grid once a week: a clogged grid loses air flow, and so loses effectiveness. Stop the unit and unplug the USB cable before any intervention.

The granules keep dry, at room temperature, with the sachet hermetically resealed, out of reach of children and pets. Do not mix them with another attractant: the signals get muddled and the set loses effectiveness.

What the pack contains

The unit is ready to plug in, with no assembly and no adjustment. The 30 g granule sachet allows two 15 g applications, that is four months of attractant operation.