In an attempt to make my yard more useable, I’d like to keep the mosquito population (which is bad in my yard, and also my neighborhood) under control. I promptly remove all of the standing water, and I have ripped out much of the tangled underbrush that resides against the fences. Is there anything else I can do shy of buying a large mosquito vacuum?
Install a nice bat house. Bats can each eat thousands of mosquitos a night.
Dusk! With a creepy, tingly sensation, you hear the fluttering of leathery wings! Bats! With glowing red eyes and glistening fangs, these unspeakably giant bugs drop onto…
Depending on how you feel regarding the use of pesticides, you can buy a number of different types from the Home Depot that are easy to use (easiest is the type you just hook to the hose and spray everywhere). These are pretty effective for controling the bastards for maybe up to a week depending on local climate. Be aware though that these products pretty much kill all the bugs in your yard, so if you like the butterflies and ladybugs, I’d not recommend these.
First off, make sure you have eliminated all sources of standing water. People tend to focus on the more obvious ones. The smaller and more ephemeral the source of standing water, the more likely it is to attract mosquitos and not mosquito predators (to a point-obviously very short lived sources won’t be a problem). Commonly overlooked areas are birdbaths, gutters and flat roof portions, tires and buckets/cans. Encourage your neighbors to do likewise. If there are any open areas in the vicinity of your property, it is a good idea to go through them and look for sources, particularly tire dumps.
IMHO, you will get more bang for your buck in most situations by working with your neighbors to control sources than from any short-term control measures you may practice on your own property. For example, maybe there is an elderly person on a fixed income who is not able to maintain their gutters. I suggest you not use fluorescent “bug zapppers”; they generally kill very few biting insects and great numbers of beneficial and harmless insects.
I have used special CO2 traps to catch mosquitos for research purposes, and there are civilian versions available, but the jury is still out on whether such traps may in fact attract mosquitos to your yard.
If you have wetlands on your property and can verify that natural predators are not effectively controlling mosquito populations (which is rarely the case), you can use a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) formulation, which is often effective and not as toxic to wildlife and other beneficial insects than more toxic chemicals.
Try some citronella or “moquito” plants.
My wife keept one on our balcony and another by our patio table and we never have problems.
Something else you might try is picking up an adjustable hose-end sprayer, available at Home Depot or just about any garden store. Then, pick up some orange and/or lemon extract at the grocery, cheapest you can find is fine.
Make a mixture of about a gallon of water, eight or more ounces of either extract, or both, and about 8 ounces of standard liquid dish soap (citrus scented is all the better). Of course you can make larger batches if you want to, but plan on using it all within a month, because it can lose some potency over time.
Fill the sprayer with this mix, and set the sprayer to at least the 20 gallon setting. This just means that about 20 gallons of water will flow through before the sprayer is emptied. Therefore, lower settings (10 or 5 gallons) will result in a stronger concentration of the mix being distributed. I suppose the stronger the better, but you and yours may have limits of how much citrus scent you can tolerate.
Spray everything that can be sprayed. Your lawn, your shrubs, as far up into the trees as you can get, the walls of your house, EVERYTHING that can be sprayed. The mix is non-toxic unless, of course, you were to drink it straight which, of course, you won’t. You can use it as frequently as you like. This is also a job that a kid can handle, have some fun with it (not including spraying a sib), and contribute to the general benefit of the family. And learn something useful, too.
Citrus scent (like the citronella candles that Odinoneeye‘s wife uses) appears to repel mosquitoes and many other undesirable insects. Desirables, like lady bugs and mantises, don’t seem to be affected. The soap helps to distribute the mix more evenly, and helps it to penetrate into the ground a little further. The soap will also help future rains and waterings to penetrate deeper into the soil. It “cleans” your landscape. Good deal all around.
I speak from direct experience. I can’t say that my approach was “scientific,” but I used this formula, and others for about 8 years on an admittedly small piece of land, but to apparently great effect. About the only undesirable insect the above formula didn’t get rid of was some kind of tiny, swarming white fly native to the area, which didn’t bite, anyway.
And here I must reveal my source, one Jerry Baker, dubbed “America’s Master Gardener.” He has dozens of formulas using, generally, ingredients that are non-toxic, and will get you to regarding the hose-end sprayer as the greatest God-send in the history of home ownership.
Hope this helps.
Acknowledging that Odinoneeye‘s wife uses citronella plants, rather than candles. Much preferable, IMO.
The best thing to do is buy one for your neighbor if this is so.
One thing that’s clear from several of the responses so far is that this board is NOT a good place to find the straight dope on this topic.
I’d take a hint from the professionals (e.g., county-level mosquito abatement professionals). They are paid to get the best control they can get for the lowest cost while minimizing any harm. They get the straight dope about what really works from academic folks who actually do SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (as opposed to watching infomercials on TV). One good place for information is the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Service at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/westnile/mosquito_mgt.html These folks take mosquitoes seriously because they recently had a big West Nile Virus problem.
What are going on about? Most of the posters in this thread aren’t pulling these suggestions out of their ass (esp Stan Doubt) Other than the water+soap citrus spray (which I don’t know anything about), eliminating standing water, encouraging mosquito predators, burning citronella candles, using CO2 traps (with the attractor caveat stated) and using larvacides are all effective ways of reducing immediate or longer term mosquito presence.
Here’s a link from theAmerican Mosquito Control Association for Mosquito Information
BATS ARE NOT BUGS!!
(Good one by the way. )
I’m not entirely sure that the above is a reference to my previous post but, in the event that it is (and even if it isn’t), I don’t believe that Jerry Baker has ever done an infomercial, per se. I first came to knowledge of him during a “pledge week“ on a PBS station. He had several hours of air time to display his knowledge, broken up by the requisite pleas for money from the station.
I was strongly interested in what this guy had to say, since his various formulae and other advice relied almost entirely on natural and more traditional methods to maintain a “yarden,” as he calls it. I used his advice and, as far as I’m concerned, it worked, and very well.
To be sure, Jerry will sell you his products, and many others. He’s a big time money maker, and that’s a fact. But, he also provides the recipes to create most of his different formulae. This wouldn’t be the hallmark of a typical huckster found on infomercials. You can buy his stuff, or you can make it yourself, as your wishes and/or fincances dictate.
Bats, elminating standing water, CO2 traps, etc., are well and fine, but I think that Baker’s solutions are much less labor intensive and much less expensive, over the long term.