Mosquitos!

[SagaLore]

My wife seems to attract mosquitos worse than I do, most likely due to all the perfumes and deoderants she wears. But what makes it bad is every bite she gets swells for several days and itches. Most of the time I don't even know I'm bitten and have no reaction.

Besides slathering DEET all over her, I'm trying to find any places that have still water and pouring/clearing them out or draining them. A gutter with a bad pitch, a neglected bird bath... but I know the worse of that vicious blood-sucking army is coming from the drainage ditch that collects the runoff of about 6 houses in my culdesac.

I had some insect killer I was using mainly for the 2nd worse annoyance we are having - ants. So I re-sprayed my backyard again, targetting hollow stumps and piles of rock - and got some down in the puddles of the ditch.

But I'm a natural kind of guy and I don't like massively killing off every insect in my yard just to get at a few mosquitos. So I'm trying to put together a multiple approach strategy to ward off these pests.

1. Plants that repel mosquitos. I'm thinking Lemongrass all around my patio and along the ditch.

2. Leveling out that ditch and filling it with the pile of rocks just sitting there. Maybe even planting garlic bulbs in there...

3. Possibly one of those carbon-dioxide emitting mosquito attractors/zappers. I heard they're kind of expensive to keep running though.

4. Citronella candles all around when we're outside.

5. I found a site that sells Praying Mantis egg cases. You just hang them off twigs and let them hatch, releasing a bunch of mantises into your yard, which eat mosquitos.


Any other ideas?

 

[Psycho18]

5. I found a site that sells Praying Mantis egg cases. You just hang them off twigs and let them hatch, releasing a bunch of mantises into your yard, which eat mosquitos.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Call your local health department. Around here, you can call them and they'll bring a fogger truck to the neighborhood and drive through. They do this only when it's not raiing and the mist will travel approximately 200 yards from the truck....depending on wind.

They do this as a service to help prevent the spread of West Nile...

 

[imported_LoKe]

I'm allergic to mosquitos and I have the same reaction as she does. I get bit when no one else does, and they swell up quite large and itch for maybe a week. I haven't found a solution. ;o

 

[drum]

Originally posted by: LoKe
I'm allergic to mosquitos and I have the same reaction as she does. I get bit when no one else does, and they swell up quite large and itch for maybe a week. I haven't found a solution. ;o

never go outside.
everyone wins

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

The Mosquito traps work pretty good and they're not that expensive to run as you're not outside 24/7. The Praying Mantiss idea is kind of fun except that they don't eat just Mosquito larvae they eat everything! Including themselves.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: LoKe
I'm allergic to mosquitos and I have the same reaction as she does. I get bit when no one else does, and they swell up quite large and itch for maybe a week. I haven't found a solution. ;o

In your case - maybe you should use DEET. That is proven to work. Any other remedies - like taking garlic pills - is hard to verify, because there are so many false quack remedies to sort through.

 

[olds]

We have a device that emits carbon dioxide then sucks them in and kills them. It runs off of propane.
We also just ordered a gallon of this stuff, Mosquito Barrier.

 

[moshquerade]

SagaLore, put some bat houses around your yard. bats are big mosquito eaters.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
SagaLore, put some bat houses around your yard. bats are big mosquito eaters.

...but then he'll need something to get the bats!

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: moshquerade
SagaLore, put some bat houses around your yard. bats are big mosquito eaters.

...but then he'll need something to get the bats!

Why would you need to get the bats?
We sit on the pourch at night and watch them. I just haven't built any homes for them yet.

 

[Demo24]

oddly they haven't been to bad this year. Only a couple bites. Usually their extremely annoying this time of year. Might be due to the smaller than normal rainfall though.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: moshquerade
SagaLore, put some bat houses around your yard. bats are big mosquito eaters.

...but then he'll need something to get the bats!

Why would you need to get the bats?
We sit on the pourch at night and watch them. I just haven't built any homes for them yet.

Since I wasn't being completely serious, I'll just let that one go oldsmoboats
Bats are cool to watch though, we see them at dusk on the golf course. The seemingly random flight patterns are quite enjoyable.

 

[ruffilb]

Thos mosquito magnet things are the own. We had one, it worked amazingly well.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: DEMO24
oddly they haven't been to bad this year. Only a couple bites. Usually their extremely annoying this time of year. Might be due to the smaller than normal rainfall though.

yep, just the opposite here. we've had a higher amt of rainfall than normal and the mosquitos are vicious this year.

 

[RallyMaster]

ugh...hate those things. i spray myself with stuff whenever i go out.

 

[ruffilb]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: DEMO24
oddly they haven't been to bad this year. Only a couple bites. Usually their extremely annoying this time of year. Might be due to the smaller than normal rainfall though.

yep, just the opposite here. we've had a higher amt of rainfall than normal and the mosquitos are vicious this year.

Usually high rainfall makes lots of mosquitos, because they require pools of standing water.

On the other hand, if your area has standing water and now other areas don't, because of the drought, you could still have the same effect.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: ruffilb
Thos mosquito magnet things are the own. We had one, it worked amazingly well.

Is that what they're called? Mosquito Magent? Do you get those at Lowes/Walmart, and are they expensive?

 

[blue1friday2]

There are these things that you can wear that emit sonic waves(or something like that) that repel mosquitos. They come in the smaller size to wear and a larger size to plug in. They are around $30 bucks I think.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: ruffilb
Thos mosquito magnet things are the own. We had one, it worked amazingly well.

This thing? I'm looking for something... smaller...

 

[revnja]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
you can call them and they'll bring a fogger truck to the neighborhood and drive through

Those trucks are awesome. We have one come through every Wednesday, and they work miracles.

The Alaskan state bird, the mosquito.

 

[moshquerade]

the mosquitoes are still bad there? we have moved on to housefly season now. :roll:

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
the mosquitoes are still bad there? we have moved on to housefly season now. :roll:

Yea, and they show no mercy.

 

[Ika]

Somehow I managed to only get bitten once in an hour and a half of yardwork. Itchy leg hair and slap-happy hands work rather well

Other than that, maybe you could try getting some lemon/citrus scented body wash/soap or something. If it even exists, it might work. If it doesn't, at least you come out smelling like lemons