What are you doing for mosquito control?

[pete6032]

Question in the title. Single family home owners what are you doing to combat mosquitos? I am planning to move into a single family home in a big city and will be on a 1/8 acre lot so I can only control what happens on my property. Can't make my neighbors clean their gutters/downspouts or stop areas of standing water. I would like to sit outside at night and not get dozens of mosquito bites. Even if I keep the gutters clean, cut the grass, ensure no standing water etc they are still a major nuisance.

 

[BoomerD]

I have a 1 acre sized Dyna-Trap. Works pretty well. My back yard backs up to a wetland, so we get a shit-ton of them.

DynaTrap Outdoor Mosquito & Insect Traps

DynaTrap Outdoor Mosquito & Insect Traps deliver multi-layer protection to handle the toughest flying pests, helping you to take back control of your yard.

www.dynatrap.com

 

[Gardener]

Screens on windows, porch; build a screen gazebo. There is nothing you can do about mosquitos drifting over from the neighbors, there is no silver bullet.

I'd rather screen than use bug dope, which I use when hiking or fishing.

 

[deadlyapp]

I got a shit ton of negative comments the last time mosquito control came up, but I don't give a shit. I spray with a flying insect killer and an IGR on a 4-6 week basis using a backpack fogger. I'm on a 1/4 acre in suburbia in Houston and our mosquitos are absolute nightmare most of the year - even after doing significant amount of work around drainage, shrub control, and standing water. My 11 month old has an extreme sensitivity to bug bites so I do absolutely everything in my power to reduce the risk that one gets him.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I stay inside at night.

 

[BoomerD]

I got a shit ton of negative comments the last time mosquito control came up, but I don't give a shit. I spray with a flying insect killer and an IGR on a 4-6 week basis using a backpack fogger. I'm on a 1/4 acre in suburbia in Houston and our mosquitos are absolute nightmare most of the year - even after doing significant amount of work around drainage, shrub control, and standing water. My 11 month old has an extreme sensitivity to bug bites so I do absolutely everything in my power to reduce the risk that one gets him.

Obligatory, "It's people like you that are causing the loss of honey bees."

(which is at least partly true, your flying insect poisons DO kill honeybees.)

We lived in Western Wyoming where the mosquitos were fckng horrid...step outside, get swarmed by what seemed to be a million of the fckrs.
The local Mosquito Control District used to fog several times per year, and would do aerial spraying 3-4 times per year.

 

[Muadib]

Here is another vote for Dyna-Trap. It's the best!

 

[Stiff Clamp]

I spray on REPEL repellent when working in the yard. THough I think once I work up a full sweat, mosquitos aren't interested anymore.

 

[mindless1]

I either wear insect repellant if I'm moving around, or if stationary I have a box fan. Mosquitoes don't like wind and it blows your scent away. I also try to avoid gardening that last hour before sunset which is when I've previously received the most bites.

 

[Ajay]

I live in the city. No mosquitos! Postage stamp yard though...

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^ All gassed out by the CO?

 

[deadlyapp]

Obligatory, "It's people like you that are causing the loss of honey bees."

(which is at least partly true, your flying insect poisons DO kill honeybees.)

We lived in Western Wyoming where the mosquitos were fckng horrid...step outside, get swarmed by what seemed to be a million of the fckrs.
The local Mosquito Control District used to fog several times per year, and would do aerial spraying 3-4 times per year.

I generally try to avoid spraying when the monarchs come through town on their annual migration and I saw zero honey bees over a year in my yard prior to starting to spray, so I like to think I'm at least trying to minimize effect. If there's any potential for rain within 3-5 days I try not to spray either (although during the summer monsoon seasons it's almost impossible to find that window in Houston).

 

[mindless1]

^ okay but seeing zero honey bees is even more of a reason NOT to spray, not like "so they're all dead so let's kill everything anyway".

 

[MrSquished]

I hated mosquitoes in NJ in the burbs for some of the summer. But when we were outside we'd use those bug zapper lights and some citronella candles and it was pretty good.

Then I went to Florida, and I was like uh hell no, shits crazy down here

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^^ And that ain't got nuthin' to do with skeeters.

 

[deadlyapp]

^ okay but seeing zero honey bees is even more of a reason NOT to spray, not like "so they're all dead so let's kill everything anyway".

If it's an environment that isn't conducive to honey bees then it's not magically going to become so. I'm not anywhere near farming area or anything other than suburban lawns and a handful of landscaping bushes. The bees have move on.

Me spraying vs not spraying isn't going to change my local ecosystem if it doesn't already exist.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Maybe if people didn't spray and planted pollinator friendly flowers, the bees would come back.

 

[mindless1]

If it's an environment that isn't conducive to honey bees then it's not magically going to become so. I'm not anywhere near farming area or anything other than suburban lawns and a handful of landscaping bushes. The bees have move on.

Me spraying vs not spraying isn't going to change my local ecosystem if it doesn't already exist.

The bee population is very small now, but only because people keep killing them faster than they can grow back in numbers. They didn't "move on" as if they would never return. They do return, spread out and form new colonies as much as they can.

You don't have to have farming area at all, to have bees. I've raised crops in suburban neighborhoods for decades but besides that, there are plenty of neighbors (and myself) with flowers, flowering bushes and tree, etc. and there are even people who have bee hives on their property in many cities trying to help build their numbers back up.

Would you rather it be wasps? Thanks to people killing off the bees, I now have mostly wasps pollinating my larger bloomed things, and I even leave old wood around for them to have to build nests (they chew off the material to take elsewhere, do not build nests IN the old wood), though there are bumblebees around when the hibiscus and okra bloom but they are too large to pollinate a lot of things.

 

[montsa007]

We keep all our windows closed throughout the day, the max we open is a slide with net so as to let the air pass.
We also keep a mosquito killer bat handy, if at all those nasty things decide to come in (Irritating at the night time)
I find applying some kind of sweet smelling cream on your ears & legs also keeps them away.

 

[shortylickens]

 

[mindless1]

Got attacked by mosquitoes a couple nights ago. Went to dump the drainage pan under my (usually covered) gas grill, which after a few grillings and rain recently, formed a habitat that they seemed to like a lot.

I was mostly concerned about what kind of bacteria was growing in the foul sludge and if I'd get an infection if bitten.

Next time I'm clearing the area with a leaf blower first. Probably need a new grill cover too, rain wasn't supposed to get in... no holes in the top so maybe coming in through the stitched seams.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Dragonflies, frogs, and wasps.

 

[Stiff Clamp]

Ok, this does nothing to noticeably abate the mosquitos - but theoretically it should help.

I leave a pan of water sitting out on the back step. EVERY day I dump the pan out and rinse it, then refill with fresh water.

I'm actually leaving water out for the birds - but it has to be trapping mosquito eggs/larvae. Hooray for weak solutions.

https://www.epa.gov/mosquitocontrol/mosquito-life-cycle

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I knew this musta got bumped by a no good blood sucking spammer.

 

[Paperdoc]

This is many months later, but we have a seasonal solution here north of the Great Lakes. It's called Winter. But it also has the side-effect of discouraging sunbathing in your swimsuit.