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Mosquitos!!! Aghhhh! What do YOU do about them?

#1

O

Oddball

Jeez, its 90 degrees here with full sun and I'm pushing the mower with one hand and slapping skeeters with the other. Well, I would be, but I came in to cool off and get some water. They're always bad around here in the summer, but they seem especially populous and very hungry this year. As much as I'd like to mow in shorts, not only due to the heat, but also just to get some sun on my lily white legs, I can't because of the mosquitos. We've got lots of woods around the neighborhood and most houses have large flower beds that I'm sure are all breeding grounds. My wife is going green and dragging me with her. All natural and organic foods whenever possible. I don't mind that one bit, organics taste better, but she's also trying to switch over to cleaners and other household chemicals that are made with natural products instead of harsh chemicals, this includes bug spray, repellent, etc. That means the only stuff I've found that works at all and that I can spray around the house on the flower beds and in the wooded areas is no longer an option if I want to remain in a harmonius relationship with my wife. The natural/environmentally friendly skeeter repellent she's bought does no good, or irritates my skin so bad I don't want to use it. Help me before I shrivel up to nothing because this scurge has sucked me dry!!


#2

RobertBrown

RobertBrown

Oddball said:
Jeez, its 90 degrees here with full sun and I'm pushing the mower with one hand and slapping skeeters with the other. Well, I would be, but I came in to cool off and get some water. They're always bad around here in the summer, but they seem especially populous and very hungry this year. As much as I'd like to mow in shorts, not only due to the heat, but also just to get some sun on my lily white legs, I can't because of the mosquitos. We've got lots of woods around the neighborhood and most houses have large flower beds that I'm sure are all breeding grounds. My wife is going green and dragging me with her. All natural and organic foods whenever possible. I don't mind that one bit, organics taste better, but she's also trying to switch over to cleaners and other household chemicals that are made with natural products instead of harsh chemicals, this includes bug spray, repellent, etc. That means the only stuff I've found that works at all and that I can spray around the house on the flower beds and in the wooded areas is no longer an option if I want to remain in a harmonius relationship with my wife. The natural/environmentally friendly skeeter repellent she's bought does no good, or irritates my skin so bad I don't want to use it. Help me before I shrivel up to nothing because this scurge has sucked me dry!!
Click to expand...

I use deet....spray it on your shirt and hat in small quantites, not on your skin. Keep it in your garage where your wife doesn't see it. If she smells it, tell her it's gas.
Deet is very effective and 100% natural, made from the leaves and roots of the tropical "Existingnot" plant native to the Amazon region of Antartica:rolleyes:.
Now if she finds the deet, blame it on me, the guy from LMF, for telling you it's a natural product, so safe you could eat it, be sure and shrug your shoulders when you say Robertbrown.


#3

JDgreen

JDgreen

Oddball said:
Jeez, its 90 degrees here with full sun and I'm pushing the mower with one hand and slapping skeeters with the other. Well, I would be, but I came in to cool off and get some water. They're always bad around here in the summer, but they seem especially populous and very hungry this year. As much as I'd like to mow in shorts, not only due to the heat, but also just to get some sun on my lily white legs, I can't because of the mosquitos. We've got lots of woods around the neighborhood and most houses have large flower beds that I'm sure are all breeding grounds. My wife is going green and dragging me with her. All natural and organic foods whenever possible. I don't mind that one bit, organics taste better, but she's also trying to switch over to cleaners and other household chemicals that are made with natural products instead of harsh chemicals, this includes bug spray, repellent, etc. That means the only stuff I've found that works at all and that I can spray around the house on the flower beds and in the wooded areas is no longer an option if I want to remain in a harmonius relationship with my wife. The natural/environmentally friendly skeeter repellent she's bought does no good, or irritates my skin so bad I don't want to use it. Help me before I shrivel up to nothing because this scurge has sucked me dry!!
Click to expand...


Modify the exhaust on your mower so it goes straight back and gasses the little f------s.....:laughing:

While I applaud going green in many instances, sometimes there is no substitute for the old solutions. I never use repellents myself, because after pushing a mower in 90 degree heat, after ten minutes, I stink so bad no self respecting bug will come near me except flies.


#4

M

mullins87

Seems like the Today Show did a story some time ago about how these environmentally friendly products just don't work. I didn't see it, but my wife did. Lucky for me she's not entirely on board with this green movement.

I think the mosquito population is worse this year due to all that rain we had in the spring. We here in Western Kentucky received 43 inches of rain by the first of May....our average annual rainfall is 42 inches! All that rain created lots of wet areas, for instance my small pond has just now returned to its normal level. Mosquitos need still, undisturbed pools of water to reproduce. You can't do anything about your neighbors property, just make sure that you don't have any standing water on your property.


#5

Sprinkler Buddy

Sprinkler Buddy

Build a Bat House. The bats have been doing a # on them around here. If you have dense woods or vegetation on your property, thinning it will also help.


#6

O

Oddball

RobertBrown and JD, while you're tongue in cheek suggestions did give me a moment of pleasure, they just really aren't that helpful.:wink:

Mullins, I'd thought of thinning out some of the wooded area on our property, but honestly I'd only be gaining maybe 20 feet here and there and there'd still be thick woods or overgrown yards surrounding the property. The wooded areas in our backyard help hide the unsightly back yards that back up to ours. I honestly thought that the extra cold winter we had this year would have killed off a lot of them, but apparently it only killed the weak ones allowing the strong to survive and flourish. About 20-25 years ago we had an influx of the Asian Tiger Mosquito (I think that's the correct name). These things are twice as big as our normal mosquitos and a lot more aggressive, not to mention their bite itches a lot worse. They said on the news recently that the Tiger Mosquitos are especially bad here this year and there have been more cases of mosquito born illnesses than usual, fortunately not West Nile, but others.

Sprinkler Buddy, I believe it would take about half the Carlsbad Caverns bat popluation to keep our mosquitos under control. And some of these things are big enough to give a bat a good fight. We actually do have a bat house that I need to put up. We've got a good bat poplation around here already.


#7

JDgreen

JDgreen

Oddball said:
RobertBrown and JD, while you're tongue in cheek suggestions did give me a moment of pleasure, they just really aren't that helpful.:wink:

Mullins, I'd thought of thinning out some of the wooded area on our property, but honestly I'd only be gaining maybe 20 feet here and there and there'd still be thick woods or overgrown yards surrounding the property. The wooded areas in our backyard help hide the unsightly back yards that back up to ours. I honestly thought that the extra cold winter we had this year would have killed off a lot of them, but apparently it only killed the weak ones allowing the strong to survive and flourish. About 20-25 years ago we had an influx of the Asian Tiger Mosquito (I think that's the correct name). These things are twice as big as our normal mosquitos and a lot more aggressive, not to mention their bite itches a lot worse. They said on the news recently that the Tiger Mosquitos are especially bad here this year and there have been more cases of mosquito born illnesses than usual, fortunately not West Nile, but others.

Sprinkler Buddy, I believe it would take about half the Carlsbad Caverns bat popluation to keep our mosquitos under control. And some of these things are big enough to give a bat a good fight. We actually do have a bat house that I need to put up. We've got a good bat poplation around here already.
Click to expand...

You insult Robert Brown, he made a very good, practical suggestion. And to boast that you have skeeters big enough to give a bat a good fight is just plain silly. You are supposed to contribute HONEST Posts and Threads, not gross exaggerations.


#8

O

Oddball

JDgreen said:
You insult Robert Brown, he made a very good, practical suggestion. And to boast that you have skeeters big enough to give a bat a good fight is just plain silly. You are supposed to contribute HONEST Posts and Threads, not gross exaggerations.
Click to expand...

:laughing: touche


#9

M

mullins87

The bats are a very good idea. We have several that live in an old tobacco barn here at the house. Between them and the martins, they do a pretty good job. However, we have more mosquitos than they can eat.


#10

C

cubby

We have a lot mosquitos too, I use most of the spray products already mentioned when I can find them.
Seems like every time I need them I can't find any, but when I need a snow shovel they're all over the
place.:laughing:

I just wanted to mention a product my friend uses called Skin So Soft, my wife says Avon sells it. I've
never used it but my friend says it works very good, maybe some readers have used it and can tell you
about it. I do a lot of work outside and when it gets real bad I start up my diesel pick-up and they clear
out pretty quick. They also make foggers that take a diesel type fuel that you use to fog the yard but
sooner or later they always come back after the fog clears out. Good luck...cubby


#11

C

cubby

JDgreen said:
You insult Robert Brown, he made a very good, practical suggestion. And to boast that you have skeeters big enough to give a bat a good fight is just plain silly. You are supposed to contribute HONEST Posts and Threads, not gross exaggerations.
Click to expand...

JD do you mean like the HONEST thread for a change you posted just to get to 2K, seems like those
flies are getting heavy:laughing::laughing::laughing: just kidding congrats on the big 2K hit....cubby


#12

Xave

Xave

I just bought one of them Flowtron 1.5 acre bug zappers for my back yard. I've heard some good reviews and am anxious to see results. I also contacted a private company to give me an estimate to spray my residence. They have not provided a quote a of yet. Cute also says a spray you can attach to your hose to spray th lawn. Not sure how effective it is. Good luck


#13

D

djrussell

Let us know how that works for you, Xave. I have a mosquito and gnat problem and am looking at solutions. The Flowtrons get a LOT of good reviews on amazon.


#14

JDgreen

JDgreen

djrussell said:
Let us know how that works for you, Xave. I have a mosquito and gnat problem and am looking at solutions. The Flowtrons get a LOT of good reviews on amazon.
Click to expand...

I have read someplace that not many of the bugs those zappers get are skeeters...but IMO the only good bugs are honeybees, so ZAP AWAY.


#15

O

Oddball

I've read reviews on the bug zappers that say the lights do not attract moqsuitos and they therefore zap very few of them, and that the attractants that are supposed to be used in conjucntion with the zappers actually repel some species of mosquitos, including the one that seems so prevalent here. I've also read reviews that say they've zapped beaucoups skeeters, so who knows. I know my wife finally relented and said "Go spray whatever you want, just kill the damn things!" So I got the garden sprayer out night before last and mixed up a batch of pesticide and sprayed all the flower beds, the woods around the perimeter of the yard, under the deck and with what remained, I sprayed the yard itself until I ran out. I hate to do it in a way because when I do we don't see as many dragon flies and toads, but somethings gotta give. This morning my wife was outside on the deck watering plants and exercising and when she came in she said it was the first time in over a month she'd been able to enjoy being out on the deck first thing in the AM.


#16

Xave

Xave

Well I received and set up the Flowtron in my back yard. Although the recommendation was to place the unit 20-25 ft. away from people activity I installed it 5 feet from my backdoor to listen to it zap. I wanted to make sure it was working. I'll let you know how it goes. Video to follow...lol

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#17

BKBrown

BKBrown

SkeeterVac 1 Acre Mosquito Eliminator, Model# CPSV3100

Haven't used it myself (no real need), but I have heard good things about it and others that use Propane and a fan. Do a search if you are interested.


#18

J

johnandrew

Two things you can do, but some of these, 10 pcs Insect Repellent Bracelet Mosquito Repeller Band | eBay (they do work, but once you unpack them they are not good after a couple of hours, but I guess that's alight) also you can rent a motorized lawn mover that will help speed things up for you, there is a tool rental at the Home Depot that rents mechanical mowers.


#19

motorrefurb

motorrefurb

Get out a firepit and the bugs never go near it. Some companies (or all) put some type of lemon stuff in their tiki torch fluid, so if you get some of that, you can make a wall or torches and the mosquitos hate lemon! :eek:


#20

M

mnicholson

I actually just let them be because any move I do to get them out, they seem to have an answer back. Though I have read some articles that there are some sort of trees which leaves are able to drive away insects because of their scent.

You might want to search on those and give it a try. I was not able to plant some of them because I already have a full one when I came across this problem.


#21

Q

Quality lawn Service

I use mouth wash it keeps them off you just put it in a spray bottle. Dosnt keep them out of your yard.


#22

J

jenkinsph

I was a native of New Orleans and the swampy areas were heavily laden with mosquitos. I moved to New Mexico over twenty years ago, problem solved. No Mosquitos, no fire ants....so far.


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