Getting eaten alive

[Del Griffith]

Hey there. My spouse and I recently purchased a home we are not yet living in until our lease is up at the end of October. Since it is just around the corner, we have been doing work there on nights and weekends as it's an old home and needs some upgrading. I can't help but notice that pretty much every time I am there outside for 30 seconds or more I end up with at least one mosquito bite, and more often multiples. I am one of the unlucky mosquito bite prone folks, but holy moly, it's exceptionally bad.

The houses in our neighborhood are not far apart at all -- maybe 20 feet or so apart. Our neighbor commented that her back yard seems fine to her family and that the previous homeowner also complained about how bad they are. The gutters do have some standing water (which we have to address), and there are some tall trees back there, but had anyone else successfully addressed a similar issue? Is there some glaringly obvious explanation I may be missing? It's like they stay in our yard by some invisible wall (or, at least I have convinced myself of that).

I purchased a Mosquito Magnet off Craigslist in desparation and got the Octenol cartridges suggested for our part of the county, but haven't had much luck catching many mosquitos. I know it is late in the season and we won't be in there full time until the end of next month, but any ideas how to keep them reasonably at bay aside from bug spray? Or, any suggestions how to start off next summer on the right foot to keep them down throughout the season? Has anyone found the Mosquito Magnet to be either useful or a sham?

[Beach_Stache]

I made my own little DIY mosquito spray kit that I found online.  I tried it twice this summer and it seemed to do a pretty good job and it's very easy and inexpensive.  I got those mosquito spray bottles in the past which also worked okay, where you connect to a hose and spray your yard.  It says it keeps mosquito's at bay for 8 weeks, but really it's only a few weeks at best.  I keep those old spray bottles and the mixture I use is 1 part stale beer, 1 part Epson Salt, 1 part Listerine (generic version).  You open a beer the night before and let it sit out.  Cheap crappy beer that you don't want to drink or that's been sitting in the garage.  You mix in the equal parts and stir it in a container until the salt is mixed in.  Then pour it into the spray bottle, connect to the hose and cover the area, trees, anywhere that the mosquito's will be hiding.  Apparently the alcohol, salt & yeast keep them away.  I spray the lawn and trees about once/month in the summer when I notice the mosquito's are coming out and it seems to do a pretty good job of keeping the bugs away.  I would repeat every month or every 3rd week if they are really bad.  It seems to work pretty well for me, it's more natural than the pestecides and a lot cheaper.  I also 2nd the comments about how some plants help keep them away, a bat box as well will help a lot. 

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

I am one of those delicious-to-mosquitoes people, and for all my pouring out of standing water and everything else, there's nothing better than spraying DEET on myself.

[human]

Just from hiking and camping in the woods I know that mosquitoes come out more at dusk right when you are trying to relax. They also also seem to be out more in dense trees and bush and near standing water. You may want to thin out any brush you got around and yeah clean those gutters, they may even be laying eggs in there. I'm not sure how big those trees are, it might be a shame to get rid of nice trees, but if you have a lot of thin trees next to each other you may want to thin them out.

Other than Deet or clothes with permethrin  I don't think those cheesy cartridges or magnets will do much. Wear long sleeve nylon shirts and tightly woven wool socks.

Your negihbours are probably just used to it. Us city folk are just not used to mosquitoes, deer flies and black flies. You live close by though so not sure exaclty what would be different from your old house. Maybe your neighbours get more of a breeze through their yard?


If you do the basics and try not to obsess over it you will be fine, but if you're one of those people that stresses out over zika you may never feel like the bites are "lessening".

You mention it's an old home, if it's on a crawl space there could be all kinds of debris, or an old moldy shed somerwhere. Clean that stuff up too.

Good opportunity to screen in the deck or build a gazebo!

[Spork]

I used to have one of those Mosquito Magnet contraptions... and found it worked pretty well.  It eventually stopped lighting and got tossed to the wayside.

In our case, it was highly location dependent.  Keep moving it around.  See if you find a sweet spot.  Wind disperses the CO2 cloud, so you want it blocked from prevailing winds.  We also found that it didn't catch a whole lot of mosquitoes.  Rather, it was an awesome decoy.  There would always be a little pile of them in the little bag, but more than that there was always a cloud of them swarming around the machine.  If they're by the machine, they're not by me.

[MsPeacock]

I have to bug zapper type lights in my yard. They are inexpensive to purchase and run and seem to have been quite effective at reducing the mosquitos (bonus: chemical free). I'd suggest also getting rid of any standing water on the property. Often the type of landscaping gives a lot of opportunities for mosquitos and there isn't much you can do about that.

[Catbert]

First order of business is to fix those gutters and any other place on your property that has standing water.  Mosquitos can breed in minute amounts of water - the size of a bottle cap if my local government is to be believed.

[Dee18]

You don't mention where you live.  If it is in the southeast, you have three kinds of mosquitos:

Most Common Mosquitoes in the United States:
Aedes Mosquitoes: The most common types of Aedes mosquitoes are commonly referred to as Asian tiger or yellow fever mosquitoes. They are most common in the southern United States. Aedes mosquitoes are aggressive daytime biters and also bite at dusk and dawn.
Culex Mosquitoes: These mosquitoes are in every state.They are most common at dusk and dawn.
Anopheles Mosquitoes:  They have been found in every state and are most active at dusk and dawn.

So if you are in the southeast, you have the Aedes mosquitos.  They can also breed in very tiny amounts of water.  Here is what has really helped at my home:

Decrease vegetation:  I had ivy growing all over my backyard fence.  It looked nice.  I had it all ripped out.  I also ripped out a lot of shrubs and had some small trees taken out. This has made a tremendous improvement.  When I do yard work I wear permethrin treated clothing.  Oh, and you can buy little disks at the hardware store that keep mosquitos from breeding somewhere like a poorly flowing gutter. Also, I find the Cutters family care repellant, 7% deet, works well on exposed skin for at least two hours.

[yourusernamehere]

I think you've got some great advice here. I'll add that if you have a deck or sitting area near the house, an oscillating fan can do a great job keeping mosquitos away. They're weak fliers and will be unable to approach across even a light breeze. My family in rural Massachusetts saw great improvement with this method.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/science/a-low-tech-mosquito-deterrent.html?_r=3&

[Lulee]

Beach_Stache’s DIY spray sounds interesting and Spock's suggested use as a decoy is pure genius.  A former coworker had something similar in his woodsy backyard and swore it killed them by the millions (he did have to hide it behind large rocks as his wife hated the idea of killing any creatures, even nasty old mosquitoes).

Could you also next Spring add bird houses and baths for swallows, bat houses, and anything to bring in dragonflies?  Getting critters in to eat the mosquito population is a low cost solution.

[Lmoot]

I second the bat house. Bats can eat between 1000 and 3000 mosquitoes per bat. Keep vegetation down in shades areas; sunny areas are fine since water evaporates quickly. Try mixing in fragrant mosquito repellent plants such as rosemary lavender and citronella grass. It might sound mean but the idea is to make the mosquitoes want to hang out in your neighbor's yard rather than yours. And unless you use grass for something specifically, the less you have the better so get creative with pavers and or deck. I live in Florida, a block from a river, so I know a tiny bit about these things LOL

[sonjak]

I haven't tried this but I saw it awhile ago and since I will most likely end up in a fairly mosquito-prone place, and am also a mosquito magnet, I bookmarked it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU2kbghz85I#t=120s

[Mr. Green]

Forget the deet. Permethrin is an insecticide that kills mosquitoes and ticks by overloading their immune system when they touch a material that has been infused with it. You can spray clothing with it and once it dries, the permethrin binds to the clothing fibers and is non-toxic to people. It's even used to spray livestock. The concentration you use is tiny, just 0.5%. Bought pre-mixed at that concentration it is fairly expensive ($10-15 for a 20 oz. bottle) but you can buy much more concentrated amounts from farm supply stores like Tractor Supply Company ($7 for 8 oz. @ 13.3% which dilutes to 2 gallons @ 0.5%). Just dilute with water to 0.5% and it can be applied just like the lower dose spray you buy at a store like Walmart or REI. It's odorless when it dries and it lasts through a number of washes, as it's the agitation of the material that actually breaks down the permethrin. When clothes are fully soaked in permethrin and then washed gently, like in a machine that has no agitator, the effect can last 20-30 washes. This was the chemical I used when I attempted a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail to ensure mosquitoes wouldn't drive me crazy. Most of the time my permethrin sprayed sun hat was all I needed. I put it on and the bugs knew that death was near.

Something you may be able to do long term is look into planting various species of lemongrass, which naturally produce citronella oil. The grasses do need a fair amount of sun to thrive but the citronella oil they give off will naturally help reduce mosquitoes, provided you don't mind the smell. The smell as it naturally occurs in lemongrass is not as potent as citronella bug repellent.

[Del Griffith]

Thanks everyone! These are some great suggestions. Up until last Friday, we also had a pile of debris in the back yard that we tossed into a dumpster, and I think that may have been a culprit as well. I will talk to our handy friend about how to move the water out of those gutters, I didn't realize what a breeding ground they could be. I want to put some of these methods to work and see what kind of damage I can do to get rid of these little suckers.

[aneel]

We also live in a buggy area. This year I was vigilant about keeping the lawn trimmed after I noticed all the mosquitos I kicked up in the grass during doggie bathroom time. It seems to have worked well, but we're also in a drought which is bound to be confounding my results.

[Scandium]

I second the bat house. Bats can eat between 1000 and 3000 mosquitoes per bat. Keep vegetation down in shades areas; sunny areas are fine since water evaporates quickly. Try mixing in fragrant mosquito repellent plants such as rosemary lavender and citronella grass. It might sound mean but the idea is to make the mosquitoes want to hang out in your neighbor's yard rather than yours. And unless you use grass for something specifically, the less you have the better so get creative with pavers and or deck. I live in Florida, a block from a river, so I know a tiny bit about these things LOL

Bat boxes are worthless. Per a friend who's a bat researcher. The bats have plenty of places to nest which they prefer over the boxes, trees etc. If they don't hang around you're place it's for other reasons.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Lmoot]

I second the bat house. Bats can eat between 1000 and 3000 mosquitoes per bat. Keep vegetation down in shades areas; sunny areas are fine since water evaporates quickly. Try mixing in fragrant mosquito repellent plants such as rosemary lavender and citronella grass. It might sound mean but the idea is to make the mosquitoes want to hang out in your neighbor's yard rather than yours. And unless you use grass for something specifically, the less you have the better so get creative with pavers and or deck. I live in Florida, a block from a river, so I know a tiny bit about these things LOL

Bat boxes are worthless. Per a friend who's a bat researcher. The bats have plenty of places to nest which they prefer over the boxes, trees etc. If they don't hang around you're place it's for other reasons.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

It greatly depends where you live, where the box is located, and that it is built for the bats' needs. I work at a zoo where part of my job is to promote the proper use of bat boxes (and screech owl boxes). A lot of times it could be something as simple as a lack of chicken wire /hardware cloth, since many premade houses do not have this. With smooth wood (to appeal to human aesthetics), and nothing to grab onto (wire), it's not going to draw many bats. And height. The boxes need to sit on a pole taller than  surrounding buildings if possible, away from trees since they are not comfortable roosting near or below areas that allow predators to sneak up on them. Though sometimes they'll roost anywhere. We had bats in our mailbox right by the front door!

Also the more houses you have in close proximity, the better. If you can get them on one pole, even better. Most species feel more comfortable roosting in large numbers, not to mention you need different "rooms" (houses) for nursing/ young bats. You aren't going to bother looking at 1 bedroom houses if you have a large family.

[MoonLiteNite]

First order of business is to fix those gutters and any other place on your property that has standing water.  Mosquitos can breed in minute amounts of water - the size of a bottle cap if my local government is to be believed.

2nd this one.

Removing any  standing water nearby actually helps. Those little flyers actually don't stray far from their birthplace!

[Fishindude]

Yep, eliminate any standing water and get things dried up.   Even water standing in buckets, pooling in old tires, or junk on the property can promote mosquito breeding.
Also, cut back tall vegetation, landscaping, trim trees, etc. to get some sunshine and air moving in the area.

They are bad here right now too, due to lots of rain.
When sitting outdoors, I find those green mosquito "coils" that you light to be the best repellent.   

[Jmoody10]

I'm currently doing an experiment at our very rural home. First, I put out several 5 gallon buckets around the perimeter of our yard. I place sticks, leaves, etc into it and fill up the bucket with water. After a few days, I saw mosquito larvae in them. I then put a mosquito dunk/bits in the buckets. No more babies.

When it was really dry, we had very few mosquitoes. With a lot of recent rain, they are making a comeback though...