Many of us have our garden / orchard adjacent to our yard. I prefer early morning or evening walks through the garden but have lately found it a battle due to mosquito populations being abnormally high. We have been exceedingly dry and standing water is not a issue. We have had around 6 inches of rainfall for the year not including dew accumulation. There are areas with tall flowers,grasses, herbs etc. and they are using that for cover. Like all of you I want to rid my garden / yard of these disease carrying pests. My swimming pool has swarms of 30 or more mosquitos hanging around waiting for me to come out for a swim. What should I do? These mosquitos became a problem in the last 2 weeks when we received an inch of rain over the course of a week and a half 1/10 inch or so at a time.
I think the question is how to get rid of mosquitoes w/o wiping out the populations of other insects
We use thermocells to keep our patios relatively clear of skeeters. They do a decent job as long as it isn’t windy (don’t need them then anyway) and right up until it gets fully dark…then all bets are off.
Exactly! Specially bees…
Oddly we have had more rain than usual and less mosquitoes. 12 inches in the last three months and plenty of humid cloudy weather. Tiger mosquitoes are around in the middle of the day and have been a problem for the last 5 or 6 years. I haven’t seen any this year. I wish I knew why the mosquito population is down for me when conditions seem to be better.
They need water to breed so if there is any standing water they will multiply. There are pellets that can float on water that will kill them. If there are only a few around I have found that a mist of soap spray will knock them out of the air and kill them. I keep a spray bottle with me when sitting outside. Also a few fans on the patio will usually keep them away. I’ve tried an electric bug zapper with mosquito attractant last year but still had plenty of mosquitoes. I sprayed Triazicide around the patio shrubs and other ground cover (not flowers) and that helped for about two weeks before respraying.
Something that would kill them without hurting bees would be nice to have.
I would like to here of a method of permanently getting rid of mosquito but as of now I use this pictured product. Lemon Eucalyptus won’t give you the long term relief that deet products will but it does well for an hour or two.
We have regular standing water, and I throw those pellets into it to impair their breeding
Yes, it works very well for an hour or two when I use it. 20% Picaridin, a non organic repellant also works and last a bit longer.
I used those now gone 40% deet spray. One step down from rubbing myself with gasoline but i can be out there even at dusk. So im good with it
I created a simple trap device that allows mosquitos to lay eggs. While it leaves the adults free the babies will never escape affecting future populations. Standing water gets mosquito fish.
I’ve heard you can spray the ingredient that’s in those mosquito dunks on plants and such. It won’t hurt bees. I’m talking about the Bt kind for mosquito larvae.
It’s “kind-of” approved for use in drinking water last time I looked into it. I know this because I used it to fight fungus gnats in my hydroponics system and indoor plants.
I can go out and think “hunh, no mosquitoes- I guess it’s safe to pick veggies!” And then find they come out from under the bush bean leaves and attack. It seems like they’re finding moisture underneath the leaves, which seem to form a protective canopy - like a perfect little rain forest.
These insects may look like scary biters, but they are only dangerous to mosquitoes. Dragonfly larvae, “nymphs,” feed on mosquito larvae, and adult dragonflies feed on adult mosquitoes.
The key to attracting dragonflies is to provide an environment that is comfortable and safe for them. A small pond, shallow at one end and deep at the other, with vegetation that grows out of the water and plenty of flat rocks surrounding it should do just fine.
The nymphs will eat mosquito larvae in the water, and the adults will sun themselves on the rocks, waiting for the adults to leave the water.
I was surprised to see 3 or 4 dragonflies in my vegetable garden for a week or two since I don’t know of any close by ponds. For the first time in several years there have been very few misquotes. The daytime tiger misquotes are completely gone.
@luxin, @danzeb.
Just wondering if one of those landscape type ponds would be big enough to attract dragonflies. Interesting idea and I would think some of our other forum members with ponds could share there experience. I don’t have one but I would install one if it got rid of mosquitoes.
Dragonflies are beyond numerous here…as in we see dozens and dozens of them daily. They put a hurting on the skeeters I’m sure, but they do not come close to “controlling” the mosquito population
We have lots of dragon flies here as well but the mosquitos are thick.
Thanks for confirming what I thought. I was thinking you have ponds but still have mosquitoes.