getting rid of mosquitos
August 2, 2010 8:10 AM Subscribe
I have mosquitos in my backyard, and I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of them.
I have a significant number of mosquitos in my backyard (I live in Maryland, just barely outside of DC). It's not a problem in my front yard.
I have gotten rid of any places where there would be standing water, but the problem still seems to persist. The only other major things in my backyard are a small vegetable garden (but that's about 50 feet away from the house)
How do you prevent mosquitos, and also manage the existing issue? I'm a new homeowner, so this is all new to me, and the internet seems to have tons of conflicting information.
I have a significant number of mosquitos in my backyard (I live in Maryland, just barely outside of DC). It's not a problem in my front yard.
I have gotten rid of any places where there would be standing water, but the problem still seems to persist. The only other major things in my backyard are a small vegetable garden (but that's about 50 feet away from the house)
How do you prevent mosquitos, and also manage the existing issue? I'm a new homeowner, so this is all new to me, and the internet seems to have tons of conflicting information.
Get some bats. A bat eats up to 500 mosquitos an hour, they're fabulous. Put up a bat house, there are several other AskMes about doing this.
Grow citronella plants in your backyard. Also fabulous.
Water your garden in the morning so the sun and heat have a chance to help evaporate any standing water that's on the leaves or that's pooled in the soil.
Encourage birds to visit by putting in some bird feeders, many eat mosquitoes.
posted by iconomy at 8:22 AM on August 2, 2010
Grow citronella plants in your backyard. Also fabulous.
Water your garden in the morning so the sun and heat have a chance to help evaporate any standing water that's on the leaves or that's pooled in the soil.
Encourage birds to visit by putting in some bird feeders, many eat mosquitoes.
posted by iconomy at 8:22 AM on August 2, 2010
Bat house. Put it up in the fall, on an east facing side of the house/garden. It'll lose its chemical/new smell over the winter and the bats will move in in the spring.
Also, birds. Encourage the presence of birds by putting out feeders, bird baths without standing water, and planting native shrubs and perennials.
posted by lydhre at 8:29 AM on August 2, 2010
Also, birds. Encourage the presence of birds by putting out feeders, bird baths without standing water, and planting native shrubs and perennials.
posted by lydhre at 8:29 AM on August 2, 2010
You can manage, but it's very hard to prevent; the control you have over your environment extends only to your property bounds. If your neighbor doesn't care, you're still going to have them.
Nthing the recommendation on bats. They really do manage to eat an incredible number of them and your problem goes down tenfold.
posted by Hiker at 8:31 AM on August 2, 2010
Nthing the recommendation on bats. They really do manage to eat an incredible number of them and your problem goes down tenfold.
posted by Hiker at 8:31 AM on August 2, 2010
I was going to suggest a CO2 or live-bait trap, but I am amazed and delighted that you can ENCOURAGE bats to come hang out with you. I love those little suckers! Send your 'skeeters my way - I'll use them as treats for my new bat pals.
posted by julthumbscrew at 8:36 AM on August 2, 2010
posted by julthumbscrew at 8:36 AM on August 2, 2010
Dragonflies. For a dragonfly, a mosquito is filet mignon.
posted by watercarrier at 8:38 AM on August 2, 2010
posted by watercarrier at 8:38 AM on August 2, 2010
After a very wet spring, we had an atrocious mosquito problem which prompted quite a bit of research on the CO2 traps. The reviews were somewhat mixed on them. I ended up using a regular ol' bug zapper with an octenol bait on it. One night I bungee-wrapped a chunk of dry ice (wrapped in a towel) above the zapper to try to draw as many of the little bastards in as I could. Whether it was my ingenious use of dry ice or the drying out of our area, they seemed to taper off considerably afterward.
If you do a bat house, consider siting it someplace other than the side of your house - bats produce prodigious amounts of guano, which is typically how you discover that they're roosting in your gable-end vents.
posted by jquinby at 8:43 AM on August 2, 2010
If you do a bat house, consider siting it someplace other than the side of your house - bats produce prodigious amounts of guano, which is typically how you discover that they're roosting in your gable-end vents.
posted by jquinby at 8:43 AM on August 2, 2010
Everyone always recommends bats, but apparently although bats do eat mosquitoes, they also eat lots of other insects and the insect populations are able to easily recoup any losses from bats. Here's a website covering mosquitoes, and it says that mosquitoes are roughly 1% of what bats eat. The website also goes through lots of possible solutions.
When I opened this question I thought "DC resident?" because it seems like the greater-DC area has a lot of mosquito problems. We've tried reducing standing water (but we can't control our neighbors' standing water and we have lots of close neighors), putting pellets in our drain, spraying the yard (seems to be briefly effective), using bug spray, using citronella candles (really doesn't seem to work but YMMV), and using those little mosquito fans that are on the market now (Off Clip-On Fan). The last two years the mosquitoes have been incredibly ferocious in our back yard, and this year they are (fingers crossed!) much less prevalent, so maybe you'll get a break every few years. I have no idea why. But I think those Off!mosquito fans are the best solution we have found. When we have people over, we put one under the table and one on top of the table, and it really does seem to help.
Good luck!
posted by n'muakolo at 8:56 AM on August 2, 2010
When I opened this question I thought "DC resident?" because it seems like the greater-DC area has a lot of mosquito problems. We've tried reducing standing water (but we can't control our neighbors' standing water and we have lots of close neighors), putting pellets in our drain, spraying the yard (seems to be briefly effective), using bug spray, using citronella candles (really doesn't seem to work but YMMV), and using those little mosquito fans that are on the market now (Off Clip-On Fan). The last two years the mosquitoes have been incredibly ferocious in our back yard, and this year they are (fingers crossed!) much less prevalent, so maybe you'll get a break every few years. I have no idea why. But I think those Off!mosquito fans are the best solution we have found. When we have people over, we put one under the table and one on top of the table, and it really does seem to help.
Good luck!
posted by n'muakolo at 8:56 AM on August 2, 2010
any of your neighbors have a derelict pool? sneak over the fence at night and chuck some gambusia (mosquitofish) into it. this is what health departments do in high foreclosure areas.
if you have a birdbath, you should dump it daily and spray it out with a hose before refilling.
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:51 AM on August 2, 2010
if you have a birdbath, you should dump it daily and spray it out with a hose before refilling.
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:51 AM on August 2, 2010
Mosquitos often breed in standing water inside gutters, and they typically come from the houses closest to you.
posted by OmieWise at 9:56 AM on August 2, 2010
posted by OmieWise at 9:56 AM on August 2, 2010
There is definitely the conventional wisdom of getting rid of standing water, but I've found even that's not enough once the mosquitoes hit critical mass. I had unusual mosquito problems at two properties in Texas where I lived, and even though I was diligent about getting rid of standing water, they were thriving in moist loamy soil and within grasses and plants. I concluded there was really nothing that could be done short of poisoning the entire place, and even then that doesn't fix mosquito issues on adjoining properties.
One of those properties had a bat house (in Austin, no less) but bats never came, in spite of the mosquitoes. I've also read mixed opinions on the CO2 generators.
You could probably fix the issue in the long term by cutting down trees to increase sun exposure and make the habitat on your property drier, but that's probably a little extreme. I think it may be better to spend $150 on one of those large tent-like screened shelters, which gives all the luxury of the outdoors without the bugs. I don't know what they're called, but a lot of mail-order gardening and hunting supply places have them. Alternately if you own your own place, you can construct a large screened-in porch.
posted by crapmatic at 10:09 AM on August 2, 2010
One of those properties had a bat house (in Austin, no less) but bats never came, in spite of the mosquitoes. I've also read mixed opinions on the CO2 generators.
You could probably fix the issue in the long term by cutting down trees to increase sun exposure and make the habitat on your property drier, but that's probably a little extreme. I think it may be better to spend $150 on one of those large tent-like screened shelters, which gives all the luxury of the outdoors without the bugs. I don't know what they're called, but a lot of mail-order gardening and hunting supply places have them. Alternately if you own your own place, you can construct a large screened-in porch.
posted by crapmatic at 10:09 AM on August 2, 2010
Do all the standing water things, and keep the grass mowed down. If you aren't opposed to that kind of thing, we had good luck with anti-mosquito spray that we got at Home Depot and put on the lawn a couple of times a month (depending on rain). I had good luck with the off torches, and I've heard that moving air keeps them away - maybe drag a fan or two outside if you're sitting out?
posted by lemniskate at 10:26 AM on August 2, 2010
posted by lemniskate at 10:26 AM on August 2, 2010
We have lots of bats and lots of dragonflies but, living in a very wooded area, still have problems with mosquitoes. When we entertain outside, I find that using a fog-type spray in the afternoon and then using a combination of a burning mosquito coil and an Off Power-Puff Lantern is very effective.
posted by Morrigan at 10:43 AM on August 2, 2010
posted by Morrigan at 10:43 AM on August 2, 2010
You can do everything anyone will ever suggest, but even with every precaution in place, you will have mosquitos in your yard. Its not like skeeters see all the stuff you do and think "Ah geez, we can't go into that yard!"
posted by ducktape at 11:07 AM on August 2, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by ducktape at 11:07 AM on August 2, 2010 [3 favorites]
I am seconding the recommendation for a screen tent, or if you have the time and money, a screened-in porch. My family has a small cabin in the woods with a screen porch almost the same size as the cabin! There is little that is more pleasant than sitting in the screened in porch with a cold beverage on a sultry summer evening, completely free of skeeters.
Another thing you can do is get a firebowl (or just make a fire ring in the dirt) and have a fire, which will keep most of the buggers away. As for the bug zapper- don't bother. They mostly catch beneficial insects.
posted by rockindata at 11:34 AM on August 2, 2010
Another thing you can do is get a firebowl (or just make a fire ring in the dirt) and have a fire, which will keep most of the buggers away. As for the bug zapper- don't bother. They mostly catch beneficial insects.
posted by rockindata at 11:34 AM on August 2, 2010
The other nice thing about bats is that if you go out at night, you can see them silhouetted against the sky doing crazy ass acrobatics as they reduce the stinging menace in your yard. It's like a free airshow.
(I like to make jet noises under my breath when I watch them, mainly because I'm simple.)
As to the ones that you can't kill outright, these Clip-On repellents seem to work remarkably well, way better, at least, than the spray on DEET stuff I've used in the past.
posted by quin at 2:32 PM on August 2, 2010
(I like to make jet noises under my breath when I watch them, mainly because I'm simple.)
As to the ones that you can't kill outright, these Clip-On repellents seem to work remarkably well, way better, at least, than the spray on DEET stuff I've used in the past.
posted by quin at 2:32 PM on August 2, 2010
The CO2 things work. If you turn them on in early May and run them continuously you cam put a serious dent in your bug population.
Because DC was built on a swamp there is no permanent solution. Other than moving to California maybe.
posted by fshgrl at 2:34 PM on August 2, 2010
Because DC was built on a swamp there is no permanent solution. Other than moving to California maybe.
posted by fshgrl at 2:34 PM on August 2, 2010
Because DC was built on a swamp there is no permanent solution. Other than moving to California maybe.
Though, interestingly, DC was not actually "built on a swamp."
posted by n'muakolo at 2:40 PM on August 2, 2010
Though, interestingly, DC was not actually "built on a swamp."
posted by n'muakolo at 2:40 PM on August 2, 2010
Mosquitos are great for "little game hunting". Buy one of these and have hours of amusement
tennis racket for mozzies
posted by jannw at 6:01 PM on August 2, 2010
tennis racket for mozzies
posted by jannw at 6:01 PM on August 2, 2010
Best answer: I'm spending my first summer as a homeowner in Mississippi, where the mosquitos are just... epic. Everywhere. I reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore and broke down and got this stuff called Purge spray. I got an automatic dispenser that squirts the Purge every 15 minutes by the back door of my house. (The spray and the dispenser were both readily available at a couple of local stores, including hardware stores.)
It certainly wasn't my first choice as it is not even remotely environmentally friendly, etc., and I can only imagine how incredibly toxic it is, but I. Was. Losing. My. Mind.
It works pretty well for keeping them away from the door. It doesn't keep them out of the rest of the yard, though, but at least they aren't coming in the house. Every time I go out back to water my garden, I douse myself in bug spray. (Again, gross, not my first choice, toxic, etc. Can you tell I don't feel 100% right with my choices? :)
posted by hansbrough at 9:15 PM on August 2, 2010
It certainly wasn't my first choice as it is not even remotely environmentally friendly, etc., and I can only imagine how incredibly toxic it is, but I. Was. Losing. My. Mind.
It works pretty well for keeping them away from the door. It doesn't keep them out of the rest of the yard, though, but at least they aren't coming in the house. Every time I go out back to water my garden, I douse myself in bug spray. (Again, gross, not my first choice, toxic, etc. Can you tell I don't feel 100% right with my choices? :)
posted by hansbrough at 9:15 PM on August 2, 2010
Forgot to mention -- a friend of mine who lives out in the country near my town has her whole house rigged up with a remote-controlled system that sprays a big, force-field-like puff of Purge at regular intervals (or when someone hits the remote). It really works!
posted by hansbrough at 9:16 PM on August 2, 2010
posted by hansbrough at 9:16 PM on August 2, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Flood at 8:19 AM on August 2, 2010