What are the best practical ways of keeping away or killing mosquitoes, midges, black fly and house flies etc?
I've heard of propane burners called 'mosquito magnets', I've heard of chemicals you spread or leave out in traps, I've heard of sprays and tape. Obviously different things work for different pests. I've seen people wearing face nets and hoodies.
Anyone got any real experience and recommendations?
Fans help with mosquitoes. They wander around until they detect exhaled CO2, and then zigzag their way to the source. An oscillating fan helps prevent them from honing in. I've seen fans setup at family barbeques at the park.
Standing fans or ceiling fans on a porch also prevent them from landing on you. Never considered the CO2 angle, I just thought it blew them off course.
Another possible method of fairly environmentally friendly mosquito control, is create standing water, as in a barrel of water, but put enough dish soap in it to lower the surface tension.
Females come by to lay eggs, but instead get sucked in and drowned. Any larvae that manage to hatch will likewise drown.
Discovered this when I realized a roommates trash barrel had filled with rainwater, and subsequently been infested. I couldn’t just immediately dump it all over so. A squirt of soap and a quick mix with a stick made a graveyard.
Effective Mosquito control requires attacking from multiple angles, consistency, and patience.
- Bacillus thuringiensis (or Bt). This is the bacteria used in "Mosquito Dunks"
- Garlic Barrier - I spray this all around my yard, trees, and bushes and works surprisingly well....
- Thermacell products
- A propane burning trap like Mosquito Magnet with an effective attractant, this can vary depending on your area and type of mosquito.
- Removing certain types of vegetation, debris like dead leaves, etc. that attracts them.
Living in South Florida and I found these 2 methods to be efficient:
-The propane burning traps about ten mosquitoes a day. It's an expensive setup. The SkeeterVac is $600, and a $20 propane tank will last a bit less than a month.
-"Mosquito Dunks" or more specifically, BTI (Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis) has to be placed into standing water. Mosquitoes come to lay eggs that will die because of the BTI. I don't know how many it kills, but I've seen a demi-dozen of larvae in there at a time. Here I recommend going with the granules format as the chemical is powerful, and you don't need much of it for example if placed in a bucket. Better than having to deal with breaking down a big piece into smaller ones.
I haven't found a single "silver bullet" solution, but the combination that has worked for me is bat houses + citronella (candles as well as whole plants, planted around the patio/deck) + the classic electric bug zappers.
We wanted to avoid insecticides because we have a pretty significant pollinating bee population that we didn't want to harm, but if that's not a concern for you, just carpet bombing the yard with pyrethrins is a solid foundation.
I've had good luck with Mosquito Magnets in the past; the only reason I'm not using one now is because the bat houses are approximately zero maintenance, and I'm a sucker for fire-and-forget solutions
Mosquito magnet here. The only trick I've used that worked was to move to a place that wasn't so infested.
Sorry - I realize that isn't very helpful, but that was my real experience and solution. I really hope scientists figure out what makes some people more of a target. I wish that all of those best place to live rankings had mosquito population as part of their equation.
I got some clothes treated with permethrin and that is just as effective as deet for me.
If it’s very hot and humid, I still use deet spray, but if the weather is cool enough for pants and long sleeves, I’ll put on my clothes and I’m good to go.
I spilled some DEET on a desk as a kid, and it stripped the varnish clean to the wood. Great if you want to take that long-procrastinated woodworking project camping?
Almost as effective. But in a trade off picaridin is better vs flies and gnats. I feel a few percent less effective vs mosquitoes is worth what I hope is a less toxic repellent. It was first developed in the 1980s and is derived from peppers.
Dynatraps. Tougher than Toms TNT bait. Gotta have it all out there and ready to go when the season gets started - you don't want to fall behind.
You can also plant things to attract barn swallows and the like, but then you have to deal with them dive bombing you every time you go outside anywhere near their nests.
Mosquito coils are very efficient for keeping mosquitoes away. I use them in the rainforest where there's a lot of mosquitoes. I light a coil before I go to bed, they last 8 hours. Mosquito nets are also efficient to keep them out.
Eliminate standing water. Remove landscaping or vegetation that harbors them. Traps. Repellers (e.g. Thermacell). DEET spray and long clothing.
We have an albopictus aka zebra aka Asian tiger mosquito infestation in our Massachusetts back yard. I found and dumped some standing water in the neighbor’s yard. I ordered BG-GAT traps. We use a Thermacell when we go out there and it helps when we remember to set it up 15 min in advance. Considering removing our English ivy ground cover as it’s a habitat for them.
I remember how my colleague expressed frustration after building system to use rainwater when he realized he essentially made mosquitoes resort in his backyard
Anecdote: I live in Texas. We had ~10 feet of bamboo against our entire back fence, something like ~70 feet. Bamboo isn't native, but grows very fast and provides a lot of visual cover, which is nice. In past years mosquitoes have been real terrorists, you could often have multiple landing on you at once. Nothing we tried made much of a dent except good bug spray all over the body and clothes, and even that wasn't perfect. They were relentless, often landing even on our dog, which surprised me given that he's a lab mix and covered in fur. Guests always commented on how bad it was.
This year we had a backyard office built, and ended up clearing ~10x40 feet of the bamboo for the office. There has been a massive difference in the number of mosquitoes since the clearing. We often go outside for a long time without bug spray at all, I never see them on the dog any more, and guests no longer notice the bugs at all. And we didn't even remove all the bamboo - we still have about 10x30 feet off to the side, and neighbors to both sides and behind our backyard still have some.
(Japanese Knotweed is very distinct from bamboo. It looks quite different too.
Pulling up knotweed actually encourages it's spread! So don't do that. Google for lots of articles on how to determine if you have to treat it (if left alone and not pruned it doesn't actually grow fast nor spread; so just leave be!) or how to attempt eradicate it e.g. it is near a building or drainage.
Thanks! I’ve read reports online about bamboo growing in North America, and didn’t know if it was actual bamboo or the knotweed we have growing in our parts.
It’s coming from our neighbour’s yard who seem to have taken a laissez-faire approach to their yard management.
We’re extremely careful not to let it fracture since, as you know, that spurs additional growth. In the hard to reach parts behind the shed, I did put down landscaping fabric with rocks over it.
After being diligent with new shoots in the early spring, it slows down significantly come the summer and fall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandina is another Bamboo like plant, it is invasive. I grew up with one in the only situation where it wouldn't go invasive, it's surrounded by pavement and stands alone by Mom's front porch. It has awesome flowers for bees. I think i'll remove it before I sell her house. I may pot some to have on a terrace. But it is another invasive.
After googling, I don't think I've seen Japanese knot-wood before. I have woody stalks and long thin leaves. My layman's understanding is that what's in my yard is running bamboo.
In much of TX - certainly the Austin area - there's been a really awful drought, which denies mosquitoes a place for their eggs to grow. Are you sure that this isn't the cause of your observation?
I can't answer this question generally, but one example that is very close to home is bamboo. (Actually, it's no longer close to home. We moved, and despite being very close to our old house, have an order of magnitude fewer mosquitos.) Water collects in the broken culms, which can be very deep, and doesn't go away because they remain shaded.
if you have standing water a couple of drops of dish detergent in standing water will kill all the mosquito larva as the destruction of the water tension by the soap basically drowns them (at least that is my understanding).
Isn't it a pain to clean up the salt afterwards? It seems like hauling out the vacuum to clean up after killing a bug would offset any advantage the gun might have.
How about a bat box so more bats live in the area and eat the mosquitos. Salamanders also eat mosquitos but the materials most people use to kill mosquitos, like permethrin, unfortunately also kill salamanders.
I am a mosquito magnet too and spend summer in an area that's not quite subtropical but is pretty full of them. I find them to really just be a minor nuisance at certain times of day which I can avoid with the right clothing or staying behind screens. And I often don't even bother and just tolerate some minor itchiness from their bites. I don't really get all the fuss.
Apart from regions with malaria, I don't understand the lengths people go to eradicate them, especially since they are usually pretty ecologically destructive.
There's a lovely variety of mosquito-borne diseases, most notably malaria and West Nile virus, which lead to a Real Bad Time.
I've been helping out a bit in a project for mosquito eradication in Hawaii, where avian malaria transmitted by invasive mosquitoes is threatening a number of endemic birds species with extinction.
The one time I was at (many years ago) Disney World Florida I was astounded by the lack of any flying insects at lamps etc. at night. What ever Disney did or is doing seems to work but it might be effectively dropping a nuke on any insect life.
I've heard of propane burners called 'mosquito magnets', I've heard of chemicals you spread or leave out in traps, I've heard of sprays and tape. Obviously different things work for different pests. I've seen people wearing face nets and hoodies.
Anyone got any real experience and recommendations?