Yesterday they found me. They're big and they're hungry and they want my blood! We never have them this early!
Run....the skeeters are back!
Buy citronella oil for the oil lamps and put it in a hose sprayer. Use 4 oz to the gallon and spray the yard and trees. It lasts about a month and doesn't leave an oily residue. Won't harm plants either. I learned that little trick last year up in my wooded area. Also keeps out flies and gnats.
Don
lol Linda...just rub Copper Canyon Daisy stems all over you....that'll get em'! It gets my fiance all the time....lol :)
Melanie
Don, I'm gonna try that ! Thanks
I don't have the CC Daisy, but might do the citronellla thing. This is going to be a VERY buggy year, methinks. At least it's starting out that way.
They're after me, too, with a vengeance here in n.w. S.A. Time to mix up some more Vinegar of the Four Thieves - the potion that darius posted for us. Spray it on and the protection will last up to four hours. Yuska
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/519691/
This message was edited Apr 2, 2007 6:39 PM
Thanks, Don, for sharing the citronella in a sprayer idea. Do you think it would work well applied to my deck and back door area for keeping mosquitoes away? I have been trying to figure out something to put near all entries into the house due to the blood suckers perched on the doors, just waiting for a way in! I don't want to use a strong insecticide, so the citronella sounds great. Lasts a whole month, eh?
The vinegar recipe sounds good also. I have most of that. I wonder if I could use Southernwood instead of Wormwood. I think they're similar.
I've heard of people growing Lemon Grass in pots
near their doorways. All bugs hate the smell of citrus,
so that might work for you, GinnyLu.
I used to run a burger place out in the country until electricity and gasoline killed it and bugs, flies, gnats and skeeters were a big problem. Took me 3 years to find something that really worked and yes I sprayed the building inside and out, its organic and nontoxic, yet. LOL
Don
Is that citronella oil basically the same thing used in the citronella candles? I was looking at a candle yesterday and what bothers me is where they list inert ingredients and don't tell you what they are.
Does citronella repel other bugs? I have worked hard to keep the yard diverse and we just spread some lady bugs around. I don't want to run them off because I know aphids aren't repelled by citronella, and aphids are going to be bad this year too.
I don't know about lady bugs but most butterflies won't enter the sprayed area.
Don
Uhoh. Guess I won't be doing that then. I've got to have the butterflies.
snipe just started a thread about using a penny to take the sting out of bee and hornet bites. I'll have to try it on ant bites, so why not try it on mosquito bites as well?
Do you soak the penny in something?
No just tape it to the sting.
Don
barn swallows. Yes, they make muddy nests on the house, under the eaves, and poop on the porches. But until they fly to South America in September, we do not have mosquitoes. So far we have five nests going, so in three or four weeks, we will have about thirty mosquito catching machines working. Then another twenty, and perhaps another twenty.
Hmmm. Don't know if we have barn swallows. We do have sparrows, will that do?
Back???? They never leave here! The winter ones (Jan, Feb) are the biggest, scariest of them all. They look like hummingbirds!