Being an automatic mosquito attraction already......what to do now? I use Deep Woods Off with Deet....necessary or I would never set foot outside. With this much rain they are breeding everywhere.
I try my best to continue emptying any bitty bit of standing water but that is not helping. Trying to be as organic as humanely possible but this has gotten out of hand. Know that this has to be a universal problem. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
mosquito control????
I don't know. You'd think I was the only victim available the way they all seem to zoom right in on me. Bad year for skeeters.
Lemon eucalyptus Repel seems to be working for me. I got it at Krogers. It smells good too, so that's a plus. I was getting bitten by mosquitos and something else that was causing big blisters (I have no idea what critter was causing that) since I've been using the Repel I haven't had any more bites.
I remember seeing a post from someone who used Citronella oil, the kind you use for outdoor oil lamps, in a hose end sprayer to spray the yard with, 1 Tbls per gallon dilution (I think. I can't find the post now.) Spray ground, fences, etc. I guess if 1 Tbls didn't work you could up the amount from there until you hit on an amount that works best. It needs to be reapplied periodically.
Elsewhere I've seen it suggested to use broken up mosquito dunks dissolved in water then applied with the hose end sprayer too.
The mosquito dunks only kill larva though, not the adults. Mosquito dunks won't harm any other critters, either. It's a form of Bt, like the kind used to controll caterpillars but a different strain just for mosquitos.
This message was edited Jul 4, 2007 4:50 PM
I have heard that taking lots of vitamin B1 works, but I haven't tried it. I use something I bought at a health food store called Dschungel Juice because I don't want to use DEET. I can't pronounce it, but it works. It has clove, eucalyptes, geranium, orange, palma rose, rosemary and sage. Works great, also repels cats.:)
hohohohoho....haven't been bitten by a cat in years....lol
LouC LOL. Ours don't bite, but if you sit for more than a minute or two, they will make themselves at home in your lap.:)
LAST SUMMER. I would come inside in tears everyday last summer they bit me up so bad. I seem to have developed an allergic reaction to them. The venom would burn and sting and the more I scratched, the more it seemed to spread through my system, so all I could do was come inside sit awhile and cry til it stopped.
This year - TOTALLY DIFFERENT STORY! For one, I started on allergy shots, which seems to have changed my reaction to them, although they still give me bubble welps. I also remove any standing water I can find around here and make sure to turn all my pots and containers upside down when storing them. I have discovered mosquito larva in as little as a coupla spoons of water pooled on the 5-gallon bucket lids!
I use the dunks in the rainbarrels and buckets we have to collect rainwater. keeps the larva killed.
I use Avon Skin So Soft Bath Oil as a mosquito repellant. It is actually an oil-based product and I use just a small amount to cover all my exposed skin before I go outside. It keeps them off of me.
I believe the single-most important thing I do is exercise diligence in emptying all the standing water I find. Now I can go outside in a sleeveless shirt and get hardly any bites at all!
Hope this helps.
we have these and chigars.. bad year for both of them I fear.
I hate DEET.. but this year with everything we have had we bought DEET for the first time ever. When the rain gives up a little so we can breathe easy again we will stop the DEET.
Heard on NPR this AM that Dallas has near biblical population of salt-water mosquitos. They do NOT carry disease, but will bite. Should die off soon - need still high-salt contant water to bred.
Possible reason given - drilling activity may have brought up enough salt-water, excessive southerly winds allowed flights to fly from the coast. No conclusions, just speculation by the "authorities".
Thanks, Bubba. Biblical proportions as in "plague". It's raining again...or still...no way to keep up with emptying water. I have been diligent but that doesn't mean others around me have been.
I know more rain.. one of my ponds is overflowing its banks...
How can we get the standing water gone if there are more and more little water spots building by the day?
Mitch,
Just Google "Deet" and there are many studies that it is not harmful used as directed. In some instances it is the only thing that works. I bought some of the newer repellants with peri....something and it doesn't even stop them if I spray right on them. Deet doesn't kill.....just masks the carbon monoxide we emit that helps the mosquitos find us.
All this rain is sapping my energy. Lots I could be doing inside but not interested......it's just too dreary. At least I am probably not in any danger of flood unless it rains too much all at once as it did one day last week.
same way here... have plants to repot but it is even so humid in the house I just don't want to do anything.
Last year I got "bits" along with the dunks but I can't seem to find the 'bits' anywhere this year. I didn't hardly have any problems last year even with all my planters that had water reserves.
peri - will look it up...
I say again I hate DEET... I hate it with a passion... but when your little 3 year old is in tears overed in bites you ahve to do something. If I can find something better I will jump on it in a heart beat.
I dont like to use anything non natural.. but there are times and this summer is just one of those times.
i hear yah about those tears...and i'm way past 3!
I did just read a small news clip that stated Vitamin B1 was tested in a study, concluding those who ate foods high in Vitamin B were not bit as much as those who did not.
Whatever the case, they are particularly persistent. Things with Deet are not having a lasting effect.
The water drainage ditch in front of my house is full all of the time now. I've never seen that all of the 8 years I've lived there. I've been putting bits in, then it rains and washes them away. Tad poles do a good job snacking on them.
INothing is workng well, although I am going to google deet now. I'm ready to draw the lne in the sand and wage serious war..
I take ~~1 part lemongrass, 1 part lavendar, 1 part thyme, 1 part peppermint, 2 parts citrosa (scented geranium)....put them in a blender with a bit of massage oil ( any natural oil without mineral oil).... blend the heck out of it all...strain it through some metal filters..pour it in pump bottles and place it around the porches and in my 'to go bags'...works pretty well, sometime you have to re-apply depending on how long you are outside, and how much you sweat...
For my ponds I have goldfish in them, and am looking for gambusia fish - aka mosquito fish. They are small grey minnow/guppy looking fish, the adults get up to 2" and they eat about 500 larvea a day, they are native to texas, Get along with goldfish and from what I understand are very prolific.
If I'm going to be sitting around outside, I try not to eat too many bananas or drink too much beer. I've heard mosquitos love the smell of those two things the best. So if you are sweating those smells out, you are like the barbecue bazaar for some mommy mosquito who needs to lay her eggs.
Where does one get gambusa fish?
The lemongrass recipe..is this the actual herbs, or extract?
I think I'll be handing out vitamin B1 at the swap. lol
I'm outside, most of the time...sweating, but fortuneatly bananas and beer are low on the consumption list.
Normally, under these conditions the city has the spray trucks out, but not this year. They're concerned the mosquitos will develop an immunity, so their saving it for things like w.nile virus break outs.
I am going to use the cutters mosquito spray before the swap. Part of the problem here is the jungle like enviornment gives them places to hang out, and the cutters will repel them from the plants too, or so I'm told.
I dont know - I have been looking here too. I ahve two little ponds with goldfish but would love these in there too...
Well, I guess drinking a lot of beer wouldn't be good anyway. Good thing I'm not a beer drinker. I wish there was something that would really work! I think they're getting immune to things that usually work. What was the dryer sheet that repels them? I think I'll make myself some dryer sheet pants to keep them off my legs...they love my legs more than anything. Wouldn't that look funny? If someone asks what it is, I could just say hey, that's the latest fashion!
We have been taking B1 for years - used to canoe/kayak/camp - did not stop all mosquito activity, but does diminish it greatly.
Unfortunately - does not work against fire ants.
Bill
I started taking the B1 today..
I eat a banana every day....uh....nobody told Me why I am so attractive to those pesky things!! The DH could go outside practically naked and not get ONE bite!
Hummingbirds, dragonflies, damselflies, bats, birds will all help reduce the mosquito population.
If one grows pennyroyal, crushed leaves rubbed on exposed areas of skin act as a repellant. Just test an area to make sure you are not sensitive to it.
Also, white clothing. It is cooler and skeeters are not attracted to it as much as other colors.
I use the Mosquito dunks in rain barrels. They will work in ponds and even having goldfish in ponds will harvest the larvae before it hatches.
Randy....I'll bring some gambusias to the swap for you. I have a small pond, and they 'seem' to keep the mosquito larvae in check. I also swear by Cutter's....or Mosquito-B-Gone...whichever is cheaper. I spray my yard every 3 wks when they're active and we don't have but a very few that wander thru on the way to the neighbors'. Actually, I convinced my neighbors on both sides and across the street to use it last year, so we're all able to use our backyards in the summer. They couldn't believe we weren't bothered by mosquitoes when we were out in the evenings. Haven't sprayed in the last couple of weeks because of the "great flood." 'But I haven't seen any when I run out between storms to rescue pots. I'll be out spraying Monday when we're supposed to see the sun again. I can usually get three applications from one bottle. We 'alert' each other whenever we find it cheaper somewhere.....
We have a fogger but it says not to use it around fish. My little ones I could probably bring in for awhile but my neighbors San Antonio River Walk would be toast. I have not seen the Cutter or Mosquito-b-gone. Is it harmful to fish?
Cutter is in a hose-end sprayer...not a fogger. Find it at Lowe's and HD, and grocery stores. I spray it on the ground under the foliage in the yard...where I think mosquitoes congregate. I don't spray it in the pond. There's only a 2% concentration of a pyrethrium diriv.
'Still have butterflies, earthworms, birds, etc. Have used it 3 summers now and still have all my hair, teeth, and hands don't shake! Works for me, but maybe not for others. I'd just rather spray the yard than myself......
Thanks! Your the second person I've talked to this week who uses it, and ironically have had a bottle sitting on the shelf for months...I was reading the label the other night and it also gets spider mites, mealy bugs, and a whole list of maligned insects, with instructions to spray on to the plants. Can you tell me you experience with that? I'm thinking I will aim towards the ground and lower branches at first.
Yesterday it rained 5 inches in an hour at the house, it's quite the talk about the neighborhood. So either the vitamin B1 I I took yesterday worked really well last night, or the heavy rain smashed the little buggars as I was pretty mosquito free. They were back with friends today, as a strange yellow object in the sky heated up the garden in to a lovely sauna. I was working on some projects and the mosquitos were relentless. I am going to use that bottle after I get home from work in an hour or so..!
Thanks BigBubbles for gambusias, I look forward to them. I want to put a couple in my outside aquarium too. This is where I grow the oxygenating plants for the pond. The pond is too shady now for them to grow well, and the gold fish eat them. Right now I have 4 dragonfly nymphs, several native leaches, snails ans tad poles topped off with a mosquito float successfuly keeping the larvae away.
This is the first time the drainage ditch has not drained..and outside of having the mosquito problems, here pops up this water plant I've never seen before. It grows up from the bottom, and the leave emerge from the water, and bloom these small star shaped purple flowers...anyone know what it is? The flowers have faded in the picture. I decided to relocate this one to the aquarium.
could it be water pickerel?
Forgot to answer about Cutter....I have sprayed the entire yard with it, including all the plants...BUT..I did it early in the morning. Especially if we're having friends over and we'll be outside. (Kinda spoils the effect if you're spraying each other with bug spray, holding a drink in your other hand!) I'm not sure that it wouldn't burn some of the foliage in the heat of the day. Had some tan 'spots' on leaves once, and decided I just didn't want to take that chance. Never had them again.
This message was edited Jul 7, 2007 9:00 PM
Purple flowers... Sounds cool... BigBubbles...you HAVE gambusia??? May I please? I've been hunting the internets for them and they are rediculously priced, urban harvest told me to 'find them somewhere outside' ...but not where :(
Yes! that's what it is..pickerel. My neighbor came over yesterday, and he knows his plants ..he said pickeral too.
Just tried cutters and am happy to report it does work pretty good.
Used Cutters today but did not really turn up the spray as Greg, my neighbor has a lot of koi. Could not take a chance and hurt even one of them. Seemed to help during the morning and afternoon......this evening....mosquitos as usual.
I live in far NE Texas and I just hate not being to stay outside but the past 2 evenings I have been chased inside. This morning I sprayed with OFF and wore a long sleeve shirt and was able to work in my garden.
I turned mine up until I saw it foaming on the deck. I sprayed the whole deck and driveway surfaces.
Hi Christi how are you doing? Mosquitoes are horrible here in Baton Rouge. With the West Nile Virus I took drastic steps this year and am paying each month for Orkin to come out and fog the entire yard. Even with all the rain it has really helped. I'm sure they have the same service in Texas just ask for NO MORE MOSQUITOES.
Jeri
Jeri,
As I said all of the instructions warn against using near fish. My three little Koi are insignificant when it comes to my neighbor's pond. We are soooo close together that I could not take responsibility for killing their fish. I did use the Cutter Hose End Spray earlier today and tried to keep it low to the ground so it wouldn't drift too much. Have tried so hard to be organic but this calls for drastic measures. Can not give up my entire summer to insects that try eat me alive. lol
Christie I have fish. They put 29 dunks in my pond and it never fazed the koi or my plants.
I am so glad to see this thread in the Texas forum!!!! I've moved from a dry area with hardly a skettoe in sight---I mean really, DH and I used to enjoy gardening at all hours of the day or night, sitting outside talking with the house lights on and not ONE bite. Then we moved to Houston. Currently I have to many bites on my legs to count and this is just from walks around the block. It really makes me so sad because I am so used to being able to work out in my yard whenever I want. I don't want to wear spray because I have an infant and I don't want to wear stuff like that around her. DH suggested we cave and buy a fogger but I just don't know. My neighborhood even PAYS for a truck to come to spray for mosquitoes in the neighborhood. Man I'd hate to see how bad they'd be without this service. Sure stinks.
try rubbing pennyroyal on yourself. Shouldn't hurt the baby at all unless it is epiliptic.
I've read some of the comments above---I to heard about rubbing a dryer sheet on your skin....does this work, and any particular brand???
Or this Avon Skin So Soft----this really works?!