Anonymous
Post 06/03/2022 18:09     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Anonymous wrote:I don't want to spray, but what's the solution?? I have an entire yard with perennials and native plants. I even have a bat house with bats in it in my backyard. I probably average 20 bites an hour that I'm outside. I don't see standing water anywhere, but there is a stream just beyond my backyard. I feel like the mosquitoes are also ruining my kids' childhoods. They can't go outside unless covered in bug spray, which they don't like.

The vast majority of my bites are from native mosquitoes, not the Asian tiger ones. I can tell the difference in what the bites look like.

One of our halfway solutions is spraying the bushes that they live in. We notice them congregating around certain bushes (I have a hydrangea that they love) and I spray that.

I wish mosquito dunks were cheaper, but I'd need to use several a week to make a dent.

I mean you could replace the hydrangea; if there’s something there that they need, take it away.

These tiger mosquitos are horrific in that they only need the amount of water in the lid of a soda bottle to lay eggs in; you have to check gutters, bottoms of drainspouts. How close are your neighbors and are they as diligent? The stream shouldn’t be as big of a concern as tiger mosquitos don’t lay there (and most mosquitos need fairly still water for their eggs to hatch, like a pond): http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pctigermosquito.htm

It is really annoying, I know, but it’s going to have to be a neighborhood wide approach to get rid of standing water and plant more natives - not like a few here or there, but a LOT of them.
Anonymous
Post 06/03/2022 12:56     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Anonymous wrote:I don't want to spray, but what's the solution?? I have an entire yard with perennials and native plants. I even have a bat house with bats in it in my backyard. I probably average 20 bites an hour that I'm outside. I don't see standing water anywhere, but there is a stream just beyond my backyard. I feel like the mosquitoes are also ruining my kids' childhoods. They can't go outside unless covered in bug spray, which they don't like.

The vast majority of my bites are from native mosquitoes, not the Asian tiger ones. I can tell the difference in what the bites look like.

One of our halfway solutions is spraying the bushes that they live in. We notice them congregating around certain bushes (I have a hydrangea that they love) and I spray that.

I wish mosquito dunks were cheaper, but I'd need to use several a week to make a dent.


Most mosquito species have a range of 1-3 miles. So if you're trying to do source control on your own property, you're out of luck. The only thing that will work is spraying. You can try one of the more environmentally friendly options, like the garlic-based treatments, but ultimately that's the only thing that will make a difference.
Anonymous
Post 06/03/2022 12:27     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
I don't want to spray, but what's the solution?? I have an entire yard with perennials and native plants. I even have a bat house with bats in it in my backyard. I probably average 20 bites an hour that I'm outside. I don't see standing water anywhere, but there is a stream just beyond my backyard. I feel like the mosquitoes are also ruining my kids' childhoods. They can't go outside unless covered in bug spray, which they don't like.

The vast majority of my bites are from native mosquitoes, not the Asian tiger ones. I can tell the difference in what the bites look like.

One of our halfway solutions is spraying the bushes that they live in. We notice them congregating around certain bushes (I have a hydrangea that they love) and I spray that.

I wish mosquito dunks were cheaper, but I'd need to use several a week to make a dent.
Anonymous
Post 06/03/2022 12:18     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
how are you getting bug bites while you sleep? Do you sleep outside?
Anonymous
Post 06/03/2022 12:13     Subject: Re:Mosquito nightmare
Bats don't eat mosquitoes in quantities that would make a difference for pest control. They prefer moths, or really any bug that's bigger (which is most of them) because they represent a better effort-to-reward ratio. The same is true for birds. They will eat mosquitoes if they find them, but their presence isn't going to make a difference for your outlook.
Anonymous
Post 06/03/2022 12:06     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
I like picaridin much better than DEET. And I like the lotion rather than the spray -- I just wash my hands after putting it on, but it doesn't have the nasty, sticky feeling of DEET and I hate breathing in bug spray.

I'd try setting up mosquito traps -- super easy to DIY and not high maintenance.

https://bit.ly/3GP6Y4N

Definitely plant lots of native plants -- every little bit helps -- and avoid spray services.

Bat houses do no good and are not good for bats. Most bat species don't target mosquitoes anyway and the bat species around here have been so decimated by white nose syndrome that you hardly ever see any anymore.

Anonymous
Post 06/02/2022 18:55     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
PP here - commiserating with OP. I also got some nasty mosiquito bites from being outside Sunday evening. Ugh!
Anonymous
Post 06/02/2022 18:54     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Interesting re native plants! A few years ago I planted a native species in one half of my front lawn (and also added native plants to the backyards and side gardens. I used to get eaten alive walking to our door.

We also buried our down spout so that it doesn't empty into one of those long black plastic gutter extensions.

Now is the time to buy mosquito dunks and throw them in drains and other places water collects/stands. https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/insect-and-animal-control/insect-repellents/7092935
Anonymous
Post 06/02/2022 16:56     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A plea again for people to plant native perennials. The annoying mosquitos are the invasive tiger mosquitos and, as you know, they’re active during the day when bats (the usual mosquito patrollers) are sound asleep. You need to have native birds (many of which will eat all manner of tiny flying insects, including mosquitos) and predatory insects and they are brought by native plants.

If you have grass and some evergreen bushes and some pretty annuals, you have a food desert as far as birds and pollinators are concerned.

Even better if you and several other neighbors coordinate and plant a lot!


We've got all of those things, see birds galore, and are still eaten alive within seconds of leaving our house. Agree that the absolute worst are the mosquitos that fly in, or work their way under the window screens. I love opening windows whenever I can, but this year, I'll be running the AC over opening the windows for sure.

That’s wonderful! Do your neighbors? Mine don’t. I live in a 1970s neighborhood that doesn’t have an HOA but may as well for how sterile the lawns are and how many bird and insect-killing chemicals are used. It cannot be a yard here and a yard there of native plants; it just isn’t enough to make a dent. Bird populations are cratering, so while you have birds galore in your yard, it’s not a patch on what there used to be. https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/
Anonymous
Post 06/02/2022 16:47     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
The Girl Scouts erected some bat houses on Capitol Hill, but there just aren't enough bats/birds/predators to make a dent in the billions of mosquitos on the Hill.
Anonymous
Post 06/02/2022 16:46     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Anonymous wrote:A plea again for people to plant native perennials. The annoying mosquitos are the invasive tiger mosquitos and, as you know, they’re active during the day when bats (the usual mosquito patrollers) are sound asleep. You need to have native birds (many of which will eat all manner of tiny flying insects, including mosquitos) and predatory insects and they are brought by native plants.

If you have grass and some evergreen bushes and some pretty annuals, you have a food desert as far as birds and pollinators are concerned.

Even better if you and several other neighbors coordinate and plant a lot!


We've got all of those things, see birds galore, and are still eaten alive within seconds of leaving our house. Agree that the absolute worst are the mosquitos that fly in, or work their way under the window screens. I love opening windows whenever I can, but this year, I'll be running the AC over opening the windows for sure.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2022 20:40     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Anonymous wrote:Spraying is the only way, they used to spray neighborhoods until the hippy boomers stopped it

20:35 here: and this is why we don’t have any birds or insects to eat the invasive mosquitos.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2022 20:37     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
Spraying is the only way, they used to spray neighborhoods until the hippy boomers stopped it
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2022 20:35     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
A plea again for people to plant native perennials. The annoying mosquitos are the invasive tiger mosquitos and, as you know, they’re active during the day when bats (the usual mosquito patrollers) are sound asleep. You need to have native birds (many of which will eat all manner of tiny flying insects, including mosquitos) and predatory insects and they are brought by native plants.

If you have grass and some evergreen bushes and some pretty annuals, you have a food desert as far as birds and pollinators are concerned.

Even better if you and several other neighbors coordinate and plant a lot!
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2022 18:36     Subject: Mosquito nightmare
I hate this. The mosquitos are out and I'm already being bitten to death at night because they rush in whenever someone opens our door. I really don't want to coat myself in DEET just to sleep but that's what I'll have to do until November when they finally die. I hate this!!!