Home Mosquito Control And Prevention

Home Mosquito Control And Prevention

Prevention is always the best means of control, and with mosquitoes, prevention offers the only control that is remotely successful for home mosquito control.

Pesticides offer only limited control for a limited time, mosquito misters are falling under increasing scrutiny, repellents are only moderately successful, and are often dangerous for the user, mosquito magnets and other types of mosquito traps are limited to the ones that are already hatched, and do nothing to stop the larvae, nets and screens are also limited in scope.

There is nothing wrong with any of these methods, they are all helpful in their own way, but they all fall short because they do not deal with the problem at it's root. To ultimately win the battle against mosquitoes, and the diseases they transmit, attrition will not work. They can always reproduce faster than we can kill them! To win, we need to keep them from becoming a problem to begin with.

Home mosquito control through prevention

Mosquitoes, like any other type of pest, prefer certain habitats. In the case of the mosquito, they need:

• Water for larvae to hatch and grow.
• Cover to avoid predation.
• Blood for reproduction.

Eliminating any of these, will stop reproduction in your area.

Water:

If you have puddles of standing water, buckets, tubs, or any other receptacle for water on your property, mosquitoes can find it, and use it against you. If receptacles are the problems, dump them, and make sure that they can no longer hold water. If the problem is standing water in low spots or puddles, provide a way to drain the water either through surface drainage, that is, fill the low spots and holes, or sub surface drainage, such as a french drain, or a pipe drain with a catch box. If you use the catch box and pipe drain, make sure that the grade on the system is consistent, so that water doesn’t accumulate in the pipe. This could cause mosquitoes to use it as a basin, and become a home for other pests.

Don’t just look at the ground, there are other areas which might hold enough water to encourage mosquito populations such as home gutter systems, which should of course, be cleaned and maintained frequently.

If the water problem is a pond or lake on your property, the problem is not only water, but also cover. In fact, it probably has less to do with water, than with cover.

Cover:

If ponds or lakes exist on your property, you obviously do not want to drain them to get rid of mosquitoes, but you can reduce the amount of cover available. High weeds, and shallow water around the shallow edges of a pond should be removed. If filamentous algae, or pond scum as it is commonly called cover a large part of the body of water, the mosquitoes have a perfect habitat. They have water easily available for producing young, they have blood available from the animals that come to the water to drink, and they have cover in the water for protection from the fish who would otherwise dine on them! Skimming off the algae, or otherwise eliminating it will remove the cover, and and allow the fish to do their job.

If mosquitoes are exposed to natural predators, the predators work very well as a biological mosquito control method. If the predators can’t get to them, they can’t eat them. If you have brush and weeds around your home, it gives mosquitoes a place to hide from the things that like to eat them. It also gives them a place to find small animals for the blood needed for reproduction. If you eliminate hiding places like brush, weeds and high grass, you will drastically lower the population by exposing them to predation by their natural enemies.

Blood:

The female needs a blood meal to produce offspring. That may often come from you! Sometimes it comes from small animals. Reducing the availability of water and cover, reduces the numbers of small animals present to feed the hungry female.

Off site mosquito problems

If you paid attention to the mosquito prevention information above, and followed the suggestions, most of your problem with mosquitoes is gone. There are however, other circumstances that can allow mosquitoes to be a problem for you and your family, and some of them may not be within your means to control. This could include such problems as swampy areas on adjacent properties, or ponds and lakes that exist nearby, and are not properly maintained. Even if this is your situation, you should still use the home mosquito control methods mentioned above, which will still eliminate most of the problem, and then concentrate on the things you can do about your off site problem.

Neighbors and Officials

Talk with the people who own the adjacent property about the problem. Do this before contacting public health officials. See if there is something that can be done by the owner before involving officialdom. If not, that is your next step. Encourage them to practice long term control rather than short term controls like pesticides. It will cost them less in the long run. If they are reluctant or obstinate, explain the health and public safety issues involved.

Prevention is the most natural of home mosquito control methods because it denies them what they need to thrive and reproduce, and exposes them to natural predators like birds, bats, and fish. These natural predators are the next step in our mosquito control system, biological control.

Biological mosquito control

Biological mosquito control is the next best step in home mosquito control, after we have used the best prevention methods. You have modified the habitat to work against the mosquitoes, now, you should modify the habitat to work in favor of their predators. This can be done by providing shelter and other encouragements for such predators as birds and bats. This can mean providing food sources like natural, native plants that birds enjoy, and a source of clean water like a fountain, or a well maintained, non stagnant bird bath. Bats require the same things. Bird and bat houses differ, but are fairly easily attained.

Other home mosquito control measures

In small areas where water cna not be drained immediately, a light spray of mineral oil over the surface of the water will prevent mosquito reproduction.

There are botanical products available which are effective in killing the mosquitoes that find their way to you. These, used in conjunction with a sound prevention program, work well as a backup.

Mosquito misting systems with plant oils offer a usable tool when used with prevention.

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