Mosquitos

[milos_mommy]

It's that time of year again...

I very rarely get bit my mosquitos, so haven't worried about this much before, but now we have asian tiger mosquitos (which are out all day long), and my daughter already has one bite. I see tons of them flying around.

Aside from the fact that our grass is probably not mowed enough - I'm hoping remedying that will help, and we have some stagnant water in our yard (which will also be taken care of this weekend), what else can I do to cut back? I'm mainly looking at things like plants that will attract predator insects, natural remedies like peppermint and lavender (that will actually work), and ways to attract mosquito-eating birds. I'm not opposed to using stronger chemical stuff if they're otherwise environmentally/pet/child friendly.

 

[Beanie]

Citronella plants? We always keep at least one on the deck and if I really want something extra, I just snap off a leaf and rub it on my skin. They work really well here but I don't know if it's one of those things where it works better in some areas or not.

They also make citronella candles, I have one but have never burned it so I'm not sure if it works. I bought it on super deep clearance one year... just never had opportunity to light it and see.

 

[milos_mommy]

We have citronella candles and they seem to work in very, very small diameters (if you put one a table, the table is pretty safe, and we have them in tiki torches around the pool, so the edge of the pool is fine, but the middle is still full of them).

I didn't know you could actually keep citronella plants live up here, though! I never thought about it. I'll definitely look into that.

 

[joce]

We put mineral oil in animal water outside or standing water. keep a bottle by the door. Breaks the waters surface tension so they can't mature or something.

Cut back any trees or bushes we can(literally five acres made it bearable outside!) and keep grass short short short. Several plants. The citronella stuff never seemed to make a difference to me but think it was lemon grass at my dad's that did.

We have a ton of bats so imagine that helps.

 

[ACooper]

I was going to say lemon grass (as boston mentioned) and/or lemon balm seems to help.

 

[frostfell]

it doesnt smell fantastic, but it works amazingly well
2 parts water
1 part unfiltered ACV
20 or so drops of lavender oil
put it in a spray bottle and mist yourself and the dogs when you go outside. it makes them stay quite away from you, they dont even bother trying to land or bite.

 

[milos_mommy]

I knew to use lavender oil but never heard of using ACV!!

It probably still smells better than OFF! Lol