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How to minimize mosquitoes?

Steve Lewis

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Hi,

Important to mention: i live in Canada. Not the tropics, so way less mosquitoes, but still....

I'm planning to build my own tiny house soon, and working on several fronts at same time for this. Like mastering the building code, getting more tools, getting hardware supplies, recycled wood, recycled plumbing, etc, etc.. This part is doing well.

Now... I'm going to be remote and would like to minimize the mosquitoes (I know it's impossible to get rid of them). So I'm going to have:

- Sage
- Mint
- Citronella (the real thing)
- Begonias
- Geraniums (Thanks to Tereza Okava for reminding this one to me!)
- A Bat house
- Birds houses

Is there anything else worth it? All suggestions are welcomed!

At the school of woods, there's no graduation day - Horace Kephart 1908 -

See Hes

pollinator

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Location: Ban Mak Ya Thailand Zone 11-12

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The plants prevent more or less but don't work at all if you offer these Mossies a kindof paradise..

Look around for stagnant water bodies.
It will not be a pond or trench but some unexpected places like an old bucket, pot or tin,
some spot that is a permanent puddle and even the pre filled watering can could be the breeding grounds.
(here in Thailand are aircos ofther making such permanent puddles)

Lights in and around the coop.
Some places yellow lights and in other places red lights keep mosquitoes avoiding such places.

It is possible to keep mossies away.
Disneyland in Florida is surrounded by swamps and they have no mossies in the park.
I believe they use some humidifier or mister with garlic and citronella oil so much diluted that humand cannot smell it.

In modern times the only right way forward is to come back to nature.

Su Ba

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Another tactic you may wish to consider……..

Living in the wet tropics, I’ve got lots of mosquitos. The best steps I’ve taken are:

1- create breeding ponds and stock them with guppies. The fish will eat the mosquito larvae, thus eliminating future generations of thousands of mosquitos. About every 50’ apart I’ve set up half barrels (you could use other things) with a few guppies in them. If it is in the sun, I put water plants in to provide shade for the fish so that the water doesn’t get too warm.

2- eliminate any potential water collection spots. Store old tires inside a shed or under a tarp. Keep tarps taunt to avoid water pooling. Pick up or protect any tools….or trash….that could collect water. Etc.

3- use “dunk granules" (bt for killing mosquito larvae) in plants that gather water. I have my driveway rock wall covered with bromeliads which hold water. A couple of the granules into each appears sufficient to stop the mosquito life cycle.

4- encourage bats.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Timothy Norton

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I like to encourage dragonflies to visit my property as they are known to hunt those pesky mosquitoes down.

I've heard, but can't confirm, that ducks might help deal with mosquito larvae found in water?

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Steve Lewis

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See Hes wrote:The plants prevent more or less but don't work at all if you offer these Mossies a kindof paradise..

Look around for stagnant water bodies.
It will not be a pond or trench but some unexpected places like an old bucket, pot or tin,
some spot that is a permanent puddle and even the pre filled watering can could be the breeding grounds.
(here in Thailand are aircos ofther making such permanent puddles)

Stagnant water! I should have mentioned that.... And your other ideas, such as the red lamp is really good. Thanks!

At the school of woods, there's no graduation day - Horace Kephart 1908 -

Thom Bri

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I leave a few containers of stagnant water outside. As I walk by I look inside and if I see larvae swimming around I dump it out and refill.

Hugo Morvan

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Swallows and bats eat their weight in mosquito's. Encourage them to come by making a pond which will attract a lot of mosquito's. Sounds counter productive. But before i had a pond i had a net on my bed. Now i have swallows and bats and sleep with the windows open in summer.

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Jim Fry

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Location: Stone Garden Farm Richfield Twp., Ohio

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We have so many people that come here. It's interesting. Some get bit too heck, others the bugs don't bother at all. For us, much of it has to do with how a person smells. Some smells attract mosquitos, some do not. Figure out what works for you, and you will have far less of a problem. ~~You might try eating some garlic, to start.

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Steve Lewis

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Hugo Morvan wrote:Swallows and bats eat their weight in mosquito's. Encourage them to come by making a pond which will attract a lot of mosquito's. Sounds counter productive. But before i had a pond i had a net on my bed. Now i have swallows and bats and sleep with the windows open in summer.

That's very interesting. The bat house was on my list, but the pound idea is worth trying!

At the school of woods, there's no graduation day - Horace Kephart 1908 -

See Hes

pollinator

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Location: Ban Mak Ya Thailand Zone 11-12

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Steve Lewis wrote:

Hugo Morvan wrote:Swallows and bats eat their weight in mosquito's. Encourage them to come by making a pond which will attract a lot of mosquito's. Sounds counter productive. But before i had a pond i had a net on my bed. Now i have swallows and bats and sleep with the windows open in summer.

That's very interesting. The bat house was on my list, but the pound idea is worth trying!

Not forget mother nature.

The bats will get only so much offsprings as the bellies they can fill each night and so do all other animals that have Mossies on the menu.
This guarantees a continious and sustainable co existence.

This means that they will not care how much human blood is spilled and people getting annoyed (and blistered) they care about balance and food security.

Hence let me have a joke on this.
A clear sign of success of any measurement taken will be that mossies are gone or avoiding your place...
as confirmation you realize that you have naturally reduced the amount of predators in one sweep.

Then the foreseeable day comes and the thunderstorm of the year cleans your roof, drowns your repellent and the mossies find a virgin breeding place all around.
...after zillions of more blisters than last season you see the first predators returning
... and after a few weeks and zillions of (see above) the natural balance is restored..

To your topic.
Have a seat and identify the hunters, check if you provide them enough homes and know the full demand which could be a rockpile, rotten leafes, the bat and nest boxes, a pond and even the food demands for the offsprings comes handy to know, to create the shortest response time, when things getting naturally out of control..

In modern times the only right way forward is to come back to nature.

Tereza Okava

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Thom Bri wrote:I leave a few containers of stagnant water outside. As I walk by I look inside and if I see larvae swimming around I dump it out and refill.

And iF you have containers that need to be left open and fishies aren't an option (like I have water catchment from my roof) they can be covered with a screen or cloth to stop the mosquitoes from laying eggs (or from getting out to bite if eggs end up in the water.

Even if you eliminate every bit of standing water, there will still be mosquitoes (coming from neighbors, surrounding areas, etc). We do all these things, and our house is screened, and this year we still had mosquitoes inside our house-- they had a really good year, apparently.
We have one of those electronic rackets and every night someone has to "go hunting". When it's hot, keeping a fan on will also keep them off of you. When we have a dinner party out on our porch during the season, we burn citronella leaves for smoke, put down scented geraniums (similar smell) and zap as many as we can, but we also have a fan on to keep them off of people.

Steve Lewis

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Tereza Okava wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:I leave a few containers of stagnant water outside. As I walk by I look inside and if I see larvae swimming around I dump it out and refill.

......, put down scented geraniums .......

Geraniums! I forgot that on my list! Adding now, Thanks!

At the school of woods, there's no graduation day - Horace Kephart 1908 -

Alder Burns

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As several people have already mentioned, and counterintuitive as it might seem, establishing a small permanent pond near the site actually helps with mosquito control. Most mosquitoes breed in ephemeral water....that is water that dries up at least once a year and often much sooner. Most mosquito predators, by contrast, prefer permanent water. So your pond will be churning out numbers of dragonflies, damselflies, frogs, toads, and more....their larvae will be controlling the mosquito larvae in the pond itself, (aided by any kind of small fish you can add....mosquito fish are the default). The adult forms of these creatures will then emerge from the pond and continue to eat up mosquitoes and other problem insects in the wider landscape. This, plus diligent policing of your site and surroundings to eliminate ephemeral water, are the backbone of mosquito control. Remember that most mosquitoes don't go more than a hundred yards from where they breed....so a bad problem is hatching somewhere nearby.....usually in human trash collecting rain water. They can be sneaky....it might be a hole in a tree. One time I tracked a bad problem down to a poorly hung gutter with water ponded in the blind end....directly overhead!

Steve Lewis

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Alder Burns wrote:A....mosquito fish are the default). ....

Hi Alder, thanks for the input. What kind of fish do you mean by "mosquito fish". Ideally, I want to use fish with the less maintenance as possible and highly resistant to hot temperatures. The pond is something I will add to my plan and will use geotextile and floating plants.

At the school of woods, there's no graduation day - Horace Kephart 1908 -

See Hes

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Steve Lewis wrote:

Alder Burns wrote:A....mosquito fish are the default). ....

Hi Alder, thanks for the input. What kind of fish do you mean by "mosquito fish". Ideally, I want to use fish with the less maintenance as possible and highly resistant to hot temperatures. The pond is something I will add to my plan and will use geotextile and floating plants.

I mistakenly got you are from Canada but fish for hot climates like in Thailand we use Guppys, Mollies and the "one shoe fits all" Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) which is a no brainer for just any small water body and deko pot.
Can survive 1 - 40 degrees celsius ( 33-104F) and are nonstop eaters. One single fish can hunt 200 (plus) Mossie larvaes per day.

Here in the countryside of Thailand, people who rely on rainwater stored in huge clay tanks have usually a few of them swimming in the storage tanks.
To eliminate the mossies and if the fishes have died it means the water has turned bad or even poisonous.

In modern times the only right way forward is to come back to nature.

Alder Burns

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My mosquito fish survive here in Illinois even when the pond freezes over. But it usually doesn't stay frozen for very long. In a really cold climate I would probably try to keep some indoors over winter, even in a bucket if I had nothing else. They multiply quickly and would repopulate a small pond in the spring pretty fast.

Juan Roble

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Location: I am building a life project in the Spanish Pyrenees.

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A lot of mosquito control is really predator management. Mosquitoes usually explode where there are small stagnant breeding spots with little or no food chain controlling them.

A well-balanced permanent pond can actually reduce mosquitoes, because it supports dragonflies, frogs, and small fish that eat larvae, while bats and insect-eating birds help with the adults.

So for me the key is not just “repellent plants”, but removing tiny temporary water pockets and encouraging the predators that should be there.

Roble (Spain)

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Jim Garlits

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I second this as part of your overall strategy. Dragonflies, just like skeeters, begin in stagnant water sources as larvae. Dragonflies will hunt from perches, so research that a bit. Adding fish to whatever stagnant water sources might be your skeeter breeding ground will reduce the population some, but they will also reduce dragonfly larvae. I'm a sucker for cool looking critters, so I build them homes and try to make conditions right for attracting them. Dragonflies, hummingbirds, as many birds as I can attract, etc.

But the guiding principle can be as simple as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." If it were me, I would focus on "what eats the most mosquitoes?" Two of the big ones will be bats and dragonflies.

j

Timothy Norton wrote:I like to encourage dragonflies...

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Steve Lewis

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I just wanted to say that all of you guys are great and very helpful! The pound was definitely the missing link so I'll make sure to have one and to try to have an over-all balance. Now i need to make a sign: "Frogs welcomed" lol

At the school of woods, there's no graduation day - Horace Kephart 1908 -

Byron Gagne

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Ducks, ducks, and more ducks. I’ve added ducks to my homestead and they patrol the grass like search and rescue! I have also have geese and chickens. But find the ducks or the best at hammering the mosquitoes! I keep them on the hungry side by just supplementing fed in the summer to encourage them to go forage a lot more. The livestock dogs keep them safe. The geese or great mowers. The chickens or the tillers. But the ducks do the majority of bugging in my yard.

Try ducks it’s been working for me!

Annette Jones

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Location: Schofields, NSW. Australia. Zone 9-11 Temperate to Sub Tropical

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All the suggestions mentioned here are positive and easily doable. Thanks everyone it's great to get feedback from tried and true methods.

The mosquito problem in my area of Australia is huge and I have practiced all of the things mentioned here over my 70+ years of farming/gardening. We have micro bats in our yard, they do a great job and plenty of dragonflies in summer through to fall.

One other plant I have always had in tubs, along pathways and around ponds and water sources is Pyrethrum daisy. Even when not flowering (flowers are great for soaking and adding to water based spray bottles), grabbing some of the leaves and rubbing to release the chemicals then rubbing on my gardening clothing and headband is enough to stop them biting. You need to reapply daily.

Knockdown (Kill): Pyrethrins interfere with the nervous system of insects, causing them to stop flying, lose movement, and die shortly after. It is widely used by pest control professionals to kill adult mosquitoes.
Repellent Action: At lower concentrations that may not be immediately fatal, pyrethrum still acts as a potent repellent, preventing mosquitoes from landing and biting.
Dual Mechanism: A study found that pyrethrum acts through a dual-target mechanism, where its components (pyrethrins and (E)-β-farnesene) work together to both repel and kill mosquitoes.

For the best results, pyrethrum should be used as part of a wider strategy that includes eliminating stagnant water to prevent breeding as already suggested by many.

Best of luck with your project Steve, come back and let us know how it goes :-)

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John Duffy

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If Purple Martins live in your area, build bird house for them. They are great skeeter munchers

Ali Green

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I am enjoying all these suggestions, and hope to be able to implement lots of them. I am hoping to use an old fashioned solution for my mosquitoes too, and lime wash my house, animal houses and outbuildings. Does anyone have experience of this? I have had it recommended by older relatives, whose parents etc would limewash everything, but nobody recently. Would it be too detrimental for the beneficial bugs?

marie-helene kutek

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Saluti

Wonderful, thank you.

A mate has gold fish in his water barrels. They have survived harsher winters than we now experience.
The fish certainly control the larval incursions.

Frogs moved in before the pond was finished, from where and of course amorous dragonflies.

A plant that has been suggested to add to the list is basil.

Bat boxes are on stand-by.

A fly swat provides good exercise for the eyes and arms, motor something reactions and tennis practice, heyho.
A bientot
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Cara Cee

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Byron Gagne wrote:Ducks, ducks, and more ducks.

I've heard this but we have feral Muscovies for whom we put out drinking water and a shallow container they can bathe in.All will become teeming with mosquito larvae, so I have to say this duck solution in our situation is a canard!

Catie George

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Not sure where you are in Canada, but I had a boss who had worked in various tropical and subtropical jungles, and northern Canada, who said northern Canada wins for mosquitos.

You may be able to manage them in an urban location, but for a remote/rural location, good luck. Mosquitos are uniquely evolved to thrive in Canada. The more untouched the land, the more untouched the mosquito population.
(And possibly also the black fly, deer fly, and horse fly population. And no-see-ums)

I advise investing in bug nets. And screened in gazebos. I had a bug net on my bed as a child because our house had holes mosquitoes would enter.

A strong fan can also help, as does keeping areas open with lots of wind. Orient any unscreened decks or porches for max wind, and keep trees away from the house.

Treasure and use the early and late season before and after frost to do as much as possible, then learn to love working in the rain and sweating in long sleeves.

In better news, I can normally get my first 150 bites of the year over with in a couple days, and not really notice mosquito bites for the rest of the year, plus mosquito bourne illness is rare.

Edit: I have now moved to southern Ontario, where mosquitoes are a mild nuisance, not a life style.

Lynne Cim

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Something I always wanted to try is a personal mosquito trap. I am a mosquito magnet. we live upstate NY USA. Sitting with a group of people and I'm usually the only one they will bite, I can easily get 10 bites in 10 minutes. Since they are always around me, I've noticed they have a typical behavior - they fly toward you and then land on something behind you. Then they attack. I've always wanted to set up a landing behind where I am sitting and coat it with oil. If their wings touch the oil they can no longer fly. Another idea is to use cedar oil on my skin to mask whatever is attracting them to me. We used to not be able to go outside due to mosquitos unless drenched in deet, but that recently changed in the last 2 years. I think it's the dragon flies, we now have some the size of birds. I get so happy when one buzzes by me! Our new neighbor may also be treating the sitting water next to his house with mosquito dunks too.

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