War on mosquitoes.
We have had an extraordinary number of mosquitoes here. Living beside a forested mountain some are inevitable, but the number getting in the house has been absurd even in the winter, when usually we see neither head nor tail of them.
From what I understand, mosquitoes need standing water, preferably with substantial organic material in it to lay eggs. So, let's eliminate all vectors!
When I first arrived on this property there were countless flower pots, styrofoam containers and other water collecting vessels strewn about the garden. My first step in the clean-up was removing all of these. I have done most of this but don't have photos of it.
Next were the green houses. We had three that were in disrepair. I have removed two. I intend to repair the third and use it for growing starts (and maybe pineapple) in the near future.
This winter I have finally pruned the trees that were dropping leaves into the gutters of our house and outbuildings. The next step was cleaning the gutters. This is in progress. One is fully cleared and documented in the
pep badge thread for cleaning/improving gutters. Two more need more attention.
I also have a concrete gutter that divides the property into two plots. It is missing cover blocks and is filled up with dirt, run-off, moss and other goodies. I don't know if it's a real vector, but it seems possible and it should probably be cleaned out for drainage purposes anyway. So here we go! The bonus is, the moss growing there is perfect for filling the gaps in my raised beds and the dirt sifts out to beautiful black growing medium. I will be buying replacement blocks to cover this gutter soon.
After that is done the remaining vectors are a little opaque to me. I do have some plastic agro containers sitting outside that hold
some water. I've been trying to find someone to take a lot of these off my hands. I really only use a few for sorting pruned wood and rocks from the garden.
Apparently mosquitoes can breed in the septic tank too... I wonder if there is a way to check/prevent that without calling in the company.