Help! Mosquito control?

The mosquitos have been awful this year. We have a small pond and obviously leave water out for the chickens, so we cannot eliminate all breeding sources. We have tried several non-toxic bug sprays that do nothing. I have never seen it so bad. If I go out for 5 minutes, I have about 7 mosquito bites. What do you use or recommend for mosquito control?

we live in a place with bad mosquito borne illnesses (dengue is the worst, but there are about 4 more). The first thing is always to hunt for any place with standing water, and that can include trash or places where rainwater lingers. Cover your rainwater collection things with screens. There are some good threads here about traps using buckets as well.
Mosquitoes need water that stands for a few days, so if you're dumping your chicken water every day that's good. As for your pond, encouraging birds, frogs, fish, and whatever else might eat insects and larvae may help. there are dunks that people put into ponds and other bodies of water, I don't have experience with them though. Covering up and using repellant is important for me here: I steep cloves in high-proof alcohol and use it as a spray. needs to be reapplied frequently, but gentle enough for kids to use (if they don't get it in their eyes or drink it).

The first few posts in this thread are really helpful: https://permies.com/t/53531/permaculture/Permaculture-solutions-Zika-Virus-Dengue
another good one: https://permies.com/t/122283/Mosquito-population-control

Hi Joy,
You might also find this thread interesting. It talks about how diet may affect how attractive bugs are to you. https://permies.com/t/260257/food-eat-bugs-love

Though, something to keep in mind, is that most bug "repellents" are really just trying to stop the bugs from finding you by masking your smell or creating a stronger smell (or something that tastes bad when they do bite)... not so much something that actually makes the bugs be repelled.

Your health and time of life can affect things. I don't fully understand what things are attracting them, but I know when my wife was pregnant, she got bit WAY more than when she was not.

Hi Joy,

My Dad grew up in Louisiana marsh land, miles from any neighbors, and all the mosquitoes. To this day he works outside in jeans, tennis shoes and usually a threadbare flannel long sleeve shirt. It isn't comfy in our humidity and heat, but it does work!

Here in Texas we put gold fish in water tanks so maybe if you don't have fish in your pond it would help to stock it with some sort of fish.

Maybe gold fish, minnows, etc. if nothing else.

The fish will eat the mosquito eggs.

Can you put up a bat box or two? The way I understand it, bats come out at night and can eat their body weight of mosquitos and other flying insects.

Can you add fish to the ponds?

Maybe even to your chicken waterers?

water quality for livestock.

Tim Luden wrote:........... Next to bats and purple martins these things are monster eaters.

Although many don't like the messes left by barn swallows, we welcome them on the property as they too consume large amounts of mosquitoes and flies.  And we can clearly feel the impact, in the reverse direction, of having allowed so much plant growth to occur near the house.  It provides good shade from the sun, but the uptick on mosquito numbers is pretty evident.

We are facing a similar problem on the hill where we are building our house. At the bottom of the hill is a pond that doesn't usually live out the summer (so hard to get fish to live  in there). We have tons of frogs in the spring, but then they get eaten up by the cranes that come in. I see suggestions for weedeating and removing low limbs in the trees, which we're going to have to do for fire prevention reasons anyway. What other joyous critters can I encourage to come eat all the skeeters so the skeeters don't eat me?

Shiso has naturalized in my region, It grows in full sun to almost closed canopy. It has hybridized and ranges all shades from deep purple to dark green. When hiking in the woods, we found that rubbing the leaves on our ankles and arms makes mosquitoes tend to leave us alone. I used to be a preferred delicacy. I have been known to decorate my shoe strings with sprigs, tuck them into a button hole, and shove some in my braid and under my hat.

We visited a stand that fall and harvested lots of seeds. I planted it all around my front yard. They readily self seed. When they don't get mown down, I can sit out there after dark for an hour without any bites. Even when I am not wearing shiso.

I have not tried to make a spray from it, because I don't think that far ahead. Also, it's not long on a hike before we find some.

Eat the weeds has an article on how to eat it here.

I use the dunks in my livestock tanks & rain catchment tanks. Frogs, fish, dragonflies, birds, & bats, are all great at eating them, as well as toads, in the gardens. On our deck, I love big planters, filled with lemongrass, lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, geraniums, and citronella plants. They're beautiful, potted together, and while I love it, the mozzies despise the strong pungent scents. A largish planter, space every 6 to 8ft around the pedometer of the deck or patio is attractive, an effective mozzie repellant, AND provides for both medicinal and culinary uses.

Bat house

Usually a bad mosquito problem means they are breeding somewhere nearby, usually within fifty yards or so.  Unless you have swamps or marshes nearby, the likeliest scenario is some sort of human trash accumulating rainwater, but it could be just about anywhere if there are frequent enough rains.  I've seen larvae in bits of water sitting in magnolia leaves on the ground.  Sometimes the place is overhead and out of sight, like cracks in dead bamboo or knotholes in trees.  One time I traced a bad problem to a poorly hung gutter directly overhead with water collected in the blind end.  Unless you have swamps or marshes nearby, patrolling the property and neighborhood for likely breeding spots is the best practice.  Mosquitoes like ephemeral water best....this is water that dries out at some point in the year.  This is because mosquito predators like dragonflies and amphibians prefer permanent water, and this is why establishing a small pond of permanent water with a complete ecosystem in it, including fish, will often actually reduce mosquitoes in the area.  The other life in the pond keep the mosquito larvae numbers way down in the pond itself, and when those creatures reach adult form, they disperse into the wider landscape to continue feeding on mosquito adults (and lots of other insects) too.