Mosquitoes – Are They Driving You Nuts Too?
I don’t know about you, but every time I step into my back yard a huge swarm of mosquitoes attacks me.
They’re like an entire squadron of kamikazes making suicide runs at my body, especially around the ankles. Seems they really like the ankle area, doesn’t it?
Mosquitoes are the “pest of the year” for me.
It’s strange too. Here in Indiana the month of August is on track to make its entry into the record books as the driest August in Indiana’s recorded history.
That makes me wonder just where all these mosquitoes are laying their eggs. They’re hatching those eggs out someplace though, and in numbers large enough to inhabit my yard in droves.
News reports talk about cases of West Nile Virus popping up How Long Do Spider Mites Live around the state. That isn’t welcome news for anybody.
The problem is how do you keep mosquitoes from attacking, and threatening you and your family with West Nile infection.
When you walk into your yard you can’t do much about the dive-bombing bloodsuckers. Fortunately the movement of walking discourages mosquitoes from landing on you.
Eliminating mosquitoes from you property is no easy task.
Fogging the yard might decrease their numbers, How To Clean House Fast And Easy but that often causes other problems.
For instance, I enjoy watching the hummingbirds fly around my yard so I keep feeders out for them. Often I’ll sit on my back patio or front deck and watch the hummingbirds darting to and from the feeders grabbing quick drinks for energy before going about their business.
Those birds are small enough that an insecticide fog threatens to poison them. I can’t take a chance on hurting my hummingbirds.
Those fogs pose threats for other creatures too. Some of those creatures, like the spiders that catch the mosquitoes in their webs, capture the nuisance insects for food.
I don’t know if foggers hurt bats any, but I won’t chance that either because I like watching them swoop around grabbing gnats, mosquitoes, and other bugs for their evening meals.
What’s left is taking action to keep the mosquitoes from coming after you when you do venture outdoors.
You might try repellants. I found that those work some, but not well enough to justify using them myself. That’s just a personal thing, and maybe you have better luck with them.
Every time I do find water gathering around my property I take steps to eliminate it, and make sure it don’t happen again. On occasion I set something down, in a position to collect puddles, without thinking, only to notice after a rain that I created an excellent breeding pool for mosquitoes.
When I have friends over for a cookout I place fans around the perimeter of our gathering area. Since mosquitoes are weak flyers a fan blows them away. They can’t fly against the fan’s force, and as long as the fan points outward from where you are, few mosquitoes manage to fly through …