Use Fans Even Outdoors
CR has tested three methods for controlling mosquito activity in a large area: citronella candles, an oscillating pedestal fan, and a battery-powered area diffuser that emitted geraniol, a natural repellent derived from plants. We found that the fan was far more effective than citronella candles or the geraniol diffuser.
In fact, our tests showed that the fan reduced mosquito landings by 45 to 65 percent for folks sitting nearby.
Theres a reason you see porch fans in mosquito-rich areas like the tropics, Gangloff-Kaufmann says.
She says that while a fan makes it more difficult for mosquitoes to fly against the steady breeze, it also helps disperse the carbon dioxide we emit when we breathea good thing because mosquitoes use carbon dioxide as a guide to finding humans when theyre looking to feed.
Consider A Mosquito Bracelet
Some people swear by mosquito bracelets as a method for how to keep mosquitoes away. These bracelets have repellents, like chemicals or essential oils, to deter mosquitoes. While they may not be as effective as an all-over bug spray, they can help keep these bugs from biting up your arms.
“Some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others hence, they may need a stronger repellent,” Markowski explains. “Also, I think if it’s a windy day, that tends to blow away the vaporized repellent emanating from a bracelet device. So, it would be tough to say they’re always going to work. Not to mention, if there are a lot of mosquitoes present, you’ll probably need a stronger repellent.”
Move Potted Plants Indoors
If youre a gardener and you are having trouble keeping mosquitoes out of your yard, its time to take a look at any potted plants you may have. Most gardeners already know this, but potted plants have a tendency to fill up with excess water. This excess water can not only harm your plants, but it can also attract mosquitoes as it provides an adequate breeding ground for them. Many potted plants dont have very good drainage and it can be difficult to create an adequate drain without damaging the pottery.
Instead, consider moving your potted plants indoors during weather or muggy months to remove any temptation for breeding mosquitoes. You can always move them back outside once the weather cools down and mosquitoes start to die off. Alternatively, you could look at replanting any potted plants in planter boxes with proper drainage .
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Ways To Keep Mosquitoes Out Of The Yard
While its impossible to eliminate every single mosquito, there are many ways to stop them from getting out of control and becoming a nightly swarm. Here are some mosquito control tips to keep your patio as bug-free as possible.
The first step to ensure that your yard and patio are not overrun with mosquitoes is to perform regular yard maintenance.
Mow the lawn to eliminate tall grass and clean gutters. One of the best ways to stop a mosquito infestation is to get rid of stagnant water to prevent mosquito larvae from hatching. If you cannot get rid of the water, consider mosquito dunks to kill the larvae.
Another excellent form of mosquito prevention is to plant mosquito-repellent flowers and herbs. Grow them in gardens around the patio and position them in posts around your sitting area.
Install insect-repelling lighting around your home and light citronella candles and torches while sitting on the patio in the evening.
While we enjoy the busy buzzing of a bumblebee and the gentle fluttering of the butterfly, these arent the only insects to visit the patio.
Unfortunately, mosquitoes frequent this area as well, and their presence is cause for concern since a mosquito bite may spread disease. Fortunately, there are simple ways to keep these pests at bay so that you can enjoy your time outdoors.
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Changing The Outdoor Lighting To Deter Mosquitoes
While DIY mosquito net curtains for the patio are excellent at keeping this insect out of your space, there are times when a few find their way inside.
If youre still having an issue with mosquitoes, consider changing your outdoor lighting.
While they provide us with sufficient light to see at night, white bulbs act as a beacon for insects. Consider replacing them with yellow lights, or sodium vapor, halogen, and yellow compact fluorescent bulbs.
These lights are more efficient, emit less heat, and do not draw in bugs like other bulbs.
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Invite Bats To The Party
Bats are a natural predator of mosquitoes and other insects, so having them around can help to lower pest populations. These animals are also great for local ecosystems because they pollinate plants. Send out the bat signal by installing a bat house, which is similar to a bird house. You can make your own or buy one from a conservation organization or an outdoor store.
Try Lavender Oil For A Nicer Scent
Lavender oil is a very common ingredient in homemade bug repellents. If a recipe calls for citrus oils, neem oil, lemon eucalyptus, clove, or cedarwood oils, you can also add a little lavender oil. This will help improve the fragrance.
But you can also use lavender oil by itself in a mixture similar to the citrus oil recipe for a home bug repellent. It wont be quite as effective as some other options, but if you cant stand the smell of other oils, its certainly worth a try as an alternative.
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Video: How Do I Keep Mosquitoes Away From My Outdoor Party 3 Tips To A Bug
Summertime is here. And what better way to enjoy the outdoors than having a barbecue for your family, friends, and neighbors? You can hang out at the grill sizzling up some hamburgers and hotdogs while catching up on current events and laughing with your guests. But theres one thing that can drain the fun from your backyard bash faster than your guests refusing to RSVP: mosquitoes.
These nasty pests swarm around you and your guests like they have a first-class pass to your patio party. Their bites pinch and then they itch. On top of that, they carry some pretty serious diseases like West Nile. We know you dont want your sunny shindig ruined due to these pests. Keep mosquitoes away from your outdoor party with these solutions.
Evict Mosquitoes From Your Backyard
You want to make your backyard inviting for bats, but not for mosquitoes. Follow our everyday tips to fight the bite on your property, such as surveying your yard for possible breeding sites and locations where mosquitoes harbor. Youll want to eliminate standing water, and remove excess grass, leaves, firewood, and clippings from yards. You can also use mosquito dunks in permanent water fixtures like rain barrels or bird baths.
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Try Citronella Candles Or Tiki Torches
Large mosquito traps and repellent lamps can be conspicuous and ruin the mood of a classy patio party, so you can instead try citronella candles or tiki torches to add to the ambience. Create an island oasis vibe, by arranging tiki torches filled with citronella fuel around your patio. However, be aware that these solutions are only effective short-term and sometimes do not work at all. In a recent study by New Mexico State University citronella candles failed to effectively ward off mosquitoes.
How To Get Rid Of Indoor Mosquitoes
Youre more likely to have a mosquito issue in your yard than in your home itself, but having mosquitoes buzzing around during bedtime can be frustrating.
Mosquitoes buzzing around are easier to spot during the day than at night. If its getting late and you want to track them down, turn on a lamp, flashlight, or your smartphone and wait for them to be attracted to the light.
Here are the top ways to repel mosquitoes that have already entered your home.
- Yellow LED lighting
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How To Get Rid Of Mosquitoes
From expert advice to the best mosquito repellents, here’s what you need to prevent these pesky insects from spoiling your time outdoors
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Mosquitoes are one of the most despised insects on the planet, and with good reason. As if buzzing incessantly near your ear and leaving relentlessly itchy red bumps all over your body arent enough, mosquitoes can transmit a number of infectious diseases, a fact that elevates the insects from a nuisance to an outright health risk.
The West Nile virusby far the most common mosquito-borne illness in the U.S.has afflicted nearly 2,700 people since 2003, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, and the total numbers are probably far higher.
And whatever you do, youll also lessen your risk of getting bitten when you avoid going outside at prime feeding timesthats dawn and dusk for the Northern house mosquito, the most common variety in most of the U.S.
To find out how to get rid of mosquitoes in the yard, we asked Gangloff-Kaufmann for science-backed advice. We also performed extensive tests on human subjects in our labs to find the best mosquito repellents to protect you and your family. Heres what we learned.
Install A French Drain
A yard with good drainage is pivotal to keeping repelling mosquitoes. If youve already removed physical sources of standing water and still find yourself with puddles in the yard, its time to look at installing a french drain. French drains use perforated pipes that let water enter and exit through small openings that can be used to direct water flow away from your yard. HGTV has a great tutorial on how to install them. Take note that it will require a lot of manual labor, so inlist a few savvy friends to help or be willing to pay a professional to install the french drain. It may be a significant investment, but your new french drain will more than pay for itself by keeping your yard adequately drained and reducing mosquitoes.
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Add Mosquito Repellent Plants
The most colorful way to battle mosquitoes is to add plants that mosquitoes hate. These plants including alliums, mums, marigolds, mint, basil and floss can be placed around your patio, porch or gazebo. The aromas from these plants cause trouble for mosquitoes some confuse them and others simply repulse them which is enough to keep them away from you. Still, these plants dont always emit these unfriendly smells, so its good to add another layer of mosquito protection.
Prevent Future Mosquito Problems
Eliminate standing water.
Many female mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. Since it only takes about a week for a mosquito to go from egg to adult, getting rid of the standing water on your property can help reduce the number of mosquitoes that will plague your next backyard barbeque.
- Empty water that has collected in childrens toys, garden pots, buckets, trash can lids, wheelbarrows, or other items lying around that could collect water.
- Inspect gutters for clogs and clean them regularly to prevent water collection.
- If you have a birdbath, change the water regularly.
- Walk your property and address any low spots in the lawn that collect water or areas that have poor drainage.
Clean up debris.
A kiddie pool isnt the only thing that can provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Some types of mosquitoes lay their eggs in damp soil or debris, such as decaying logs and leaf piles, so be sure to clear them away. Remember to remove leaves and other debris from gutters, too. If you continue to have a problem with mosquitoes and have a lot of shade in your yard, you may want to consider having your trees trimmed to increase light levels and make your landscape less habitable to these pests.
Plant mosquito-repelling plants.
- Citronella
- Lemongrass
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Using Citronella To Repel Mosquitoes From The Patio
Mosquitoes cannot stand the light citrus scent of citronella and avoid areas that carry the smell. This homemade mosquito repellent for the patio uses citronella oil and lemon eucalyptus oil to drive away mosquitoes quickly.
- 1 cup of witch hazel
- Glass spray bottle
To repel mosquitoes outdoors, pour a cup each of witch hazel and water into a spray bottle, add 30 drops of citronella and ten drops of lemon eucalyptus oil. Close the container, shake it well, and spray it around the patio area each time you gather outside.
Budget Pick: Pic Mosquito Repelling Coils
For similar mosquito-repelling effects at a far lower price, we like Pic Mosquito Repelling Coils. When ignited, these coaster-sized spirals slowly burn down like incense. This releases smoke containing a pyrethroid . This smoke creates an area protected from mosquitoes, similar to the Thermacell products. Like our pick, these coils offer proven effectiveness as a spatial repellent. Theyre a fraction of the cost of any Thermacell offering, and theres no fuel or a battery that needs monitoring. But there are some key differences between coils and our other picks: Some people find the smokes strong odor unpleasant or irritating, the burning ember at the tip can be a safety issue, and the coils can drop ash as they burn. Also, theyre not as portable or durable as our picks.
The Pic coils are inexpensive and last a while. In our testing, each one lasted about seven hours. In comparison, similar Off coils cost more and lasted only about 5½ hours. The higher cost of the Off coils is due in part to the fact that each comes with a small tray to catch bits of ash as the coil burns down. With the Pic coils, you need to put your own small plate underneath to catch the asha minor inconvenience we thought was worth tolerating for the Pic coils lower price and longer-lasting effects. If youre feeling fancy, you can use a Pic-branded mosquito coil burner. We tried one, and we found that it works well, looks nice, and includes four coils to get you started.
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Use Insect Repellent If You Need To
Treehugger / Jordan Provost
Not everyone is a fan of bug spray, but sometimes, you need it when dealing with mosquitoes. Just breathing will draw mosquitoes to you. Mosquitoes are attracted to, among other things, the heat from our bodies and the carbon dioxide in our breath.
Richard Pollack, a Senior Public Health Officer at the Harvard School of Public Health and advisor to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, tells ABC News that mosquitoes are able to determine where their target is by following exhale trails.
“If you were to exercise vigorously, you would produce more carbon dioxide for a brief period,” Pollack says. “You might perhaps be a little more attractive to mosquitoes.”
If you’re being bitten, your options are to stop breathing or to go inside. Or, you can just make yourself less attractive to the thirsty bloodsuckers.
There are a number of proven-effective insect repellants that provide hours of protection. There are four repellants that have been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency : DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus and IR3535, an amino acid that interferes with mosquitoes’ sense of smell. The EPA considers DEET and picaridin “conventional repellents” and oil of lemon eucalyptus and IR3535 as “biopesticide repellents,” which are made from natural materials.
The EPA offers these guidelines for the safe use of insect repellents:
How To Keep Mosquitoes Away From Your Patio & Yard With Plants
Summer is almost here, and the battle is already starting to keep mosquitoes away from all of the outdoors spaces and places you love most.
Unfortunately, with warm weather comes the arrival of the pesky mosquito. And nothing will ruin a beautiful outdoor evening faster than an invasion of these unwelcome pests!
One minute, you and your family and friends are enjoying a glorious summer evening on the patio. But the next minute, everyone is flailing their arms and smacking their skin to fight off a mosquito attack.
But beyond their painful, itchy bites, these flying creatures also spread a whole host of diseases. Just one more of the many reasons everyone wants to keep them as far away as possible.
The dreaded mosquito one of summers most annoying pests! Not only is their bite painful and itchy, it can also easily spread disease.
Controlling Mosquitoes Without Harsh Chemicals
There are, of course, all sorts of chemical concoctions available for mosquito control. Everything from mosquito repellents, aerosol sprays, creams and more can be found for sale.
But, not only can these products be expensive, they can also be a bit worrisome. Especially when it comes to the safety of you and your family. In addition, many of these pest sprays also kill beneficial insects like bees, butterflies and other key pollinators.
But what if you could help repel mosquitoes simply by planting a few, easy-to grow plants in your landscape? Well, actually, you can!
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Find Ways Of Killing Them
If you are dealing with a considerable population of adult mosquitos, you have to find ways of dealing with them permanently.
Use Insecticides
The simplest way to get rid of mosquitos is by using insecticide sprays, which tend to be highly effective. And they work by killing mosquitos when they come into contact with their aerosol droplets.
Provided you follow the instructions, most of the available pesticides will not have side effects.
Attract Natural Mosquito Predators
You can also kill mosquitos by introducing some of their natural predators within your landscape. For example, while those birdbaths can hold stagnant water, you will not have any issues when you change them regularly.
One of their main advantages is attracting birds, such as hummingbirds, swallows, and purple martins. These birds tend to feed on adult mosquitos and their larvae, thus providing a sustainable solution to your mosquito problem.
Mosquito fish is one of the most effective natural predators. But you can also stock goldfish, bluegill, catfish, and bass, among others.
Install Mosquito Traps
In addition, you can also opt for mosquito traps.
These physical devices attract rather than repel mosquitos by emitting some types of light, heat, or Carbon dioxide. Once the insects are trapped, they are dehydrated, electrocuted, or stuck until they die.