Often, you don’t even see them coming until it’s too late. You’re having a relaxing day outside, lounging in your hammock, reading a book, and sipping a fruity drink. Without realizing it, you’ve been targeted by nature’s vampires: mosquitoes. These annoying critters come alive in the warmer months and try to spoil our summer fun.
Wondercide offers tips and tricks for taking care of the mosquito epidemic and winning this fight once and for all. Follow along if you’re interested in making this an itch-free summer!
Invite in natural predators.
The enemy of your enemy is your friend. By creating a hospitable environment for a mosquito’s predator, you’re inviting in a weapon against these bothersome bugs. A common predator of mosquitoes is the dragonfly. These winged creatures feed off of mosquitoes, leaving less of them to prey on us.
Similar to a mosquito, dragonflies like to be around water. Building a small pond may attract more mosquitoes, but it will also attract their arch-enemy to take care of them for you. Also, planting flowers will attract more food for the dragonflies, making them more likely to move into your garden.
In addition to dragonflies, a celebrated bug hunter is the bat. Bats feed off of various unwanted insects, including mosquitoes. Bats can eat up to 50% of their weight in bugs each night, and twice that much when pregnant. A nursing female bat can eat up to 4,000 small insects in one night! Little brown bats are known to eat about 500 mosquitoes overnight. That’s 500 missed opportunities for these vampire bugs to suck your blood.
How do you attract bats to help take care of the mosquito problem? There are ways you can build your own bat house to lure in these pest control vigilantes. The trick is to find a location about 15 feet off the ground that receives lots of sunlight and has access to nearby water. It’s preferable that the bat house is close to a body of water or small water source so the mother bat will not have to travel far and leave her young behind for a long time.
Unlike a birdhouse, your homemade bat house should be tight and narrow to meet a bat’s spatial preferences. In addition to being narrow, bats like their space to be hot, which is why lots of bat houses get painted black to attract more heat. You can also purchase a bat house if you’re not in a woodworking mood.
For those who like to garden with a purpose, there are ways to fill your yard with natural mosquito repellents. This list of plants and flowers is known to keep the mosquitoes at bay.
- American beautyberry
- Bee balm
- Basil
- Catmint
- Marigolds
- Rosemary
- Sage
Keep things dry.
This is a simple solution to the mosquito problem. Water is an essential nesting ground for mosquitoes. The bloodthirsty creatures you catch biting you and leaving you with annoying welts are actually in the fourth and final stage of their life. Up until this stage, mosquitoes grow in water. Life starts with a splash for these pesky flies as female mosquitoes lay their eggs in pools of water. They can lay up to 100 eggs at a time, so it’s important to prevent them from breeding.
This goes beyond water in puddles and bird baths. Mosquitos will take any water they can get, including water in open bottles or sitting in bottle caps. Regularly changing standing water and keep water out of features inyour yard could reduce your risk of running into these pesky biters. These items include:
- Gutters
- Buckets
- Birdbaths
- Depressions in your lawn
- Flower pot trays
- Grill and garbage pan covers
- Tarps
- Water bowls for pets
- Wheelbarrows
Maintenance.
An essential pest prevention tool for most bugs, including mosquitoes, is to keep your yard as neat and clean as you can. Clean out your gutters, mow the grass, rake the leaves, sweep the porch, and do any other regular maintenance your space may require. Any debris, moist leaves, dirt, or grass could generate a perfect hotbed for mosquitoes to set up camp. By keeping your yard clean, you’re eliminating the potential for an accidental mosquito breeding ground to form.
More ways to try to keep mosquitoes away.
It may seem like these stealthy critters know their way around the air space, but mosquitoes are not strong fliers. A good way to have the upper hand is to plug in a fan on your porch or patio to simply blow these vampire bugs away. However, it’s important to only use the fan when there are people out on the deck to preserve energy resources.
In addition to a fan, lights have been proven to affect mosquitoes’ attendance. Studies have shown that mosquitoes are less attracted to warm-colored lights such as orange and yellow than they are to cooler colors. So, setting up some warm lights on your porch or outdoor seating area could help reduce the number of mosquitoes that come into your space.
Alternative pest protection.
Sometimes we can take every measure to prevent nuisance insects from invading our territory but they still make their way in. Luckily, we’re here to help! Wondercide’s Outdoor Pest Control is a plant-powered method that will kill existing mosquitoes and repel others from bothering you while you’re outside. With zero artificial colors, fragrances, or dyes, Wondercide’s bug spray has been independently lab-tested and proven to work. Plus, it’s safe around pets, people, and pollinators when used as directed.
The Complete Control Mosquito Kit comes equipped with everything you need to battlethese nasty blood suckers and win! As an added layer of protection outside, Insect Repellent for Family comes in four fresh scents and will repel mosquitoes and ticks so you can enjoy your yard or adventures outdoors. For pets, use this spray that also comes in four scents.
Indoor Protection.
Sometimes, the issue is inside the house. To our misfortune, mosquitoes have a bad habit of sneaking their way into our homes. Don’t panic! There are smart solutions. Wondercide’s Flying Insect Trap uses patented Blu-V™ light to attract mosquitoes, moths, fruit flies, and gnats, then the sticky cartridge captures them.
It’s a hands-free method of putting a stop to these obnoxious intruders. The trap is designed to kill flying insects without any annoying zaps or buzzing sounds. Your job is to just simply plug it in and let the trap go to work while you relax. You can set it up in any room and have the peace of mind that the Flying Insect Trap is working for you.
We hope this information serves you well and helps prevent mosquitoes from controlling your life. These insects love to spoil our summer fun, and we’ve had enough! No more should we have to scratch at our skin for months on end. No more will we have to slap a friend’s arm to kill a mosquito before it has the chance to bite.. Let’s enjoy a relaxing, refreshing season by the pool and out on the yard without these little buzzing, winged nuisances.
