Mosquito prevention
For homeowner Jerry McVeigh, living on a wooded lot with a pond and a lake, he has seen his fair share of mosquitoes. So McVeigh hired a professional mosquito control company to treat his yard regularly.
“We tried everything: foggers, all the different coils. You name it, we tried it,” said homeowner Jerry McVeigh. “And a lot of other people I’m sure understand this – we were so sensitive about strong chemicals because of what’s going on with the wildlife.”
Angie Hicks from Angie’s List explains, “Not only are mosquitoes a nuisance when you’re out trying to have a family barbecue, but they are also a health risk. For example, you could get West Nile. Making sure you have a comfortable outdoor mosquito–free area is important for your family.”
With a little preventative maintenance and monitoring, you can gain the upper hand on mosquitoes.
“There are many places around a homeowner’s property where they can look for sources of standing water,” Ken Frost, a mosquito control contractor said. “The thing is we are only looking for a very small amount of water. In fact, it only takes a soda bottle cap full of water to breed several hundred mosquitoes.”
Empty bird baths, kiddie pools, flower pot saucers, and keep gutters clear.
“If you tackled every effort you can as a homeowner you might need to hire a professional. Having someone come in you need to talk to them exactly about their experience in treating mosquitoes and then also ask what kind of chemicals and treatments they are going to use especially if you have children or pets.” added Hicks.
Frost added, “A mosquito like anything else has to eat to live so our target areas are leafs such as this one. On the bottom side of this leaf you’ll see there are plant nectar veins here, that is what the mosquitoes are after so when we apply our product to this foliage, with our backpack sprayer, it sticks to the underside of the leaf, dries in the foliage and when the mosquito comes to feed on that, it kills them off.”
“We can go out now with the children and grandchildren and be out in the evening, walk around anywhere, go down to the lake and fish,” McVeigh said.
Several types of plants also act as a natural mosquito repellent. Mosquitoes also avoid catnip, lavender, marigolds, basil and peppermint.