Desperate For Mosquito Control Help

[sunshinebabies3]

mosquitos at my house are HORRIBLE. beyond horrible really. we can not
allow the kids outside. I have used every non-deet spray or lotion out
there. my kids have worn the citronella bracelets, we planted the
plants. my kids have worn dryer sheets. Still bug bites. We have a
mosquito zappper. my hubby has sprayed and organic non-toxic (to
people) product on our lawn that is supposed to kill mosquitos, larvae,
and then repel adult mosquitos--no success. we have burned citronella
candles and incense (at the same time) and yep, still horrible bites.
my kids are like me. bugs love them and they get a reaction from the
bites. DS1 has been to the E.R. and the doc with infected bug bites
2 times this summer. this madness has to stop. my kids LOVE to be
outside. We took them out saturday before lunch (not peak bug hours) in
blue jeans and t-shirts. DS2 came in with 7 bites on his face alone.

So--this is all to say that we have pulled out all of the stops and are
still overrun with moquitos. We want to try an exterminator but I
refuse to put pesticides in my yard that are toxic to my children.
Hello--why buy organic if I'm going to do that, right?

anyone have experience AND success with this?

[AngelBee]

My first thought is bat houses in your yard. That may help.

[harrietsmama]

Any chance you could get chickens? They are awesome for this!!! Make sure you have *no* standing water - even a little puddle is enough for them to lay eggs. Keep any weeds etc. cut down. I work at a farm so I can't avoid being around all kinds of insects. I use herbal armor - it's sunblock and insect repellent in one and it's always worked for me.

[leerypolyp]

Lose the mosquito zapper! They kill beneficial insects (some of which eat mosquitos) and don't get a lot of the skeeters.

We like Herbal Armor too.

Cut all weeds down and get rid of ALL standing water (you may have to work with nearby neighbors on this too) -- clogged gutters on a roof can breed mosquitos. If there's standing water that can't be drained you can put those "donuts" in there, I think they're Bt.

[Masel]

I've been wondering about this too. It's been a terrible year for skeeters and my DD gets big reactions to every bite. The trip from the house to the car can mean 2 or 3 bites. I hate having to put repellant on her even in the mornings. We use herbal armor too and while it seemed to work I wondered if there's a new variety that is resistant to it. Maybe there's just too many.
I'm planning on looking around for standing water in our yard and gutters. We have a lot of foliage. It hate to think of trimming it all back but we'll do what we have to.

[A&A]

Have you tried Avon's skin so soft anti-mosquito cream?

And I agree that chickens eat LOTS of skeeters!!!

[4evermom]

Strong wind helps. If kids are staying in one spot, like at a sandbox, maybe a heavy duty fan?

We have one of those propane powered attractants. It does catch mosquitoes but it doesn't cure the problem. If you have asian tiger mosquitos, they bite all day. We had to get a specific attractant added to our set up to catch them.

Any greenery you can clear away will help, trim trees, bushes, weed, mow frequently (I swear we get bit less right after dh has mowed).

I taught my ds the trick of holding his breath and running to a new spot if they were starting to collect around him. They find you both by body heat and by following your carbon dioxide trail. Luckily he doesn't get bit too much (moves too much?) and doesn't get bad reactions. But we tend not to hang outside much, either, because of the mosquitoes.

[Rebecca]

We use Deet. A lot of it. Nothing else works, and trust me, this crunchy, natural girl has tried everything. EVERYTHING. Not even Picaridin works (new mosquito repellent in Off). I will not allow my kids to get eaten alive, get EEE or West Nile or Lyme. That's one thing I won't mess around with.

[PGTlatte]

I have been using Picaridin (cutter advanced) and it has worked amazingly well for me. I am the person who usually gets chewed while nobody else gets even one bite. I have tried herbal stuff but citronella give me a headache and the soybean/geranium ones just don't work for me.

[redebeth]

We have chickens, and I haven't noticed them having an impact on our ridiculous mosquito population. I can't imagine our chickens actually catching a mosquito in mid air, but that is awesome if they do eat them.

sunshine - I totally feel your pain. I posted a thread last week about this same issue. It's awful! I got some good ideas from it.

One of my favorites was keep your lawn really short and your foliage cut way back. They like to hide there when it gets hot during the day. So take that away from them, and you will have less. I really noticed a difference. Some days are just baaad, though. We have splattered mosquito guts all over our walls and inside our new van. It's so gross!

[harrietsmama]

Wow, I appreciate my chickens so much more now! We have only one issue - black flies. They follow the chickens though to eat their poop - yuck, but we got one of those fly jars with a natural attractant pee-you-stinky, but it works great, and it's compostable. We have to empty a quart full about once a week. solid flies, a quart full a week! It's over by the coop so we only have to smell it when we change it.

but even when I work at the farm, the herbal armor keeps me bite free.

[sunshinebabies3]

dont know about picardin but will look into that. my kids look pitiful. my son has a HUGE bite on his leg. much bigger than a quarter and swollen like a big knot. unfortunately this is normal for them. my other son has 15+ bites. my daughter has several too.

i had an eco-friendly pest control man come check it out and he said spraying would be a waste of our money b/c we basically are in moquito heaven. draining ditch behind house, super mature trees & shrubs. So, he recommended one of those propane bug things. chickens aren't an option for us, and the bat houses worry me b/c i dont vax, and worry about rabies.

I am also looking into moquito magic soap for kids and dog. it is just awful. my kids cant play outside and they usually play outside 3 times per day.

thanks for the suggestions. i feel awful about their bites. west nile has been confirmed in our town too! YIKES!

[leerypolyp]

Originally Posted by sunshinebabies3

the bat houses worry me b/c i dont vax, and worry about rabies.

I have to point out three things:

1) Humans are not vaccinated for rabies
2) the odds of one of your pets coming into contact with a rabid bat are extremely low, to say the least
3) If you are in an area with mature trees, you have bats already. You probably don't notice them, but they're there.

Bats are not to be feared!

[harrietsmama]

One thing I learned about when I was FREAKING about how bad my daughter's mosquito bites were was that she (and I actually) have dermagraphic skin. I took her to the allergist because of how big they always got and he did a simple test and said she wasn't allergic. if when you take say an index card and rub the edge of it hard enough on your skin to leave a mark but not to get a paper cut, if it leave a mark that stays for longer than a few minutes, or gets bigger before reducing, you have dermagraphic skin. It is common, not dangerous and often goes undetected. When getting a bite or rash etc, it often will appear much worse than it is. this is not to down play the concerns about lyme disease and such because that is certainly a concern, but I just wanted to throw that info out there. I can remember visiting a friend when dd was about 4 and freaking while I watched her bites grow and I was so worried I stopped at a Meijer and was sitting on the floor the the benadryl aisle almost forcing some chewables into her. This nice lady stopped to help me 1. calm my 2yo down and entertain him, and 2. help my daughter understand why mommy was so worried and really needed her to take the medicine. We were about to drive through the boonies on the way back across the state to Detroit and I was so scared she was gonna quit breathing or something because the bites were half dollar size. When I learned about the dermagraphic skin thing, it really gave me some peace.

[Think of Winter]

We have a mosquito problem here too, and this is a bad year. I looked into getting a Mosquito Magnet (I think that's what it's called), but you have to buy different refills for different types, and we definitely have the tigers. They're the ones w/ stripey legs that bite during the day.

Anyway, when I did some research, I learned that most mosquitoes travel less than 50' from where they hatch. You really have to get rid of any and all standing water. Make sure your gutters are not collecting water, look for kids toys, tires, make sure your downspouts empty completely. Anything that can hold a puddle has to go.

Of course, not all standing water can be eliminated. You can buy disks to put in standing water that can not be removed. I think they're organic. Definitely not pesticides.

Good luck. It is awful to be kept inside by mosquitoes. We replaced our gutters last year, and it has made a huge difference.

[2 in August]

We've been stuck inside all summer too. I hate mosquitos. We live in all huge oak trees. I tried cutting back some of the brush, but there is just too much and it helps separate us from the neighbors. My kids and I all get the huge red bumps that itch like crazy. Even with benadryl poor ds wakes himself up scratching them. Dh, who rarely gets bug bites got close to 10 just being outside for 20min the other day. We can't even use out new playset that we built last fall. I can't wait for them to die off so we can go outside again.