I forgot to put msoquito dunks in our pond & holding pool so we are literally being fire-bombed by zillions of mosquitos. Zillions. We have about 2 weeks before the life cycle is fully broken - that is if they even lay their eggs in the tainted zones I’ve setup.
We can’t use one of those foggers because it will end up hurting the fish. There’s lots of stuff to choose from that’s more natural but I’m leery of spending $20 on citronella oil or candles if they’re more fantasy than functional. Oh, and the traditional family Off! spray? Apparently the mosquitos here like the taste and bite right through it.
If you aren’t afraid of skin cancer I’d suggest going to Wal-Mart and buying the most expensive brand of mosquito repellent that is mainly DEET. I think it’s OFF! brand. It runs about $5 for a bottle. I typically lose them before finishing them off.
Note. You MUST buy the expensive kind(Once again I think it was OFF! brand). I went on a camping trip with two different brands and the low cost one didn’t work nearly as well.
DEET works by inhibiting the chemical receptors that detect certain chemicals in human sweat. Blocking these receptors prevents them from triggering the insect’s feeding response.
However, you guys forget that JP has superhuman, concentrated sweat that mosquitos will certainly detect despite having plugged up receptors. They also can still detect the CO2 from your breath, and that still can trigger a feeding response.
For the rest of you, I would actually advise against DEET, and recommend Picaradin instead. It works as well as DEET, but it is not a solvent and will not melt and degrade your lawn furniture, the nylon in your soccer shorts, or the vinyl in your car. You find Picaradin in Cutter brand insect repellent.
Citronella and all the more “natural” stuff has some effect, but it’s much much smaller and needs to be applied more often - don’t believe any “natural” remedy claiming to keep mozzies away for 6 hours+.
The heavier concentration of DEET you use the longer you’re protected, but there’s some concern over sideeffect (I haven’t read anything on it causing cancer… and considering US soldiers have used the stuff for more than 50 years, they should know).
Apart from that, only physical protection (no exposed skin, nets etc.) or poisoning the ponds will work.
You could use somehing like the Mosquito Magnet, which is proven to attract and kille mosquitoes, but I had one in my tiny garden all of last summer, and some still decided to go for us. According to one expert I talked to keeping an average garden mosquito free using the MM would take 3-4 devices… and even one is too expensive in my book.
When we had a fish urn(?) outside, I remember just putting in a few hungry fish and not having a problem after that. As for personal repellant, if you can stand it in that weather, in addition to using bug repellant, wear long-sleeved clothes and long pants and full socks: that helped restrict the mosquitoes to places I would notice them land.
The only bug repellent I’ve ever found that works is to be near someone the bugs like more. Which isn’t really a repellent at all.
Deet is better than nothing, but you’re probably better off getting bitten than putting it on your skin. Citronella and the like are not noticeably better than nothing.
I found an abandoned flat of Nestea in a Costco parking lot. I quickly scanned my surroundings then hurriedly placed it in my trunk. That was the happiest day of my life.
True story! But to be fair, I hadn’t bought the OFF! yet when I found the fiver, so the good luck may not be directly attributable to the mosquito repellent.
A couple of sixpacks or a bottle or two of cheap wine and you won’t notice the little bastards at all. They bite you, get drunk as hell, and beat themselves to death on your porch light.
Yeah, I’d recommend Deep Woods OFF! as a spray solution. A neighbor of one of my friends has some sort of big contraption hooked up to a propane tank that’s meant to repel mosquitos for several hundred yards, supposedly with solid results. No idea what that is, though.
