Pest control - Mosquito Magnet?

We have the worlds most dense population of dragonflies, frogs, and bats....I'll post pictures of the buckets of frogs later :)

Mosquitos dont live very long in that environment :) I'll guess I'll deal with the toads and frogs.

Our cabin up north is a different story...
My uncle bought a large mosquito trap and it seemed to make a difference but it was expensive. Winds would bring in new batches of bugs so unless you run it all the time you wont make much of an impact.

The foggers Work better in my experience. You have to fog in advance of your outdoor plans or at least hit them when they get bad....In my experience its cheaper even if you end up fogging every night.

What on earth does a person do when you have to worry about contamination from pesticides in ground water and drift to surface water containing Koi? Our County Extension told us no pesticides are safe for our shallow well (flowing stream at 7' down)

We do have frogs and bats here, but I don't think there could ever be enough to keep up with the buzzing population of blood suckers here, unless we have an extremely dry year(which is not this year as the Red River of the North spread out again this year, so the Red River Valley became just the Red River again.)

Mosquitos are the State Bird here in Minnesota - when the sun goes around the side of the house or behind clouds - yikes! They can carry you away or you actually BREATH mosquitos. We had a mosquito magnet (still have but not effective enough so its been retired) The thing does attract and kill, but there are just too many when you live in a low lying former swamp and propane is too spendy to keep supplying a couple of those things constantly. We really seriously considered one of those pool domes -

I was researching yesterday and came across a product called "Mosquito Barrier". It's basically very strong garlic juice that you spray around the yard (on plants I think) and the smell is said to go away within an hour or so but the mosquitos are supposed to smell it for weeks and it is supposed to keep them away. I think it sold for $22 or so dollars for a quart. If you google this you should find it. I was thinking of trying a quart. I'd prefer a non-pesticide option if it works.

I'm also going to use the tiki torches around the pool idea for lighting.

Peter

I wonder if putting up some bat houses would help too. We HAVE bats but maybe need more? Not much to do about attracting dragon flies and frogs are in no short supply either.

I may just try that MB stuff. Last year someone told us to try this mixture with Lysterene, Epsom Salt and beer, in fact they swore by it saying the Master Gardner guy on the radio uses it all the time. Hogwash - tried it twice and NADA. Back to the drawing board.

If EricF's theory is correct that there are different species of mosquitos out there then certain treatments may only be effective for certain species. In that case what works for someone else may not work for you. I don't recall from what geographical area the positive comments on the MB came from. I came across a University of Rhode Island study that used MB and they did not find a difference with or without it.

I bought a bat house a few years ago. Here are a couple of tips I was given:

Bat House Preparation recommendations: Paint your bat house(s) with at least two coats of a dark colored latex paint. Why? To protect the bat house from exterior weathering and encourage necessary solar heating in Northern latitudes such as New England. In the Southern States, a lighter shade is preferable to bats.


Mounting Options:You may choose a building, pole(s), or trees depending on the design of your bat house. Trees should be the last resort unless the tree is free of limbs and branches at a sufficient height for they will shade the bat houses and create undesirable obstacles for bats.

We have a small fogger that we use every year. First thing in the morning and then first thing in the evening. Works pretty darn well and isn't expensive! Our landlords/neighbors bought it for us last year and we love it!

Bat house preparation -- Another tip from my friendly bug guy for new bat houses is to find some bat dung someplace, maybe on the ground under shutters or other places they hang out, make a paste with water and smear some in the new house. Gives it that 'lived in' sppearance. I know, I know.....YUCK !!
Al

Little Heidi could you give us more info. on the fogger you like.

Sure thing! I'll go take a look at it first thing in the morning and I'll post back with the name of it!!

It's the Burgess Bugkiller 1443.