Mosquito control

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

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Our area has been swarmed with queen wasps mosquitoes for about a month now and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. My family and I (and our neighbours) wake up every day with new bites which is annoying enough, but my youngest has quite strong reactions to them.

I've been doing mosquito control every night before bed, going round the house with a slipper and smashing the **** out of about a dozen that I can find. The ceilings need a new coat of paint now. I might as well not bother as the outcome in the morning doesn't seem to be any different.

Environmental Health aren't interested because "we don't do mosquitoes". I'm looking for something I can put in the house that will catch and/or kill them effectively. Can anyone make any recommendations? I prefer advice from people whose dad used to kill them for a living, but I will consider other input.

Thank you!

Artists interpretation...

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Used to work in a place that was littered in them. You could hold one of those electric tennis bats and watch the place light up.

This was environmental though, was on a lake and hot. The only real solution would be to move. Assume you live in the UK?

Do you have a pond or something in your garden? They must be attracted to the house for a reason, usually stagnated water.

4 years i worked there, we had rodent control guys for the mice and snakes. But nothing could be done about mosquitos. Though most towns in the area got sprayed to suppress them.
 
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Can't comment on solutions, but you've gotta nip it in the bud sharpish, once they set in you'll never get rid of them.
 
^That's what we did after getting fed up with the number of flies coming in through open windows this year. It practically eliminated the damn things getting in apart from when we open a door. This is the stuff we bought. We also bought a fly zapper thingy which didn't seem very effective on normal flies but lethal for moths and mossies. This is the one we bought and the only downside to it is the short lead but that's easily fixed by using a extension cable.
 
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Since you can't control the source of where they come from, the only way is to control how they get in, which is netting over windows and doors even. Which is why countries have those screen doors.

You can also hang a netting over the bed as well.
 
We don’t have any control of the source, nor can we figure it out. Given the prolonged dry weather there shouldn’t be any standing water within about a kilometre. Unless someone has abandoned a garden pond or something like that.

I was also hoping to avoid having to mesh the windows or put up nets. I was hoping for elimination but that seems difficult to achieve.
 
Source could be anything not necessarily something big. Plant pots, particularly those saucers people put underneath are prime spots.
 
I heard that they are attracted by carbon dioxide... you just need someone who breaths more heavy than you to take it for the team.
I only tend to get bitten when I'm on holiday; aboard.

We had the villa next to the pool one year and I got bitten loads, no matter how much sprays and gimzos to get rid of them.
The only night that I didn't get bitten was when two girls stopped over and then next morning they was discussing how much they were bitten over night. If I knew it would stop me from getting bitten; I would have tired getting a guest each night.

I'm tempted to get a blue light zapper or a venus fly trap plant, it's not just the mossys but all the fruit flies in the summer. You open you window or door for a second, and they get in from the smallest hole. But you leave the window wide open for them to fly out and they fly everywhere but the outside with more coming in!
 
buy a plugin infuser for night time - used to use Baygon one, mosquitos are a minor inconvenience for living somewhere with a nice climate,
nothing worse than being roused by that buzz - a killing mission you don't need in the middle of the night.
 
jpaul said:
buy a plugin infuser for night time - used to use Baygon one, mosquitos are a minor inconvenience for living somewhere with a nice climate,
nothing worse than being roused by that buzz - a killing mission you don't need in the middle of the night.
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Yup

Something that emits the pheromones the blighters like and either draws them to a killing screen or has something in it that kills them.

It might also be worth doing the UV bug zapper thing, but with a decent one not a cheapy one - but i'm not certain if that'll draw them in.
 
I bought a UV zapper. It only really kills moths - nothing else seems attracted to it. I keep it on in the summer though because I like the sound it makes when it kills one.

The plug in infusers work, as do citronella candles. Spraying the bedrooms with aerosol killer works just as well and its what they use in hotels in Bali etc.
 
All our windows and doors have fly / mosquito screens. We very rarely get a mozzie in the house.
 
Years ago I made the mistake of thinking that because Latvia was quite far north they didn't have many mosquitoes - how wrong I was!

There was was a welcoming party of them waiting for me to greet me at the airport. My missus killed two on my neck as I came out of the airport waiting for the taxi.

They seem to love me where ever I go and I've had to get medical attention once because of a bad reaction so now the first thing I pack is this.

Jungle Formula Maximum Strength Insect Repellent Aerosol Spray (90ml - 50% DEET) - Up To 9 Hour Protection Against Mosquitoes, Ticks & Biting Insects - Mosquito Repellent For Travel & Domestic Use : Amazon.co.uk: Health & Personal Care

Jungle Formula Maximum Strength Insect Repellent Aerosol Spray (90ml - 50% DEET) - Up To 9 Hour Protection Against Mosquitoes, Ticks & Biting Insects - Mosquito Repellent For Travel & Domestic Use : Amazon.co.uk: Health & Personal Care
www.amazon.co.uk

When I use it I become invisible to them but if I forget or get lax then they dine on me.
 
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We used to use Mosquito coils, even outdoors but goodness knows what the Chinese put in them .

Netting on the windows works well too but of course does reduce air flow coming into a room when its hot.
Also used Mosquito spray in the bedroom an hour or so before bedtime, especially making sure to do under the bed. They are quite good at hiding during the day time.
 
If it’s indoors a zapper is probably going to be most effective, the coils and other repellants aren’t that nice to go indoors.

That said, I do a lot of fishing in the wetlands around Heathrow, where the mosquitos are absolutely massive and there are trillions of them, there is one device I use that works wonders and I don’t leave home without it, it’s called a Thermacell but it’s very much a nuclear option, but it’s for outdoors use only - insanely effective though.

There is another less intense system that can go indoors that works well called Flextail
 
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I have netting over all windows so that they can be left open but nothing gets in. Works a treat.
Similar, I fitted this magnetic fly screens over the patio doors and they helped hugely and allows for nice chill breezes in summer. I then put a bug zapper just inside. Aside from the occasional moth collateral kill, it's very good.
I also ensure that there's no standing water in the garden (a bucket with a couple of inches of rain water becomes a breeding ground very quickly) and netted all our water butts. I admit to a perverse sense of satisfaction that the females can drop their eggs into the water but when the larvae hatch they're contained until they die. No guilt at all. They actually help feed my plants.
 
Getting rid of standing water around your house should avoid most mosquito problems. Buckets, pots etc, literally any standing water will end up with larvae in it.

As to getting rid of flies in the house, I take the biological warfare approach. I have a bit pitcher plant, and two quite large sundews on the windowsills (both carnivorous plants). Sundews get the small stuff like fruit flies. Pitcher plants eat the bluebottles etc.
 
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