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• Mosquito Control (Score:2)

  by ziggy (25) on 2006.04.27 14:19 (#47457) Journal

  The only proven way of reducing the size of a mosquito population is (a) killing the unborn, and (b) killing the born. It's why the Americans succeeded in building the Panama Canal (and why the French failed).
  
  The best way of killing the unborn is to either drain the area and completely remove all standing water, or spray larvacide in any standing water that you can't remove. Given your description, larvacide may be your best strategy. Fortunately, an organism like BTI [state.pa.us] is lethal to the larvae, but safe on pretty much everything else (including food crops).
  
  Female mosquitos can live all summer, so you may still want to investigate the bats, lures or something else to complete the strategy.

  Reply to This

  • Re:Mosquito Control (Score:2)

    by Matts (1087)

    That's the thing - we don't have ANY standing water. We do live close to a sewage works though - but I heard that mosquitos don't fly further than 400 yards from where they were born which would rule that out as the birthing grounds. We do have a deck, and I hear they breed under them.
    
    Part of the problem is we had such a mild winter and early spring that none of the garden centres have mosquito stuff in stock yet. Yet we're infested. You can literally see clouds of them out back just looking out the window
    • Re:Mosquito Control (Score:2)

      by ziggy (25)

      If they're swarming like that in the open, maybe a flame thrower would help?
      
      Seriously though, if they're that bad in April, then bats may be one of the best things to look into. Pesticide can kill only so many before they develop a resistance, if you can't kill them all. But it's much more difficult to develop a resistance to a voracious predator. :-)
      
      The problem may not be the sewage works, but the sewers. In the summer, most municipalities in the US where West Nile is present have mosquito control progr
    • Re:Mosquito Control (Score:2)

      by brian_d_foy (44)

      I hung out with the mosquito researchers when I was in grad school (and they fed their subjects with their own arms!).
      
      When they went to collect mosquitos, they looked for tires. The mosquitos only need a couple of inches of water to breed in, so that can collect just about anywhere, and a lot of places people don't expect.