(no subject)

[heidi]

Question for the homeowner-types: do any of you have the Mosquito Magnet or a similar high-catch anti-biting-insects device? If so, what do you have and what do you think of it? We need something - our backyard is utterly unusable because of the skeeters!

Comments

[rookie131.livejournal.com]

I have a friend that swears by the pest repellant device made by Sunbeam. It plugs into an outlet and she says it is excellent for getting rid of all kinds of bugs. She got hers from the LTD catalog.

Good luck!

[viridescence13]

This isn't meant to be a promo for the website where I work, but we did an article recently here and apparently a study has shown that the zappers kill mostly harmless insects, not mosquitos and biting flies. So I wouldn't suggest a traditional "zapper." =)

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I personally recommend the OFF! products. (http://www.offprotects.com/) They have coils that you light that burn slowly and the smoke kills all mosquitos on contact. Probably not great for the wee ones, however. Best to use before anyone goes into the area, and then you put them out when the kids are around. You're not supposed to use them indoors, but I've done that for years. We used to "smoke out" the kids' tents before bed when I was a camp leader. Extremely effective. They would beg for it during the early summer.

In my experience the "natural" products (citronella etc.) don't work all that well. I think if you're dealing with serious mosquitoes (as you probably are), they just laugh at that stuff. I've hearrd good things about Skinstastic, but reapplications are necessary. Skintastic is safe for everyone in the family. Though maybe if you've smoked out the area beforehand with a mosquito coil, you could get away with a "bug bomb" citronella type thing while the kids are out there, just to keep new critters away.

I used to work in the deep Ontario north woods, so my methods might be more extreme than you actually need.

[poconell.livejournal.com]

I used to work in the deep Ontario north woods, so my methods might be more extreme than you actually need.

Have you seen this?


'Twas early in the spring when I decided to go,
For to work up in the woods of North Ontario;

And the unemployment office said they'd send me through
To the Little Abitibi with the survey crew.

And the back flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly no matter where you go.
I'll die with the black fly a-pickin' my bones,
In North Ontar-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.

—from The Blackfly Song

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I even have the mp3 on my ipod, in fact. :)

I know the blackfly very well. I used to spend the spring in Northern Ontario too, setting up camp for the month prior to the kids arriving, and we had to take serious precautions. We could not shower in the morning, only at night. You can't smell too clean or they'll just get to you faster. We wore t-shirts on our heads, so that only our faces showed, put long-sleeved t-shirts on over that, and then gloves. We wore our socks pulled up over the bottoms of our pants. The only thing you can do to protect yourself against blackflies is to cover up. Once you got over how stupid you looked, it was pretty efficient.

[aisforamy]

I know what you're talking about. I have a friend who lives on a horse property (sans horses), and with the irrigation and such, they get mosquitoes BAD. She was going to invest in one of those contraptions, but in the end, she just called the county, and they sent out a truck to spray/mist the whole neighborhood with bug killer. You might want to try that before investing in anything expensive. A lot of city and county agencies are going with this route to keep down the number of cases or West Nile Virus, so you might get lucky.

Good luck!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I know they do that here, too, but I'd rather drop 300$ or so than have the chemicals where the little ones play. Jon's still very young, and while I'm less paranoid about Harry breathing the stuff, it would settle into the mulch, and I don't want Jon ingesting & inhaling a lot of it.

[tealin.livejournal.com]

We've heard good things about them from a lot of people and almost bought one a couple weeks ago. However, after going through the interactive 'trap placement' program on their website, we decided to hold off. Our lot is big and heavily wooded, and it didn't look like one would work for us. We've got toddlers though, and a LOT of mosquitoes, so I think we might end up going for it next year, maybe buy two to get better coverage.

To the Bat-pole!

[batmanmsd.livejournal.com]

This is gonna sound silly, but...

You need Bats. Seriously. I don't know if you can build some kind of bird-nest sort of thing that would be an attractive home for bats instead of birds. But bats will eat THOUSANDS of mosquitos every night.

Dragon flies are another natural enemy of the mosquito (they prey upon gnats too)

While you contemplate digging a hole in the backyard in the hopes of uncovering a Batcave under your home, there's something else you should do.

Get rid of any and all standing water around your house. If you have a pond nearby, well, you're screwed. But they lay eggs in standing water and there may be some areas like bird baths and the like you can do something about.

If I can find some information on how to attract bats to your home I'll let you know. 6'3" paintball-playing ones notwithstanding... I don't eat bugs, too many carbs ;)

Re: To the Bat-pole!

[batmanmsd.livejournal.com]

I hope this will help:

http://www.backyardbird.com/bathouses.html

[cat-mom.livejournal.com]

We have the same skeeter problems here in south Texas and we tried a couple electronic things that were supposed to keep them away or kill them, whatever. They just don't work. I think if there was one out there that really did work, they wouldn't be able to keep them in stock. Can you imagine, actually being able to use your yard in the summer? My brother in Jupiter near you has a very large screened in porch which works pretty well in keeping the bugs out. Sorry.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

We have a purple martin house. Those birds eat about 5 times their weight in mosquitos every day :) And bats! We have bat houses around the lake in strategic locations.