Mosquito Treatment

[greeneyedlady]

Mosquito Treatment
> >
> > Pass this on to anyone who likes sitting out
> in the evening or when they're having a cook
> out. So you don't like those pesky mosquitoes,
> especially now that they have the potential to
> carry the West Nile Virus? Here's a tip that
> was given at a recent gardening forum. Put
> some water in a white dinner plate and add a
> couple drops of Lemon Fresh Joy dish
> detergent. Set the dish on your porch, patio,
> or other outdoor area. Not sure what attracts
> them, the lemon smell, the white plate color,
> or what, but mosquitoes flock to it, and drop
> dead shortly after drinking the Lemon Fresh
> Joy/water mixture, and usually within about 10
> feet of the plate. Check this out--it works
> just super! May seem trivial, but it may help
> control mosquitoes around your home,
> especially in the South and elsewhere where
> the West Nile virus is reaching epidemic
> proportions in mosquitoes, birds, and humans.
> >

[Sensei_the_dojo]

This is an old wive's tale. Don't bother trying it.

http://www.snopes.com/spoons/oldwives/dishsoap.htm

[dwayne]

Dang! I was psyched to give this a shot (and as luck would have it, my mother uses Joy lemon!). This weekend, at 1pm, in broad daylight, a HUGE mosquito landed on my son's forehead. I slapped him before he could get bit (and god help me if any of the neighbors saw that, they'd think I was abusing him because who ever heard of a mosquito out at 1pm, and in hindsight perhaps slapping his forehead wasn't the best method of removing the mosquito, but he's only 2 and I fear the WNV!!??). I saw a few more while we were outside playing that day. And Sunday, and last night (still daylight, around 5:30).

We do not live in the country, we're in Medford, a suburb about 10 minutes outside of Boston. We have a few trees in our backyard, but nothing 'woodsy'.

What's worse is I've always been allergic to mosquito bites (swell up like the goodyear balloon and they take weeks to heal), so I'm pretty used to swatting myself, and wearing OFF - but now it looks like i'll have to douse myself w/ OFF everytime I want to play outside even if it's light out, and my son too, out of fear of WNV!

DANG MOSQUITOES!!! :rant: :rant:

Thanks for letting me get that big rant off my chest, aaah, I feel much better now!

:)
~Tara

[slipknottin]

I put in a bat house in the backyard, and the mosquito population has dropped alot.

[OrionGirl]

Mosquitos can and will reproduce in any standing water they can find--doesn't matter where the water is located. Make it a habit to review your surroundings and locate and empty containers of water--old tires, tubs, pots, etc--or treat them with a biological larvicide (harmless to most other aquatic life but lethal to mosquito larvae). DEET containing sprays are the only ones proven to repel mosquitos, citronella and such are not proven effective. Mosquitos locate targets by detecting CO2 in your breath, no way to avoid it. And, like sunscreen, read the label and know how often you need to reapply, based on the product you're using, and the activity. If you are outside daily, you might want to look into buying one of the propane based mosquito control units. A bit pricier, but very, very effective.

[dwayne]

Thanks OG. Every night before we go inside, I tip over all of my son's buckets and empty out his little pool to avoid standing water. The guy who used to own the house put a new back deck on before we moved in... he didn't pave under there, and his landscaping guys who came over twice a month never, ever raked under there. There's piles of leaves under there... so I'm pretty sure that's where they are coming from, tiny puddles/pools of water. I was thinking maybe once the weather gets colder and I'm sure there aren't any mosquitoes left under there (maybe after first frost), I'll venture under there and see what's going on...

I hate citronella candles. My brother and sister in law insist on lighting them all over their backyard whenever they have a cookout and they stink, literally smell gross, and stink because they don't do jack squat to keep the skeeters away. I *heart* my DEET!

Slip ~ What's a bat house... a house for bats, like instead of birds living in there, you put bats???

~Tara

[roliva]

Slip ~ What's a bat house... a house for bats, like instead of birds living in there, you put bats???

~Tara[/QUOTE]


Yep, I think that's what he made. Alot of people build them just for the reason of getting rid of pesky insects.

Romeo.

[slipknottin]

yup, just like a bird house, but for bats. Of course, now I have to watch out for rabid bats... but rabies doesnt seem real common around here.

[dwayne]

How do the bats know to go in there and live? Why don't birds go in instead? Where do you even get bats? Hmmm... this is all quite fascinating to me... :D

~Tara

[daveedka]

Ditto on the propane fogger idea from OG. I have two of these, they are fabulous and well worth the 50 bucks or so spent. With my scout troop, we are constantly in misquito infested areas, repellent with Deet, coils, and the propane fogger are lifesavers.
Around the house I can't even get the D#$% things to breed. I wanted white worms for my guppies, and I've had a bucket of clean water behind my shed most of the summer. nothing but algea growing there. Go figure!

And since this is General chit chat, has anyone but me ever batted bats?
dave

[dwayne]

"has anyone but me ever batted bats?"

The only bat that I've ever seen up close was one that was in my basement when I was like 10 or so... my dad was out of town, and my mother called her brother to come over and get it. He hit it w/ a tennis racket, stunned it, put it in a brown paper bag, and supposedly took it 'out to the fields' wherever that may be, to let it go...

So no, I've never batted bats, but I've seen a bat get racketed!

[Sensei_the_dojo]

Bats are the most common and populous animal on the earth. Even though we don't see them most of the time (because of their nocturnal nature), they're out there and will probably find a bat house before too long if you place one in your yard -- you won't have to go looking for them. The way bat houses are constructed makes it pretty hard for most birds to get in there.

Here's a link to one possible design of a bat house.

http://www.southernregion.fs.fed.us/boone/batdraw.htm

A couple years ago I visited Carlsbad Caverns just before Labor Day and waited for the evening bat flight. It was awesome to watch a seemingly endless cloud of bats come streaming from the caverns to start their nightly hunt.

[daveedka]

They are pretty awesome animals when you get right down to it. I've never seen a big flight out of a cave, but we run into them in the shallow underground mines pretty frequently. on the farms as a kid, we would watch them fly around in the barns at night. If you ever want to see on up close, just launch a ping pong ball into the air at night, and watch it fall. bats will home in on it and follow it down most of the time. as with prety much any small object that sounds like a bug to their sonar.
dave

[Dangerdoll]

yipes! I saw one of them up close just 2 weeks ago. We went to the vacation house in PA, were settling down at about 9 or so.... all of a sudden there's one flying around the house. I have no idea how it got in and the weirdest thing was while it was flying, no one even heard his wings flapping. And he had an amazing amount of control over his flight.... I always thought they were skittish fliers. Anyway, we opened up a few windows and doors and sorta herded him out of the house....

[greeneyedlady]

Oh dang you mean it doesn't work darn it, I was going to try it also a friend sent it to me oh well.

As for the bats when I lived in El Paso, the bats used to fly over our house from Carlsbad Caverns and they used to dive bomb the pool for the insects.

We used to go to Carlsbad Caverns also it is a pretty cool place to visit.

[Watcher74]

Down in Austin there is a tourist spot for watching bat flights. Bats from Mexico spend their summer under the bridges in Austin and come pouring out at sunset. An awesome site.

[dwayne]

WOW!! Thanks everyone, they sound like very interesting animals!!

[Timmain42]

BTW, you might want to consider "flicking" mosquitos instead of smashing them.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-08062004-343904.html

And Tara, if you were in our neighborhood and "swatted" your kid, we wouldn't turn you in, we'd prolly applaud. Not enough people spank/swat their kids anymore, so kids just aren't scared of their parents like they used to be. Not a good thing.

[PumaWard]

Are you sure citronella doesn't work? 'Cause we live next to a swamp... aka, mosquitoville so we light the citronella candles when we're out. The mosquitos usually assault us, but don't when the candles are out...

Another tip to avoid mosquitos... don't where perfume.

[125gJoe]

On a side note...
It should be pointed out the females are the ones that are the bloodsuckers - not the males.... :D

http://www.wordphiles.info/image-word-unit1/mos-male-bar.gif

[dwayne]

Timmain ~ ew, that's a nasty story!!

Puma ~ well our mosquitoes don't seem to care about citronella candles... maybe because they're 'city' mosquitoes and are used to smelling it because every lites the citronella??

Joe ~ Hahah!!!

[anonapersona]

I use facial mud on mosquito bites. the green clay type, this particular brand is St. Ives (from the Dollar store) but any facial type clay mask product will do, I think the green bentonite mud is best.

I dab it on the bite and as the mud dries it draws out the poison. This makes the welt go away. some particularly vicious Texas mosquitoes require mud treatments for a few days in a row.

This is really useful when you get a mosquito bite on your face where you don't want to scratch it and you can't tolerate having that welt. Of course, do this at home and don't go walking around with green mud dabbed all over yourself and remember to wash it off before you do to bed.

[slipknottin]

I use pure ammonia on mosquito bites. Stings like heck but stops the itching.

[125gJoe]

I use pure ammonia on mosquito bites. Stings like heck but stops the itching.
Sorry anona, but Slip seems like an easier "way out" of the ich problem.
Thanks for the tip Slip, I will try that out! ..

[dwayne]

Slip and annona... excellent mosquito bite remedy ideas... ammonia, ouch, but I can see how it works. The clay mud mask as well. Hmmm, looks like I'll be going shopping tonite, since I just know that I'll get at least one bite tomorrow! :D

[ChicoRaton]

hmm, ammonia seems pretty useful. cure mosquito bites, cycle your aquarium, and clean your house! all hail NH3! :bowing:

Anyway, if you like bats, you should come out to my house at night. I live on top of a mountain, surrounded by all manner of woods. We have a large outbuilding on the other end of a clearing form the house (hope that made sense...) and the outbuilding has a big mercury vapor light on it. At night all the moths flock to the light and you can see dozen(s) of bats flying around eating the moths. pretyt amazing how many there are. Never has one gotten in the house, but they get stuck in the garage a lot.

[125gJoe]

hmm, ammonia seems pretty useful...

Anyway, if you like bats, ....ot.You can catch them with a flyrod too. Try not to, as some can carry rabies! :thud: