Mosquito control

[GGV8Cruza]

We live on some land, small to some, larger to city style. We have a great outdoor entertaining area and with the weather now on the change we will be looking forward to entertaining and using the pool and deck a lot more this year.

One issue we have is the attack of the mozzie, we have an old quarry close to us and I am guessing the water in the quarry is a great breeding ground for them so when the time is right they are relentless and become a pain.

Can anyone give me a review and suggestion on a way to keep them at bay a little, we are thinking an electronic device, 240V is fine. Thanks in advance

GG

[scarpsD40]

Buy a stack of gold fish and drop them in the quarry ponds. Fish eat the larvae before they can hatch.
It's natural and everyone wins.

Alternative spray chemicals everywhere and poison the **** out of them;D

[Jackdawg]

yeah, go natives, rainbows or similar -  not gold fish.

Otherwise there are those citronella squirters, but ti is hard to beat the old mosquito coils, I reckon they work as well or better than more expensive options.

[dales133]

Buy a stack of gold fish and drop them in the quarry ponds. Fish eat the larvae before they can hatch.
It's natural and everyone wins.

Alternative spray chemicals everywhere and poison the **** out of them;D

Even better get some murry cod or pearch fingerlings in there,
Goldfish taste like crap!


Ive noticed though myself the flys and mosqutos are so much worse this year than last already.
I went around last weekend and checked for water in empty pots ect and found a few larvae, bastids breed in the smallest amount of water

[plusnq]

That's a great idea.

[speewa158]

l can see it soon  " GGs  Fishing  Safari :                                                      
Yet another cottage industry is born                        

[oldmate]

Shotgun?? Or should we not go down that track again 

[callmejoe]

Buy a few attack drones and put them on auto mode. Attack and destroy.



But. I live in darwin to keep them a bay and that's all you can do. I have found what works best is making a breeze of some sort. We use over head fans.. Then i use mossie coils (u pay for what you get). On the boarders of the area we are sitting.

The electronic blue light things ARE ABSOLUTLY USELESS. all they do is attract bigger bugs and do nothing for the mozxie population.

Joe.

[Bird]

Speak to the council about getting it sprayed..
They had a massive mozzie issue at the Frankston MX track, it was all swamp over the road, the council then sprayed it and the issue died down for a while.

[slcs78]

As said electronic deterrents don't worry work. Mosquitoes and flies are attracted to the co2 that's cute messages from your skin. An ultra violet light had no attraction to them unless you add a bait attractant. Get your self a ceiling fan and mozzie coils

[gronk]

While camping, I've found mozzie coils are useless...they certainly don't like the smoke, but how do you cover the whole area in smoke ??

Apart from personal spray....and the fish in the quarry......what everyone does down in the everglades in America is enclose their outdoor areas in flyscreen !!

I think the fish idea would be cheaper ! 

[Green rv]

do regular checks around the house and empty any sitting water
mozzie coils work well i normally use about 4 for a 25m2 area this also helps break the cycle as the wont lay eggs close by
native fish are cheap and a good way to reduce mozzies and would be fun to wander over and catch some every now and then

 
Adam

[Spada]

Perhaps a trip to the nursery and a bit of gardening-

Rosemary (repels flies)
Lemongrass
“Mozzie Blocker” (Leptospermum releases it’s natural Citronella like scent when the weather is warm)
Lemon Thyme
Catnip (Mosquitos, Weevils and Cockroaches Ten times more effective than DEET)
Marigolds (Contain pyrethrum which mosquitoes find offensive)
Ageratum (Emits a smell that mosquitoes find offensive and secretes a substance called Coumarin which is widely used in repellents.)
Chamomile (Repels flying insects)

[terravista]

You could velcro a dozen or so gecko's or green tree frogs to your uncovered skin areas, but if you have pets, they may get jealous.
We use the basic Pestrol automatic spray cans in the house and they seem to work fine in killing (or repelling) flies, skeeters etc, and they do have outside units. We have 2 marine fish tanks, a cat and 2 dogs that have not been affected by the spray so it seems to be safe, and the pet flaps being used all the time does not alter the effectiveness.
Can't comment on the outdoor units but if they work as well as the indoor ones it may be worth the try.
The same company has electronic mouse deterrents that supposedly work from all power outlets when one is plugged into a power point, but our family mice living within 300mm of a power point did not read the instructions and they thrived. There is also pretty bad reports on their snake repellers.
The insect spray works for us, but mice and snakes deterrents etc........rate right up there with Hyclones.

[rockinj]

I have used these often in the past. It is fantastic but I found the best thing was to actually put it UNDER the table at our feet as the mozzies would hang around down there. If it is really bad I would have another going on a table. Unfortunately I no longer have a deck so don't get to use them at home. I have recently bought a new one to take camping though.


You can also buy something similar that plugs in. It looks nothing like this one though.

Also the Aldi mozzie wipes work really well if you are lucky enough to get some when they are available.

[tk421]

Mossie coils/citronella candles if you can stand the smoke and something like aeroguard.  If you don't want the chemical route on your skin, then natural plants/oils like Spada said.  Lemon Eucalyptus and Citronella get good wraps and using a fan - mossies are quite fragile fliers.  Also long pants and tops - not always great in summer but it reduces the skin surface.

Then you could try and reduce their numbers by reducing habitat around the home. Reduce standing water for the larva and thick dense foliage for the adults. - Open water tanks and water barrels are a big source of larva so drain any you don't need or cover the openings to stop them getting in. But they don't really need much water, 15cm wide by 1-2cm deep is enough to let them breed within  8-10 days. So any standing pools in tarps, Bird baths buckets etc...

Most mossies only travel 1-2km from their breeding ground (some can travel 20-50km) so unless the quarry is that close it might not be the main cause.

[Fizzie]

Or there's something like this:

http://www.mosquitoslayer.com/#!products/ciaa

Masks your breath, attracts them in then kills them. Saw something on local news a few years ago when they came out & supposedly do work but never spoken to anyone who actually has one. Also no idea on price, so could be scary 

[robbo1172]

Or there's something like this:

http://www.mosquitoslayer.com/#!products/ciaa

Masks your breath, attracts them in then kills them. Saw something on local news a few years ago when they came out & supposedly do work but never spoken to anyone who actually has one. Also no idea on price, so could be scary 

From their website

"A field test showed 98% of the mosquitoes caught by the trap were female, while only 1% was male."

The other 1% must be undecided...

Robbo...

[Fizzie]

The other 1% must be undecided...

No,  they're drones 






Ohhh, sorry, forgot - it's bee's that have drones isn't it, not mozzies! 

[robbo1172]

No,  they're drones 






Ohhh, sorry, forgot - it's bee's that have drones isn't it, not mozzies! 

Ha ha I just giggled...

Robbo...


Whatever you do, DO NOT ask about the drones...

rockfactor.com.au

[Sixpack]

Mate get yourself a heap of kerosene lanterns and fill them with citronella, hang them around your patio.  It kills 2 birds with one stone nice lighting when entertaining and gives you a mozzie barrier, if the mozzie's are that bad whack on a mozzie coil to assist the citronella.   

[GeoffA]

Midnight raid on the quarry??

[dales133]

From their website

"A field test showed 98% of the mosquitoes caught by the trap were female, while only 1% was male."

The other 1% must be undecided...

Robbo...

Only female mozzies bite at night and males during the day,male mozzies dont carry malaria  but they carry dengue feaver.
Ive spent Shitloads of time in S.E asia and alot of it as a youngster living on 20 bucks a day so i didnt waste money on anything that didnt work.
Long slieves and long pants where you can (i used to buy ultralite long slieve Ts and pants for night time use and a good insect repalent on exposed areas but i spent yonks of time on islands and jungle areas where mozzies were rife and so was maleria... mozzie coils are invaluable as are fans as stated before but light weight long slieves and pants are the only way to enjoy yourself in realy bad areas

[Redcherokee]

We tried one similar to this:
http://www.mega catch.com/ultra.html

Think it is still floating around in the corner of the backyard if you want to have a go.   Swag mail? Didn't work as well as advertised for us, but your situation sounds closer to the scenario it is designed for.  One big issue we had was it works best with CO2 bottles, and we found buying those was a major pain. 

Have a mate who catches mozzies semi professionally for uni studies and the like.  CO2 is an essential part of any trap, but he uses other aromatics as well. 

We tend to just use Mortein mozzie coils, and have fish in the garden pond. 

Let me know if you want to follow up on the machine.  We can dig it out and see how many bits have got lost since it was last used.   

[plusnq]

Long sleeves and clothes work till you come across Scotch Grey mozzies. They will bite you through even thick clothing such as denim or army green.