Summer Mosquito Control: My 8 Top Tips

Garden
Written By Jeannine Kennedy

Here we are in midsummer, and the mosquitos seem to be winning. With July 4th coming up, we will be outside probably more than usual, so what can we do to enjoy a mosquito free holiday weekend?

There is an old wives tale we need several nights of cold winter freezes to kill off the pests.  Therefore, when we don’t have a really cold winter, you can assume that bugs will be bad in the summer. 

I have lived in Georgia my entire life and I don’t remember a single year without mosquitos.  I don’t remember if there was bug repellant spray when I was a kid, but if there was, my blue collar family didn’t use it.

At night after bath time, my Mama would treat all my bites with calamine lotion, until I was pink-polka dotted from head to toe! I got bit all the time, but bugs didn’t bother me then like they do now.  Working from home, I go outside a few times a day, to let my dog out or I will take a late lunch break and walk through the garden for a few minutes.  I always get bites, no matter what time of day I go, or how long I stay out.  Even so, I loathe the smell of mosquito repellant, so I rarely use it.  I only apply it if I know I am going to be outside for at least a full morning or a full afternoon.

Studies have shown that Type O blood is the preferred by mosquitos over other types.  In fact, people with Type O get bit more than twice the amount of people with Type A.  Guess what my blood type is?  Yep, type O. 

There are other factors that seem to play into people getting bit, if someone is on the large size, they are more likely to get bit because they produce more carbon dioxide.  If you just worked out, body heat is a factor in getting bit, so runners, bicyclists, tennis players, etc. should use some kind of repellant when exercising outdoors.  Pregnant women are more likely to get bit due to body heat and carbon dioxide production.  Ketones are known to be an attractant, so if you are on a Keto diet, you should wear repellants.

Read more: Do mosquitos bite you more than others?

Even if I wear long sleeves and long pants, which is hard to do in the heat of summer, I will still get bit on my hands, face, ankles, etc. which is why I give in and wear the repellant.  Wouldn’t you know that the worst smelling repellants with DEET are the only ones that seem to be effective for me?  So, the buggers seem to get me no matter what, but we have figured out a few things over the years.  We try these things if we know we are going to be outside for a while.  My sweet husband will often go out ahead of me and prepare the back yard or the front yard when he knows we are going to be out. 

Here are our Top 8 methods for mosquito control:

1)    Encourage bat habitation on your property.  I know this tip will be controversial, so hear me out.  Just one brown bat can catch 1,000 insects in an hour and a nursing mother bat eats approximately 4,500 insects every night. 

You can do certain things to attract bats to your yard, I’ll link to an article below.  Bats also help pollinate plants, and they eat beetles as well, and providing a habitat for them will keep them from roosting in your home. 

We are very fortunate that a family of bats moved into one of our cypress trees years ago. I honestly only ever see them when the nights start to get cool in the Fall, otherwise I wouldn’t even know they were there. 

People fear having bats due to them carrying rabies and their droppings contain fungus that can act as poison.  As I said, we have only seen them at night, and in the Fall.  In our case, the benefits of having the bats far outweigh any negatives.

5 ways to attract bats to your yard

Fun fact: hummingbirds also eat mosquitos, and they are cuter than bats, but they will migrate much earlier than bats do, so they aren’t around as long to do pest control. If you are averse to bats, you can attract hummingbirds!

2)    Cut your grass ahead of time when you know you are going to be outside.  Mosquitos like to rest in tall grass.  I have found that I usually just cannot be out in the yard if the grass has grown tall.

3)    Do not having standing water anywhere.  This is where mosquitos breed, and 75% of their life span is spent in standing water.  We have several birdbaths in the garden, and we have a couple of areas where our French drains runoff and water collects in puddles.  Corkey is diligent to put out mosquito dunks or granules in these areas weekly throughout the summer.  Be mindful of places near the bottom of gutters, ditches in your yard, empty buckets, or planters, etc. where they could be hiding.

4)    Start a bonfire – mosquitos do not like smoke.  We keep a stash of firewood in the yard so that Corkey can start a fire when we are going to be out.  We like to burn boxes too because it creates more smoke.  I don’t have to be right around the fire for the smoke to help, which is awesome because I don’t love the smell of smoke in my hair!

5)    Turn on fans – mosquitos can’t fly in a breeze or windy environments.  As a bonus, this also works for biting flies, bees, wasps, etc.  We keep an industrial fan in our back yard that we turn on high but we place it far back from where we are going to be sitting so that it covers a larger area. 

On our front porch, which is small, we have a tower fan that rotates.  Fans go a LONG way in keeping the biting bugs from coming around.

6)    Citronella torches are a great repellant.  Remember, mosquitos hate smoke, especially scented smoke, and citronella is a natural repellant, so this method is a two-fer!  We have 8 – 10 torches set up to form a perimeter around our garden and pool.  Corkey will light these about 10 – 15 minutes before we are going to be outside.  We probably buy a half gallon of citronella every month during the summer months.  Fortunately, our torches have lasted for years, but they are definitely worth the investment.

7)    Purchase a Thermocell:  late last summer we added Thermocell units to our front porch and back garden patio area.  These small, battery operated devices use heat to disperse repellant in a twenty feet diameter area of coverage.  They really work like a charm! We purchased these late last summer and have purchased some refills for them once so far.

8)    Lastly, use spray repellants as needed.  Repellants can be used to spray on your lawn and around your home.  Just know that professional lawn treatment is expensive and doesn’t last very long, especially during rainy season. You may need to reapply often and lawn treatments will not likely be 100% effective. (There are DIY options for lawn treatment as well.) 

As we all know, repellants can also be used on the skin.  A quick search online will show you all types of repellants, there are plastic bracelets (didn’t work at all for me) there are stickers you can place on your clothing (I have my doubts), and there are products with a very effective ingredient called DEET. 

The concern with products that contain DEET is that it can cause skin irritation, and there is an increased chance of seizures with use of DEET – 1 in one hundred million users. A few deaths have been associated with DEET as well.

Fortunately, products with DEET isn’t your only choice. There is a lemon eucalyptus oil spray that is plant based and all natural. This doesn’t smell so bad, and while it did help me some, it didn’t keep me from getting bit altogether.

There is a newer formula of repellant that is called picardin that isn’t oily or smelly like DEET. Last year, I discovered OFF Clean Feel Fragrance Free Insect Repellant and it works like a charm!

Sadly, I try to implement all of the tips I have listed above, and when they don’t help, my go-to product is Deep Woods OFF.  This is the one product that if I apply it liberally, on every little area of exposed skin, will always keep the bugs away from me.

I hope these tips help you have a safe, itch-free and happy summer!

What about you?  Do you have a tried-and-true method for keeping mosquitos away from you outdoors?  I’d love to hear about it! Comment below or email me at hello@kinshipandvine.com!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links.  As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Jeannine Kennedy

Event/Floral/Garden design. Woman owned, licensed and insured business serving northwest Georgia. Enjoy a new blog post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

http://kinshipandvine.com
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