Mosquito control

I live on 18 acres of woods which used to be a rock quarry abandoned 60 years ago or so. As such, when we get heavy rains in Spring like the last two years there are several places on my property where there are fairly large areas of standing water for a while. Needless to say, the mosquitos were unbelieveable the past two years.

It's dry so far this year, but just in case, has anyone used something like these in outdoor fish ponds and such?

https://www.chewy.com/summit-mosquit...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

I kind of figured on walking around looking for big puddles and dropping a few in each. Ads say they are absolutely safe to other life, which is what I want. We're also on a well out here so don't want anything that would contaminate that. Is there a better product than these?

IIRC there are some fish that specialize in eating mosquito larvae? That should do though

I don't know if those work or not.....when I was a kid and DDT and such were legal I worked at a camp that had many pothole lakes and ponds.....most were fishless. We used to go throw gelatin capsules of some chemical into each one. It killed mosquito larva. It was not harmful to other wildlife, but I'm not sure about other insect larva. They looked like small "Tide Pods" green in color. They were effective. A few days after being swarmed with mosquitoes as you approached the ponds it would be relatively pleasant.

They probably contained a substance that has since been outlawed.....they dissolved and you could see an oily film forming.

Been using them in our vernal pools they do help.

This is a good time of year to build some bat houses. They eat LOTS of skeeters!

Half acre of my back yard is wooded. In 2016 we had a wet Spring and a big black mosquito that we had never seen before appeared on a foul wind. We have lived here since 2000. I had purchased one quart of 36% Permethrin online approximately $23.00. The recommended mixture is 1% permethrin. Found that it killed fire ants by pushing the nozzle into the ant nest as deep as it would go while spraying straight stream. Then spray on top of the ground. They don't come back to rebuild in that nest. Then as you went into the woods the mosquitos attacked . I sprayed the woods with a favorable breeze as I backed out. Then sprayed under the rabbit pens, in the garden, then the back yard, and around the house flower areas. A few days
passed and the mosquitos were gone. You can buy the insecticide at local stores but it is more expensive in like 4 ounces. But some stock the large size at a better price.

Used permethrin 1% to saturate my hunting clothes and let dry completely before wearing. We used to get seed ticks, big ticks, chiggers, etc. hunting near Harlingen Texas and we used a lot of insectcides (Sargents ) which has permethrin. The Military developed this stuff during World War 11. The clothing was treated before issued to troops. I read that somewhere.

Bought 30 ounces Mosquito Dunks small chip size on EBay $19.99 free shipping.

I have been using them on my land for the last three years. I think they help. Your local town might give you a few packs for free. Mine does. I just need to go ask.

I know our Skeeter Control folks will come help if asked, especially for standing water. I use Bifen IT concentrate , does a great job, it is harmful to fish tho.

We haven't used any of the pesticides but have put up bat and purple martin houses at the farm and hunt club. You may be on their migration routes.

Bacillus thuringiensis. You can get it usually from your local agricultural center it’s a bacteria that you put in the water the kills the mosquito larva and doesn’t harm anything else. Plus one on the bat houses

I got some water from a friend's pond that contained several dragonfly nymphs. and put them in my non-functional above ground pool (before I drained and dismantled it) they eat their own weight
in Mosquito Larva several times a day.

You can get this in bulk granular form too. I use it in small ponds of standing water around our trailer/camper during Spring/Summer. Works great. It lasts about 3 months per application. Don't know what you would use for large ponds. The swamp areas I treat are maybe 30'x 20'.

Or Martin Houses other wise here 6 inches of snow has been working well.

There are a few places that will have standing water in them for a good while after a big rain. I'm pretty sure that is the problem. I dislike the idea of poisons of any kind, and permethrin is an arachnid poison, works on ticks, spiders and scoprions, doesn't do much for flying insects.

What I wonder about is these little toads (spadefoot I think) used to be everywhere around here and I'm told consume a third of their body weight in insects every day. Hardly ever see them anymore.

If these things kill mosquito larvae and don't hurt birds, tadpoles and such, I'm gonna try them.

I don't know if they hurt anything else or not but the company that Clarksville contracts with will fog an area then throw those into the puddles of standing water. Seems to be effective, mosquitos take a few weeks to reclaim the area after a treatment.

One of the best is the mosquito traps that use propane, an attractor, and then vacuums them into a container. Just make sure it's between you and the main source of the mosquitos! I use permethrin to treat my clothes and a mosquito, or deer fly won't even land on you, not to mention ticks and spiders! Most camping gear is treated with it and you aren't even aware it's there. It works!
I have a real live Cyprus swamp in my backyard and they are awful in the summer and fall. They will run you out of the garden at dusk, just awful! I've also found the mosquito coils and sticks work well IF they are lit well before dark and allowed to burn an hour or so before darkness. I think it messes with there ability to find you, so they move else were sniffing the air.

Don't know if there still available but my uncle had a mosquito magnet it was pricey but it did do a serious job on mosquitos,the area was a heavily wooded in Maine. Took a couple of weeks to work but after that you could sit outside without being eaten alive

I've used them on job sites as well as in the bird baths, worked well. You would have to check if they were cost effective for the area you have.

Slim

If you have kitties permethrin is highly toxic to them!

Good to know. We had ticks real bad two years in a row as well. Ordinary insect repellent keeps the mosquitos off you, but I treated an old set of ACUs I had around with the permethrin and started wearing those when I was messing around the property and never picked up a tick while I was wearing them. I keep them hung up in a closet the cats can't go, but I'll be extra careful now.

I have used them in the "wet spot" next to my house, you could almost walk on the mosquitos without touching the lawn.
Worth the money

IIRC there is another insect larva that eats flea larvae, might also eat skeeter larvae, trying to remember the name of the beasties. They like very WET areas, I know that. Aaah Nematodes. Also Lady Bugs eat fleas, might eat ticks. And Fire Ants probably eat ticks and skeeters if they can get at them.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Sheesh

IIRC there are some fish that specialize in eating mosquito larvae? That should do though

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Gambusa Affinus

https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/fact...?SpeciesID=846

I think I heard about those on an episode of Dirty Jobs set in New Orleans post-Katrina. TY BrassMagnet. It's good to have animal & insect & avian & piscine allies :)

I'll never forget seeing lee county mosquito control in action for the first time after moving to fort Myers, fl from Louisiana . were talking mosquito's that will carry small children and dogs. they flew over the county in a grid pattern with a fleet of dc-3's at very low altitude fogging everything with probably malathion or something like that. anyway they were on the front lines of fighting mosquitos, were well funded, and came up with very unique stuff, including those cookies you toss into standing water. another effective control I watched them do is they mix vegetable oil, like cooking oil with dawn soap, and spray it on standing water. it spreads out on top of the water and doesn't allow the larvae to take flight.

https://www.news-press.com/story/new...can/358623001/

We’ve been uncommonly blest the past two months with minimal rain and strong winds out of the east that last all day and most of the night. Mosquitoes don’t do well in high winds. I know it can’t last forever.

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Originally Posted by farmbif

…another effective control I watched them do is they mix vegetable oil, like cooking oil with dawn soap, and spray it on standing water. it spreads out on top of the water and doesn't allow the larvae to take flight.

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I read a book about the building of the Panama Canal. The French tried first and we’re losing over 80% of their European engineers to yellow fever, every month. When the US took over our progress was better but losses were so bad they finally stopped construction for a year and declared on mosquitoes. American scientists had figured out that’s how the disease was spread.
One reporter that visited the project said no matter where you went, even the most remote areas, if you came across a trickle of a stream, somewhere nearby there’d be a can suspended over it dripping a film of oil on the water.
By the time the mosquito war was over they had them so controlled that if you lived in housing for the skilled trades and engineering staff and found a mosquito, your wife called mosquito control and they arrived quickly to capture the insect for examination and classification.
That’s what happened when Americans set their minds to the task.

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Originally Posted by waksupi

This is a good time of year to build some bat houses. They eat LOTS of skeeters!

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Ric has the right answer IME. I have a creek in my back yard. Between the frogs and the bat houses we keep the skeeters in check.

The US Army used diesel fuel to control the mosquitoes in Cuba and Panama. One or two drops of diesel in a large puddle will suffocate the larva. That is the discovery that made Walter Reed famous. They used to have guys go out and refill the drippers. You could be fined for driving off road and leaving ruts thatwould hold water. I have used vegetable oil. We used to live just down the street from a house with an untended swimming pool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed

Jim

They no longer use the DC3s. I suspect the cost of maintaining aging aircraft got too great. Much more helicopter use now.

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the the lee co sheriff's built a state of the art indoor gun range there at Buckingham field, half of its was for LEO training and the other half was open to public. I shot there several times and took my daughter there for handgun and shooting courses. its a real nice indoor range but you can only shoot the ammo that they sell when your there. its all non toxic frangible.

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Originally Posted by MaryB

If you have kitties permethrin is highly toxic to them!

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Perhaps, if the cats are sprayed with concentrated permethrin, or allowed to roam through it while a 0.50% to 1.00% mixture is still wet, it might be harmful to the cats. I have four cats, both male and female, now aged from 1.5 years to 7 years. I use permethrin in accordance with the label instructions in a water-based 0.50% mixture and LET IT DRY before allowing the cats to roam. My cats are not affected by the permethrin after 25+years of its use (18+years before I got the first cat).

Spray 0.50% permethrin on hunting clothes (effective even after multiple washings) and liberally around the footprint of the house (it WILL kill termites), on window screens, under overhangs. No more mosquitos, no ticks, no fleas, no "No See Ums" (if you know these, they are insidious), no house flies, no yellow flies, no horse flies, no termites, no ants, no spiders, and no wasps or their nests. Permethrin is effective. No more fidgeting in the tree stand shooing No See Ums, mosquitos, horse or yellow flies.

Here is a link to the FACTS about permethrin: http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/PermGen.html

The best concentrate I have found is "Hi-Yield 38", which is 38% permethrin, that I cut with water to 0.50% before spraying. Sixteen (16) ounces of Hi-Yield 38 will make 9.5 gallons of 0.50% solution.

I hear the CDC has magic chain link fencing that keeps mosquitoes out of your yard!

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Originally Posted by Jim22

The US Army used diesel fuel to control the mosquitoes in Cuba and Panama. One or two drops of diesel in a large puddle will suffocate the larva. That is the discovery that made Walter Reed famous. They used to have guys go out and refill the drippers. You could be fined for driving off road and leaving ruts thatwould hold water. I have used vegetable oil. We used to live just down the street from a house with an untended swimming pool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed

Jim

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2 stroke oil works well also.