Plant pot elevated on pot feet to promote drainage
A Donut in Every Bird Bath
After a mosquito lays eggs in your plant saucer, she’ll lay more in your birdbath, kids’ toys, and forgotten containers. While toy trucks and buckets can be picked up, drained, and put away, the birdbath is one place where we actually want water to sit for a few days. Our feathered friends appreciate a clean place to splash around, so take a moment to spruce it up, give it a good scrub, and dislodge any dirt and mosquito eggs.
After you’ve cleaned your birdbath, keep it mosquito-free with a Mosquito Dunk®, a biofriendly, cheap, and easy solution that is harmless to birds, pets, people and fish. One donut can treat a 100-square-foot area, so it can treat your bird bath with a single dunk or less. Read the back of the package for portion suggestions and use only the amount needed for smaller areas.
If you have a rain barrel or other means of capturing rainwater, go ahead a put a dunk in there, too. The active ingredient, Bti, is certified by OMRI for use in organic gardening.
Birdbath outdoors with a dunk placed in it
A Big Fan
A large oscillating or box fan is a powerful tool when it comes to mosquito-proofing. Overhead fans are nice, but they don’t combat mosquitoes. A fan that blows air horizontally creates an air current too stiff for mosquitoes to handle; their flight speed maxes out at two miles per hour. A gentle breeze is about ten mph, so the larger the fan, the greater the area you can keep mosquito-free.
Top of an oscillating fan and its blades
Get your mind in the gutter
It’s easy to forget about your gutters – out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, just a few leaves and needles can clog it up, creating a dark, wet environment for mosquitoes to thrive. After rain, it only takes a week to hatch a whole new crop of biters above your front door. Regular gutter maintenance won’t be the most exciting thing to do with your weekend, but you can delight in all the mosquitoes that you are evicting from your eaves.
Do you have a French drain?
Called by many different names – blind drains, rock drains, perimeter drains – these are underground trenches with perforated pipe that are meant to redirect water. However, they tend to perform far better at breeding mosquitoes than alleviating your drainage situation.
If you do have a French drain, keep it mosquito-free with a Mosquito Dunk®. Tip: keep the dunk from washing away by tying it to the drain cover. Ensure the string is long enough so the donut can rest on the bottom of the catch basin. The naturally occurring bacteria in the dunk can survive multiple wet and dry cycles, so if you can see it in there, it’s working. Expect to tie on a new dunk about every 30 days.
Open French drain with a string tying a dunk to it for treatment
Metal box of a French drain, which also requires treatment
Guard with garlic
Garlic barrier, commonly sold as Mosquito barrier, has been used for years in agriculture to repel insects from crops, and even to keep birds from eating tree fruits. Dilute this liquid garlic concentrate with water and then apply it with a pump sprayer to plants and structures around the perimeter of your yard. One application lasts about a month, but it needs to be reapplied after rain. This can be a great tool to use ahead of a pool party or family barbeque – after you’ve tossed anything holding water!
Young boy looking at a mosquito bite on his elbow
Benjamin Franklin famously noted, “Nothing is certain, except death and taxes.” In Southeast Texas, you can add mosquitoes to that list. What you may not have known is that you have more control over mosquitoes – at least the ones in your yard – than you think.