Need help with preventing mosquitos? We’ve got you covered.
There is nothing more repulsive than finding out that you have mosquitoes breeding in the standing water that sits on your property. And these days, an itchy annoying mosquito bite comes with the fear that you may have contracted a disease like the West Nile virus or the Zika virus.
So your immediate reaction may be to spray the area and then drain the standing water, but did you really get rid of the mosquitoes?
Probably not, and if you have mosquitoes breeding in one place, then you have them everywhere. This is because mosquitos, once they have found a favorable breeding ground, will lay their eggs everywhere – about 100-300 eggs every three days until their lifespan is complete.
It’s also starting to become a myth that mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. New research shows that mosquitoes can also successfully lay eggs right next to standing water.
Which means that places like your gutters, where you overlook small puddles of standing water, are the best places for mosquitoes to breed undisturbed.
You can easily prevent mosquitos with gutter guards, but first, let’s look at how to take care of the problem from the very beginning. Once you get rid of existing mosquitos, you can rest assured that you can prevent mosquitos with gutter guards like MasterShield in the future.
Best Mosquito Treatment for Yard
The best mosquito treatment for yard and gardens will vary by where your home is located (country or city) and how large and diverse your property is. A home with a smaller yard that is located in town will be easier to treat than if you have a cabin at the lake or a large property in the country.
There are many different ways of how to kill mosquito larvae and full-grown mosquitos, so here are some suggestions to get you started:
Using Mosquito Spray for Yard and Garden
The first thing that people buy (when they see more than one mosquito) is mosquito spray for the yard. Mosquito spray for yard and garden is one of those quick remedies that puts your mind at ease immediately.
When no more mosquitos are apparent, the mosquito spray goes back on the shelf in the garage and is forgotten.
The best mosquito spray for the yard lasts up to eight weeks and kills a lot more than just mosquitoes. It also kills other pests like beetles, ticks, crickets, ants, gnats, and worms. The active ingredients, however, are not natural and can only be used outside.
These sprays will also kill many of the beneficial insects in your garden, as well on your lawn. These are the beneficial insects that keep away a lot the other pests that harm your lawn and gardens. Although, these sprays are not usually a danger to pets and children.
However, if your gutters even have just a few leaves and some water in them, the mosquito breeding goes on, unseen and uninterrupted. That is until you get bitten on your way into the house from the car by the mosquitoes breeding in your unprotected gutters.
The Best Mosquito Repellent for Yard
It is much better if you don’t have many mosquitos, to use a natural mosquito repellent to stop the whole process of mosquito breeding before it starts.
If you don’t have gutter guards installed yet, it is important to first clean out the gutters. You don’t want to take all of the time to spray your yard or set up mosquito repellent remedies only to drive the mosquitos up to the wet leaves in your gutters.
This is where they will breed unnoticed, instead of where you can see them.
Cleaning out the gutters means removing all of the leaves, debris, and gunk so the water that falls into them can run freely to the downspouts. You will also need to test your downspouts with a hose to make sure they run free as well.
Make sure the runoff from the downspouts doesn’t collect into a place where it will become standing water in your yard.
Next, you can look around your yard for any other standing water. This includes water in birdbaths, swimming pool covers, plastic bags, buckets, toys, and any place that might hold water after a rainstorm.
Three hundred mosquito eggs are only 1/4” x 1/8” wide. So clearing away wet, decaying leaves and brush is also a good idea as mosquitos like standing water to breed, but they don’t necessarily need it.
Now it is time to look into the best mosquito repellent for yard and gardens, which again, will depend on how much area you are trying to cover. Believe it or not, if you are sitting outside on your deck, the best mosquito repellent is an oscillating pedestal fan. Turn it on high and sit close to it. Your chances of getting bitten decrease by about 65%.
Other Mosquito Repellents
Other forms of mosquito repellents that you don’t have to apply to your skin include:
- Battery-Powered Diffusers
- Citronella Candles
- LED Lights, Yellow Light Bulbs
- Mosquito Traps
- Foggers
- Bug Zappers
- Ultrasonic Devices
- Mosquito Repellent Sticks and Coils
- Mosquito Lanterns
These are all effective to varying degrees, but as the term implies, these are repellents that work to keep you from getting bitten while you are sitting outside. They don’t necessarily work to kill or stop mosquitoes from breeding and laying eggs somewhere on your property.
Mosquito eggs are so small that you won’t notice them until they are larvae. How to kill mosquito larvae is another matter because they have to be killed in standing water where animals may want to drink.
You can kill mosquito larvae easily by adding household products to the water to kill them.
Vegetable oil, like olive oil or corn oil (1 teaspoon per gallon of water), will suffocate mosquito larvae quickly. Apple cider vinegar added to water is another way to kill them, although it takes a little longer and requires a higher concentration of vinegar to get the job done.
In the case of how to kill mosquito larvae in the gutters of your home, you can add a drop of dish liquid to standing puddles.
This is how to kill mosquito larvae in one day. In this method, let the dishwater stand overnight to make sure and kill the larvae.
If there are no animals or children around, and as a last resort, adding a few teaspoons of bleach to standing water will kill them as well. You do not ever need to use a large amount of any chemical to kill insects and should avoid doing so.
Prevent Mosquitos with Gutter Guards, Along With the Viruses They Carry
Once you have killed all the mosquitoes and mosquito larvae in your yard and gutters, you should be free from the dangerous viruses that mosquitoes carry. Much of what is included in this article covers West Nile virus tips for homeowners by preventing mosquito breeding.
The last step, though, is to think about how gutter guards and Zika Virus prevention go hand-in-hand. This is because once your home is mosquito-free, gutter guards will help keep it that way.
Let’s face it, it’s hard enough to remember to get rid of the standing water in a birdbath or a bucket, but nearly impossible to get up on a ladder every time it rains to check the gutters for standing water.
This is the first place for mosquitoes to breed, especially if there are wet leaves and gunk to lay eggs. So once your gutters are clean, gutter guards that let the water flow through and keep mosquitos out!
