With the summer fast approaching, you’ll be looking forward to enjoying more time with friends outdoors, and relaxing in the sun. However, the warmer weather does bring more mosquitoes with it, and here in California, there are 53 different breeds of this pest alone. You’ll want to be able to keep them at bay, so here are the breeds you’ll want to watch out for, and how to stop them from bothering you.
Types Of Mosquitoes In Southern California
There are so many different types of mosquitoes that you can find in California, but some of them will be more of a bother than others. Here are the types of mosquitoes that you’ll want to look out for.
Aedes Mosquitoes
These are the most common type of mosquitoes you’ll find in California, as there are over 27 different varieties of them. As such, you’re more than likely going to come into contact with them. They’re also fairly dangerous, as they can spread a variety of diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and more. They’ll also be a danger to dogs, as they can spread heartworm.
Typically, these mosquitoes will lay their eggs in water. You may hear them referred to as floodwater mosquitoes for this reason. If you have any water or water features on your property, you’ll want to watch out for them.
Culex Mosquitoes
This is the next most common species of mosquito in California. Again, they tend to lay their eggs on water and stick to each other like a raft as they do so. They are most commonly found to bite at dusk and during the night, so you’ll want to watch out for them when you’re enjoying the outdoors after sundown.
Anopheles Mosquitoes
The next most common species is the Anopheles mosquito, with five different species found in California. These are species that you want to be especially careful of, as they are known to carry malaria.
They will lay their eggs singly on the surface of the water, typically in areas of heavy vegetation.
Culuseta Mosquitoes
These are the last type of mosquitoes that you need to be aware of in California, as there are four types of them that are found here. You need to take great care with these, as many of them are considered to be severe biters.
Repelling Mosquitoes From Your Home
Now you know what mosquitoes you need to be wary of in the spring season, and why they pose a danger to you. Are there ways of repelling them? Many feel that it is difficult to repel them, as they reproduce rapidly, and can lay up to 100 eggs in a space as small as a bottle cap. They’ve also been attacked with insecticides for decades, and that leads to them having a natural resistance.
However, you do still have some ways to repel them from your home and keep them away from you. These include:
Wearing repellent
This is something you’ll want to do when you go outdoors. You can buy specially made mosquito repellents, or you can make your own with lemon balm or outdoor soap. You can also wear long-sleeved tops and long pants to stop them from biting you.
Remove breeding grounds
If there’s nowhere for mosquitoes to lay their eggs, they won’t be able to breed in your yard. That’s anything from still bodies of water to dog bowls and anything that can hold rainwater.
Add window screens
To stop mosquitoes from getting into your home, window screens work well as they can’t fly through them. Add screens to every window, and replace them if they become damaged.
Keep a fly swatter on hand
Mosquitoes have a relatively slow-flying time, so you can use that to your advantage. Keep a fly swatter to hand, and attack any that you find in the house.
Use a bug zapper
Many homeowners use these as they kill any mosquitoes that come near them. They use heat and carbon dioxide to draw mosquitoes near them and then electrocute them. Opinions are mixed on them, as some feel they just attract more mosquitoes to the area but others feel they do a good job of killing them.
Call in pest control
If you’re having real problems with mosquitoes and you don’t seem to be able to control them yourself, then you’ll want to call on the experts to help you. They can use their expertise to help you get rid of these pests.
Stop Mosquito Breeding In Its Tracks
These are all good ways to stay on top of mosquitoes, but if you want to stop them breeding altogether, then you’ll need something that kills them off entirely. This is why an In2Care Mosquito Trap will be something you’ll want to use.
These traps hold water and other ingredients that attract mosquitoes. They lay their eggs in the water, and the biological fungus in the trap kills the eggs at this stage. The mosquito laying the eggs also carries the larvicide powder out to other breeding spots around your yard, killing other eggs too. The mosquito itself will die of the powder too in a few days before it can transmit disease.
Benefits
The best part about the trap is that the ingredients in them aren’t harmful to anything else in the area. That includes your pets, plant life, and other wildlife. That allows you to target them without harming anything else. It also gets around the fact that mosquitoes are now used to so many insecticides, as the trap doesn’t use them.
If you want to install one in your yard, get in touch with your local pest control company today. They’ll be able to install it for you quickly and start targeting those mosquitoes right now.
Mosquitoes become a real problem in California in the spring, but you don’t have to put up with them. Now that you know what to look out for, you can put measures in place to stop them from causing problems for you.
Call Facility Pest Control for your Sherman Oaks pest control with any questions to help you get them out of your house for good. Scheduling pest control service with us will keep your home pest-free.
