With the warmer weather comes lots of great things, but it also brings mosquitoes. These pests start to breed in the summer months, meaning they start making themselves at home in your yard. That’s the last thing you need, so here’s how to stop them in their tracks this spring.
Why Prevent Mosquitoes?
Firstly, why is it so important that you prevent mosquitoes from getting comfortable in your yard and home? Firstly, they are a pest, and they love to bite anyone who comes nearby. For you, that can lead to itchy bite marks which are unpleasant at best.
More importantly, those bite marks can lead to all kinds of illnesses and diseases, and so the spread of mosquitoes needs to be controlled. Did you know, for example, that they can spread malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, and many more diseases?
As such, you’ve got to be on top of preventing mosquitoes in your home. The good news is that it’s not as difficult as it seems. When you use the right methods, you can make your hard inhospitable to them.
Avoid Having Standing Water In Your Yard
One of the most important things you can do to protect your home against mosquitoes is to prevent standing water from forming. Why is this important? It’s because this is what they need to breed. Mosquitoes will be drawn to standing water, where they lay their eggs. Those eggs then hatch, and you’ve got even more mosquitoes on your hands.
You need to be aware of how much water they need to lay eggs. In some cases, it can be as little as one thimbleful of water. As such, go around your yard with a fine-tooth comb, and remove anything that can lead to eggs being laid. Things like old tires, boats in the yard, clogged drains, and more are going to attract them.
Find these standing water sources and remove them before the season starts. You’ll want to fill in any dips in the ground where rainwater forms, remove anything that can collect water, and unclog those drains and gutters too. The more you can remove, the less standing water there will be for mosquitoes to breed in.
Treat Ponds And Pools
What if you have a pool or a decorative pond in your home? Do you have to get rid of them? Luckily, the answer is no. What you will need to do is treat them, so you’ll make them inhospitable to mosquitoes.
If you have a pond, there are lots of different treatments you can buy that make the pond a bad place for mosquitoes to lay eggs. They may create a layer at the top of the water that cuts off oxygen, suffocating mosquitoes as they hatch. They may also have other treatments that kill them before they can cause any damage. You also have the option of putting fish like goldfish and minnows in the pond, as they eat mosquito eggs.
If you have a pond, all you have to do is ensure you’re chlorinating it properly and covering it when not in use. Hire a pool service to take care of it, or follow the instructions with your pool care equipment so you can properly treat it.
Clean Up The Yard
One thing that mosquitoes love is vegetation, as it provides them shade. Long grass and overhanging trees are a great source of shade in the middle of the day, so that’s going to attract them to your yard. You obviously want to avoid that, so you’ll want to have a clean up of your yard to remove these sources of shade for them.
Cutting your lawn every week is the best first step, as this will keep it short enough to keep mosquitoes out. Also, look at your trees and bushes, and see what can be trimmed back. It’s also a good idea to do this to deter other pests, especially those that may try and use trees to get into your attic.
Add Mosquito Traps
Now you’ve stopped mosquitoes breeding in your yard, you’ll still have to deal with the active adults that are hanging out in your yard. If you’ve taken the above steps you should be dealing with less of them, but you’ll still want to keep them out.
You’ll see lots of advice on the different ways that you can keep mosquitoes out, and not all of them are as effective as others. For example, many people swear by bug zappers, but others think that they just attract mosquitoes in the first place. You’ll also see some people trying out different scents, such as garlic, to keep them at bay. That’s also not a tried and trusted method.
One way you can keep them out is by using mosquito traps. There are lots of different models out there, but the most trusted one is the In2Care trap. This has been proven to stop breeding and kill off adult mosquitoes, too.
These traps have a small water well that attracts mosquitoes, who lay their eggs in it. This is full of a chemical that kills the larvae on contact. The mosquito itself will then be contaminated with a bioactive. They’ll carry that with them to other sites, and contaminate them with it too. That way they will be killed, as well as other adults before they can spread disease. Facility Pest Control is ready to set these up for you!
The best thing about these traps is that they’re safe around kids and pets, so you don’t need to worry about them when you have these traps out.
Call a Facility Pest Control to Prevent Mosquitoes
If you do have a lot of problems with mosquitoes, then you should call Facility Pest Control. They’ll be able to offer more options to help you keep the mosquitoes at bay, and ensure that you’re safe from harm.
Mosquitoes are irritating and potentially dangerous, but you don’t have to put up with them. With these simple steps, you can prevent them from getting into your home and causing problems for you.