Outdoor Mosquito Service (Home Depot, drains, cost, vents) - remodeling, decorating, construction, energy use, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, building, rooms - City-Data Forum

blakeas · 06-11-2012, 07:42 AM

I live in Atlanta, GA and the mosquitos are pretty bad here. I was recently quoted by Arrow Exterminators for outdoor mosquito service for $60 per month. Is it worth it? They have a chemical that is not harmful to my little girls so i thought it might be worth it. or should I just buy the backyard bugfee stuff from home depot that you attach to your garden hose and spray everywhere?

Coldjensens · 06-11-2012, 08:02 AM

No. Mosquitos will fly up to three miles to bite you. Treating your yard will do next to nothing unless all of your neighbors treat their yards as well. If you have 500 acres, then treating your yard will work, but you need an airplane to spray malathion.

THe silly marketing driven devices do nothing either. "Bug zappers" really kill no mosquitoes at all. Sometimes a few, but mostly they kill other bugs. The Mosquito Magnets and similar carbon dioxide generator devices do in fact kill Mosquitoes, but they will not make any difference in the number of mosquitoes that come and bite you.

You can make a difference by eliminating breeding grounds. You have to get rid of standing water in your yard and the entire surrounding area. If you cannot get rid of it, then you need to treat it. They can breed in a thimble of water, so you need to get rid of anything that contains water and does not quickly evaporate. Old tires, bird feeders, ponds, storm drains, even long grass that prevents evaporation, all can lead up to mosquitoes. If these things are within a mile of your house, you will get bitten.

The more practical solution is to wear deet spray or catnip oil.

LIGuy1202 · 06-11-2012, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blakeas

I live in Atlanta, GA and the mosquitos are pretty bad here. I was recently quoted by Arrow Exterminators for outdoor mosquito service for $60 per month. Is it worth it? They have a chemical that is not harmful to my little girls so i thought it might be worth it. or should I just buy the backyard bugfee stuff from home depot that you attach to your garden hose and spray everywhere?

Did you ask what they charge for indoor mosquito service?

RayinAK · 06-12-2012, 12:43 AM

My neighbors and I use the "Mosquito Magnet." The initial cost will be high, and then the propane needed to run the thing. However, what the Mosquito Magnet and similar devices do is to trap this season's breeding mosquitos, which in turn reduces the number of mosquitos on the next season.

The is no right cure, however, since no trap is going to catch all the mosquitos that come to your yard for dinner. You can have a Mosquito Magnet, and maybe some of the new breeds of liquid repellents. For example, Cutter has one that's called "Natural Insect Repellent" that has no DEET. I have been using it this year, and it does work, although not as good as DEET. But it's supposed to be a safer product, according to the label

Poisoning your yard is not going to stop mosquitos from coming back. All it does is to kill the mosquitos already there, just like a Mosquito Magnet.

elnina · 06-12-2012, 12:53 AM

Mosquito "traps" - are they effective?

Coldjensens · 06-12-2012, 07:52 AM

There is a lot of university research on the issue available online. Some of it takes a bit to find. Some of it you have to order. Lots and lots of studies.

Their conclusions: Nothing really works. Not bats, not purple martins, not mosquito magnets or similar devices. Nothing was found to have any signficant impact on the mostquito population. Things like mosquito magnets kill a lot of mosquitoes, but they raw them only from downwind, and they draw in mosquitos from far away. All they really do is leave more blood sources for the upwind mosquitos. Fogging works to significantly reduce mosquito populations if you are able to fog a large enough area for a considerable distance around your home, remove or treat all stagnant water sources and fog at the right times and with the right chemicals for that time. It takes a lot of money and a lot of work. Air dropped malathion can reduce populations somewhat if a large area is treated. DEET works as a repellant as does catnip oil. Citronella candles help if you have a whole bunch of them and you are sitting in the correct location.

I hate mosquitos with a passion. I reasearched like mad, tried a lot of things, spent a ton of money. Now, we just use repellant and/or stay in side during the prime time in the summer. They come out in hordes from about 7:30 or a bit later until about 9:30 or 10 p.m. they are around earlier and later, but not so heavy.

We used to fog our property and the adjoining property. It helped some, but did not eliminate them entirely. We quit because it was super expensive and time consuming and I was concerned about killing lightening bugs.

My favotire thing that works well is the belt worn fans that blow a cloud of repellant around you. They work if you are not moving too quickly and there is no wind. They do not work in wind, but mosquitos do not come out much if it is windy. They are great if you are sitting around a campfire with no wind and several people have them on.

Another solution is to move to Southern California or some other desert community. Hardly any mosquitos there at all.