Outdoors life in Dallas? (Fort Worth, Frisco: home, school, university)

[markdo]

Wow, this forum is so helpful. Thanks everyone.
So two of the biggest factors in keeping people indoors are the heat and the mosquitos. Do the mosquitoes only appear in the hot summer months & at dawn/dusk? And are the mosquitos localised to certain areas (near water)?

[lh_newbie]

Mosquitoes need water to breed - this is true. But that water could be in a rain gutter with improper drainage, a puddle in the yard, a birdbath, etc. It doesn't have to be much water.

This year was an extremely bad year for mosquitoes, so people are probably a little more on edge about them. We had an extremely abnormally wet summer. Most of June and half of July - we had rain - so there are many more mosquitoes compared to normal.

Yes, heat is pretty tough - especially during the peak of the day. But, if you are looking for a neighborhood/yard with mature shade trees, this can be minimized. Some folks put in water misting systems. A buddy of mine had one - and we sat on his patio under the shade of mature oak trees in mid summer. It was great!

So, at night, during the summer it can still be 85 degrees at 8pm. That's pretty warm for that time of night. A misting system can bring that down into the upper 70's, which is much better. Add to that one of the mosquito misting systems I mentioned, and you have the backyard that the neighborhood will flock to. Heck, you could have them bring the beer/wine and have social night all the time.

I suspect we will be installing both systems when we redo our back yard. We also have two beautiful 35-40' Red Oaks. If we can get the backyard to function/look like I do in my head... we will certainly be doing a lot of outdoor entertaining during the summer!

[Lakewooder]

The Dirt Doctor is not too keen on those mosquito misting systems. Personally, mosquitoes rarely bite me - I must not be sweet enough.

[lh_newbie]

I've recently read something about having Vitamin B complex creating a natural mosquito repellent. Apparently it makes us smell like like Co2 or something like that. Dose up on B-complex for a natural repellent - or so I've heard...

[Pintea]

I've heard of that as well, haven't tried it though.
I was wondering, doesn't the city (or whoever does that) ever spray for mosquitoes? I've lived in several other cities, none of them had as many mosquitoes...

[FarNorthDallas]

The cities only spray for mosquitos when West Nile Virus is found and then only in that immediate neighborhood.

We don't live anywhere near water and our mosquitos are horrible. I was out 2 minutes the other day cleaning a paint brush and got 17 bites. Used to the first freeze in Nov/Dec would kill them off and we wouldn't see them until May, but they didn't get killed off this past winter.

The heat has not been bad this year so far. Usually it becomes unbearable around 9am and then it's still in the 90s at midnight. The only "cool" time is like 3am-9am. But this year is different - less heat, more humidity.

[lh_newbie]

Winter only kills off the live ones. Their eggs stay there, dormant on the ground where water will eventually puddle. Unfortunately, we had a wed spring/early summer, so things took off - early and heavy. This year was horrible, but it's very nice to have EVERY lake in the Trinity River Basin full to the brim. Very uncommon for this time of year. We're going to be releasing water downstream for a month to get the lake levels down. Very strange to be saying that.

Brian

[markdo]

So with all these mosquitos about does everyone keep their windows/doors closed or use mosquito repellent/nets inside the house?
There is some discussion that vitamin b12 repels mosquitos, hence the reason marmite is a natural remedy - maybe you don't have the pleasure of marmite in Dallas.

[Drew610]

Do people not spray themselves with OFF or DEET before going outside?? Doesn't that usually help the mosquito problem??

[lh_newbie]

Markdo - the mosquito problem typically happens during summer, so people basically don't open their windows during those periods - but it's because of heat, not bugs. In the Spring and Fall, we open our windows and don't worry about bugs getting into the house - that's what screens were made for.

What's marmite? Never heard of it.