Mosquitoes

[queerbychoice]

They're eating us alive. Every day, we get bitten five or ten or fifteen times each. Inside. I've taken to trying to keep as much of my skin as possible covered at all times, throwing a blanket over my bare legs when it's 105 degrees or hotter outside, but the moment I stand up to do anything at all, my shins get bitten. At night we have to tuck the sheet around every square inch of ourselves and make sure never to turn over in our sleep and dislodge the sheet, or else we're rudely awakened to a mosquito bite on the spine, in the most impossible-to-reach spot possible. Twice a month I buy out the entire supply of generic-equivalent Benadryl cream at the local grocery store, trying to keep the itching under control. In the evenings, we have pretend conversations out loud with imaginary strangers who ask us questions: "So what do you two do for fun at home?" "We slather Benadryl cream on each other." "No, I mean, what do you do for a romantic gesture?" "We squash mosquitoes for each other and thank each other for the valiant protection." We usually kill five or six mosquitoes in the house each day, but there are always more left in the house when we go to bed.

I guess it started in June. It got gradually worse through July, and became completely unbearable by the beginning of August. It was just as bad last year at this time, but then I was only visiting on weekends. I didn't think I could possibly survive living here under these conditions, so I bought Susan a pet door insert for the sliding glass door. She used to leave the door open most of the time so the dogs could go in and out, so I figured that's how the mosquitoes were getting in. But they still get in just as much now. The flap on the pet door isn't airtight; there are tiny gaps on each side of it, and I guess the mosquitoes are very good at finding those gaps. Susan says there are huge clouds of mosquitoes all over town, including at her school, and her students complain of horrible mosquito problems at their homes, too.

One of them just landed on my computer screen, and I failed in my effort to squash it.

This situation is truly intolerable, so I'm begging for advice. What can I do that I haven't already done? The Benadryl cream helps, but it takes about five minutes, and the stupid things keep biting so often that even five minutes of agony per bite is enough to completely ruin a major portion of every evening. I tried spraying Raid flying insect killer all over the house, but even when I sprayed an individual mosquito directly from within six inches, a prolonged burst of as much as five seconds, the thing flew away and didn't even look sick. It may well have died later - we did notice a decrease in mosquitoes the day after an intense spraying of Raid - but two days after the spraying, the mosquito population was back to normal. Meanwhile, I had a Raid-induced sore throat for a full week after the spraying.

They're driving both of us insane. I've never experienced a mosquito problem indoors before. Maybe that's because I never had indoor dogs before and therefore never needed a pet door. But Susan has had indoor dogs for about fifteen years, and apparently she's never had this bad a mosquito problem indoors anywhere but this one mosquito-cursed town where we're currently condemned to live.

Comments

[saxifrage.livejournal.com]

mosquitoes come from standing water--is there any standing water near your house, maybe in the yard or something? Doing whatever you can to drain/get rid of standing water, and using mosquito-dunks in areas you can't get rid of the water may help--here's a link to things you can put in standing water to kill mosquitoes http://www.planetnatural.com/site/mosquito-dunks.html. Also, have you tried using insect repellent spray on yourselves? When I've spent a lot of time camping, where it's just impossible to get away from the mosquitoes, I depended on that stuff--it isn't perfect, but if you spray on enough it makes you a less appetizing target--they may choose to go after other people or animals instead. Concentrated garlic oil (http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/) is also a mosquito repellent, and is probably less toxic than other spray repellents, though I've never used it, so I can't really say how well or not it works. I've heard that if you eat a lot of garlic that can help as well, but again, I dunno how much it helps. Mosquito netting over your bed at night could also help, and can make sort of a romantic canopy over your bed too! My only other brilliant idea is that dragonflies are predators of mosquitoes--if it's legal in your area I suppose you could buy a whole bunch of dragonflies online and release them in your yard. I know there are websites and stores that sell beneficial insects--maybe one of them carries dragonflies? In any case, sorry I couldn't be more helpful--I know in some areas the government will spray mosquito-specific insecticide from planes a couple times during the summer, but it sounds like they aren't doing it in your area. *hugs*

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Since it never rains here in the summer, and I don't water the yard very much, I don't think we have standing water in our yard. And snce the mosquito problem is all over town, I don't think standing water on our own property is likely to be a significant portion of the problem. There are several lakes in town, and probably quite a number of unmaintained swimming pools, because the housing market crisis hit our county worse than any other county in the country.

West Nile virus just arrived here a few years ago, so at least as of last summer, the government was still spraying heavily for mosquitoes. I don't know whether they're still doing it this summer, but it didn't seem to help any last summer. The mosquitoes were horrible then too!

I guess I'll try the garlic mosquito barrier. I've had terrible luck with standard mosquito repellents, though - on camping trips I've experimented with spraying repellent on only one arm and leg and so on, and it actually seems like I get bitten more in the areas with repellent.

We do have a lot of dragonflies flying around outside already.

[prairiecity.livejournal.com]

i've heard that the garlic solution is largely psychosomatic.

[sammka.livejournal.com]

I think part of what's going on with the mosquito repellent is that it doesn't work as much if it's only on one arm or leg, because there's still exposed parts of you that smell good to them.

[spreadsothin.livejournal.com]

There's a problem with the bat populations this year (bees last year, bats this year...)

Why not put up a batbox in your yard? That way, it will attract local bats who LOVE eating mosquitoes! (Won't help with the larvae though, fish eat that).

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I actually looked into that a while back, but it seems that mosquitoes aren't really a primary food source for bats. The best reason to keep bats is for the sake of the bats, not for the sake of controlling mosquitoes.

[spreadsothin.livejournal.com]

oh! I didn't know that.
I do know that they sell stakes that give off light and sound combinations to repel mosquitoes. Good luck!!

[mariness.livejournal.com]

Apparently Target is no longer selling the bug zapper that we use, but this one might work - we have problems not so much with indoor mosquitoes but with these little ghost bug things that swarm everywhere and want to get into your nose. We're by a very very big lake that can't exactly be moved or drained, so...bug zapper.

We've mostly avoided the mosquito problem (except when I head to the other side of the building to look at the space shuttle) by planting some small American beautyberry plants near the door - they naturally repel mosquitoes, but I don't know if these will grow in California or not.

Also, citronella candles actually do help a little and you can start to tolerate the smell.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Beautyberries don't grow well in California, no. But other plants that control mosquitoes do, so maybe I should look into those. Most of them are also hazardous to dogs, though, so I'd have to plant tem only in the front yard.

As I said to saxifrage, my experiments while camping have suggested that standard mosquito repellents don't work in the slightest, so I think I'll skip the citronella. I should probably try the bug zapper, though. Thanks!

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Does a mosquito coil just release repellent? As I said above, on camping trips I've experimented with spraying repellent on only one arm and leg and so on, and it actually seems like I get bitten more in the areas with repellent. So I'm not inclined to bother with chemical repellents. I might try to find one of the noise repellents, though.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I was using DEET repellents on the camping trips. Still didn't work. I ave zero faith in all chemical repellents now.

Also, I just looked up the thing your mother had that was supposed to repel mosquitoes with sound. According to this page, those never work well either, because the ultrasonic noises that people can't hear are inherently too weak for insects to hear them at all from a distance of as little as 30 feet.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

30 feet is the distance where insects can't hear it as all though. At shorter distances they might hear it, but it might not be loud enough to cause them to avoid the area. Did your mother's seem to be effective?

[prairiecity.livejournal.com]

this is where a manitoban comes in handy:

*make sure there isn't any standing water anywhere on your property; if you have a rain barrel, put a tight-fitting screen over top of it or dilute some dish detergent or cooking oil into it. clean your eaves if you haven't recently; landscape to drain water from your property. if you have any standing water in your yard (esp. standing water that gets sunlight and has foliage near it), do whatever you can to get rid of it.

*don't wear any sort of perfume, essential oils, or use scented lotions or creams, shampoos, etc.

*avoid being outside on either side of dusk and dawn, as that's when mosquitoes are most active.

*import dragonflies if you can in your area.

*wear loose-fitting, long-sleeved, light-coloured clothing

that's all i can think of. getting rid of any nearby water should be of primary concern.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Since it never rains here in the summer, and I don't water the yard very much, I don't think we have standing water in our yard. There are probably quite a number of unmaintained swimming pools, because the housing market crisis hit our county worse than any other county in the United States.

Neither of us generally wears scented stuff. We have lots of little blue dragonflies in the yard. I guess I need to start wearing a thawb. Do you know why light-colored clothing would be better than dark-colored clothing?

[prairiecity.livejournal.com]

thawb it up! i'm unsure what the mechanics of it are, but mosquitoes, are for reasons unknown to me, more attracted to dark than light clothing and surfaces.

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

I used to have a horrible mosquito problem - I was getting bitten so badly in my sleep that I thought I had bed bugs. I was sleeping completely covered too. Hang in there.

Get a mosquito net for your bed. I've seen some new product that you wear on you and it's supposed to repel mosquitos. http://www.offprotects.com/clip-on-mosquito-repellent/

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

We need a giant mosquito net for our entire house!

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Seriously! I also wore a lot of bug spray.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm quite glad to have at least cameoed in your life this year :)

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Are you a mosquito? Please stop biting us!

[cantstopthedawn.livejournal.com]

Geraniums repel mosquitoes.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Skin-applied repellants can fail for a number of reasons, including sweat & dry skin that absorbs said repellant, not to mention topical allergies to the repellant itself - which can make bites you do get even worse, give you rashes, etc. So don't discount household repellants just because the skin-applied stuff didn't work for you.

Depending on your attitude towards killing, an outdoor fogger or hose spray might be useful. Since indoor sprays have already made you feel lousy, I'd avoid those.

Epsom salts are said to make people less attractive to mosquitos (I assume by bathing in them - don't know, since salts irritate my skin).