Before you know it, spring will be here, and along with longer days, warmer temperatures, and beautiful blossoming trees and flowers (and allergies) mosquitoes will be back to their biting ways. These uninvited guests can be the bane of a backyard gardener’s existence, ruin a family cookout, and prevent the kids from going outside and getting some energy out (and thus giving mom a much needed break). That’s why you require mosquito yard treatment.
What You Need To Know About Mosquitoes
These little menacing creatures are in the large group of insects classified as flies. True flies like mosquitoes only have one set of wings as opposed to other insects that often have two pairs or none.
In fact, their name comes from the Spanish word “little fly.” Both male and female mosquitoes will use their straw like mouthparts to pierce, suck nectar and plant juices for energy. However, females are the ones that bite people (and other creatures like birds, other mammals, and reptiles).
Female mosquitoes need the proteins in your blood for egg development. Unlike many other insect pests that you may be familiar with, immature mosquitoes are entirely aquatic, and therein lies the key to mosquito control.
Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water with a fair amount of organic content in it. The female mosquito (especially the aggressive day biting Asian tiger mosquito, the main pest mosquito in South Carolina and areas of North Carolina) will search out containers and other natural or manmade items that can hold water. They don’t need much, a bottle cap will do.
The female mosquito will then lay her eggs and in about ten days you’ll have adult mosquitoes ready to mate, females, who will need a blood meal for egg production, and the whole new generation to start the process over again. So you ask, what can you do to prevent becoming dinner at your next backyard barbeque? We’ll discuss 3 main tips below:
- Reduce standing water
If there’s no place for them to breed they’ll go on to the neighbor’s property or better yet somewhere even further down the road. The good news is that the Asian tiger mosquito’s flight range isn’t terribly far.
Around a hundred to two hundred yards (while you probably don’t have a 200-yard property the upside is that if you and your adjacent neighbors have mosquito control, you can expect a relatively mosquito-free backyard.) So be vigilant about the potted plants that hold water for weeks on end, the kiddie pool that is left full, the tire swing that has no drain holes in it, the tarp on your lawnmower or boat, your clogged gutters, the birdbath that hasn’t been cleaned in months, and the list goes on.
Reduce the standing water!
- Keep bushes and dense, low trees trimmed and the grass cut
Mosquitoes don’t like a lot of air current or direct sunlight. They like to hang out in warm but not too hot, dark, humid areas like at the base of thick bushes and small, dense trees, and tall grass.
If you can provide ample airflow and sunlight to these areas by pruning shrubs/trees and cutting the grass you’ll greatly reduce mosquito habitat.
- Call the professionals
At Spencer Pest Services, we can identify breeding sources and either modify them or provide natural/low risks treatments to eliminate immature mosquitoes. Furthermore, we have a variety of measures to control adult mosquitoes, especially when habitat modification is not easy or feasible (which it often isn’t). Concerned about non-target insects like honey bees?
We even have control methods that are specific to mosquitoes. Let the professionals at Spencer Pest Services drastically reduce the number of mosquitoes at your property!
