Wear light colored clothing.
Mosquitoes fly close to the ground and search for colors that contrast with the horizon to find their targets. Dark clothing makes you stand out and an easy target while lighter colored clothing is less appealing to them.
- Forget the citronella and fancy gadgets.
Unless the smoke from that candle is between you and the mosquito, it’s useless in preventing them from biting you. The torches, ultrasonic devices, bracelets, and many others won’t prevent them completely. Some Internet sites even say that eating cloves of garlic will help prevent them but other than making you smelly, it doesn’t do much in the way of mosquito bites.
- They are attracted to CO2.
If you’re outside engaging in an activity, your skin is giving off more CO2 and making you more attractive to the mosquitoes. Slowing your heart rate can slow the amount of CO2 your skin releases and will help in keeping them from biting you. Alcohol, spicy foods, being overweight, and pregnancy can also cause higher heart rates which cause higher CO2 levels.
Plan your outdoor activity spot wisely.
Anything more than a one MPH breeze can make it hard for a mosquito to fly. If you have a place at your campsite, house, park, or field that has a little breeze, plan your activity there. It’s free and easy to help keep the mosquitoes away.
- Timing is everything.
Wind tends to die down at sunrise and sunset (as most boaters and fisherman know), so those are peak times for mosquitoes to feed. If possible, try to plan the timing of your event away from those times to increase your odds of keeping the annoying biters away.
- DEET works.
Though its suffered a bad rap over the years, the research has said that it is effective for the prevention of bites. Some people do react to it but the worse cases are rare and if you’re using it as directed (like not swallowing it), you should be fine. That being said, it is not a perfume and should not be applied to your body and cloths in that manner. Remember the CO2 thing above with your skin? That is where DEET will be its most effective. It’s better to spray it in your hands and rub on the areas that are most susceptible to bites.
Cockroaches are naturally attracted to dark, warm, moist, and secluded areas. They’ll also sneak into food boxes or even toiletries. Like bed bugs, they will stay perfectly still after they find a good hiding place. Roaches can survive for an extended period of time without food or water. They’re also great climbers and can cling to surprisingly sheer surfaces.
Roaches can work their way into nearly any open container you leave out for them. Food packages, suitcases, clothing bags, purses, and even computer bags are all fair game. A roach can survive a surprisingly long trip until you take it back home. To avoid this, keep all travel bags closed, sealed, and elevated whenever you’re not using them. Don’t transport food with you–especially not without a proper container. If you keep your bags locked down, roaches won’t be able to come home with you.
A little bit. But it is important to understand that foggers only kill adult mosquitoes in the direct vicinity of the foggers. They do nothing to address eggs and larvae in your yard. They are also topical, so they’re not going to get into some locations that mosquitoes hide, such as underneath your deck or in shrubs, bushes, and other ornamental plants and trees. Foggers purchased from over the counter retailers have active agents that don’t work very well or for very long.
Mosquito reduction is a proven method for reducing the risk of mosquito-borne pathogens. Here’s how it works:
- A technician does a detailed inspection and identifies locations in your yard that allow mosquitoes to live or breed.
- Routine spray treatments are applied in strategic areas around your property to make hiding spots a mosquito trap.
- Breeding areas that can be modified to resist mosquitoes are suggested to you, and areas that cannot be modified are treated with larvicide to make them unusable for mosquito breeding.
Best Mosquito Control Options
When done by a professional, mosquito control can drastically reduce mosquito populations in your yard, and when you reduce mosquito populations you are also reducing your exposure to the dangerous pathogens they are able to spread.