Mosquitoes, the word comes in your mind and then then next word will be the itchy bites but it’s not what you think of. It is certainly not limited to just itchy bites, mosquitoes carry and transmit serious diseases with their bites. Therefore, we should be aware of their pesky bites.
When a mosquito bites, it sucks blood and if the person or an animal is infected then this mosquito is also infected. This infected mosquito bites another person resulting in the spreading of disease like wildfire.
mosquito sucking blood
The main important thing is to control the mosquito breeding process. It can be a little tough but no impossible when you know where their havens are in your garden. As the female mosquitoes are the cheerleaders when it comes to laying eggs. She can lay about 100-300 eggs in one go and about 3000 eggs in her short life.
Now the question arises here is, “How Do You Stop Them From Breeding?”
Although, there is a lot of different type of products available in the market to deal with the infestation. From sprays to traps and electronic devices. These products only can decrease the infestation. But you need different integrated strategies to cope with this little pesky pest.
Don’t get me wrong, using mosquito nets are very popular across America and they are recommended by CDC. But again, you need an integrated strategy to get rid of mosquitoes. You can’t and shouldn’t always use a reactive approach.
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You need to find their havens where they breed and eliminate them as much as possible to avoid them from multiplying. Let’s dig deeper and find a way around to remove the mosquito havens from your garden.
Finding & Removing Mosquito Breeding Havens
There can be a lot of places in the garden which can give mosquitoes the best place to lay their eggs. However, this can be minimized if you take precautions and remove such havens from the garden in the first place.
#1 Get Rid of Junk/Cans
Yes, if your garden has some sort of container which contains cans or junk material then either keeping it closed or getting rid of it can be a great idea. This sort of containers can be a good place for mosquitoes to breed especially in the rainy season when the water is trapped into these containers. This gives mosquitoes a suitable place to breed.
It is not certainly limited to containers, cans but also all the junk material lying around in the garden can attract mosquitoes to breed. Let’s say if your garden has BBQ grills, car parts, shelves, and other such objects then get rid of it.
In short, you need to get rid of all objects that can hold water and create a haven for mosquitoes to breed.
#2 Checkout For Tarps
When it has just rained or your sprinklers stopped watering the trees and bushes, you need to go out and look carefully along the garden to check if the tarps for covering outdoor equipment is drooping the water or not.
If yes, then you should immediately let the water dump out as it can be a haven for the mosquitoes to breed. Additionally, checkout for pet bowls and the flower pot as they may also get filled with water when you’re away and the mosquitoes might breed.
#3 Clean Your Yard
Not only limited to water, but mosquitoes also love tall grass, weeds, and overgrown trees. Therefore, keeping the yard neat and tidy can help you keep mosquitoes away in the long term.
If you feel like, your yard might look empty and not much decoration then you can grow some mosquito-repelling plants like Citronella Grass, Lavender, and Marigold.
More Ways To Eliminate Mosquito Breeding Grounds
Removing Debris And Hiding Spots From Your Garden:
Regular maintenance of the garden means you’ll have trimmed grasses and actually no spots or objects for the water to stand still and the mosquitoes to hide. Therefore, you should be getting your garden maintained whenever necessary to avoid mosquitoes.
Maintaining Pool/Pond In Your Garden:
Many people have ponds and pools in the garden as well. You cannot completely remove the water from the pool and pond every time. Therefore, the still water in the pond/pool makes a mosquito haven and you need to add mosquito fish which is called “Gambusia Affinis” and it works most of the time. A single fish can clearly eat up to 200 mosquitoes larvae in just an hour.
Additionally, if you don’t prefer putting fish in the pond and for pool obviously you won’t therefore, you can add the bacteria in the pool which is called “Bti (Bacillus Thuringiensis)” to kill larvae in the pool.
These strategies don’t work for all, unfortunately. It is necessary for some people to use the Mosquito traps and other such tools to remove and kill mosquitoes. You can also use the pet safe mosquito yard sprays to drive away mosquito and also keeping your pet safe.
To sum all the articles in one go, I must say any single place with still water no matter how much the amount is can be enough to become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Also, mosquitoes thrive the most especially after flooding due to the still water.
However, most of the time they don’t need a flood to thrive as their eggs are very tiny such that they can use even a water bottle cap filled with water for laying eggs.
