Mosquito Nets

Mosquito Nets

Get Rid Of Mosquitoes Mosquito

A mosquito net is one of the best protection means against mosquito bites. You can use any net which has a mesh size small enough to prevent the mosquitoes from passing through and it actually isolates you from the mosquito threat.

A mesh size of about one square millimeter is good enough for most, if not all, mosquito species netting. Sometimes smaller pest, such as some species of sand flies, requires even smaller mesh size, so you best identify all the threats before deciding on the right netting for your house protection.

The most common use of mosquito nets is to cover our house windows and doors. In areas infested with mosquitoes (or any other insect/pest) where people still want to keep air circulation going, screens on the windows and doors are a reasonable compromise. Air can flow in and out of the house, though not as good as with a completely open window.

Mosquitoes, on the other hand, stay mostly out. Mostly I said? Whenever the window or door gets open for a brief moment, few mosquitoes will manage to go in! Additionally, any little hole in the mosquito net will be discovered by the mosquitoes to find their way inside. Thus, even in houses well protected with mosquito nets, few hungry mosquitoes will find their way in.

For that reason, some people cover their beds with mosquito nets too, especially those of the infant family members that cannot be protected using insect repellents, due to health restrictions. The downside is that bed net holds the air even more than a window screen and the air circulation is almost gone. Fortunately, many places are air conditioned these days, especially in warm environments.

Mosquito nets are also very useful while camping or staying outdoors. Most of the tents and many of the gazebos these days are equipped with embedded mosquito nets.

Furthermore, in really badly infested areas mosquito nets are needed for protection not only to the resting people, but also during vacation activities (i.e. hiking, fishing and boating) or working activities (farming, gardening, etc.). For these cases, there are mosquito nets that come down around the shoulders of a wide hat, similar to beekeepers’ hat. By wearing long sleeves clothing and if necessary gloves, adding mosquito net over the face will cover all the exposed body surface and do a great isolation job.

One important tip regarding netting that not many of you are aware of: If the mosquito net is touching you or is too close to your skin, you may still get bitten through the net. A minimum distance of 1 cm (half an inch) between the mosquito net and your skin is necessary to insure yourself.

You are welcome to read more interesting facts on the secrete behind mosquito bites and on mosquito repellents.

Mosquito Traps

Mosquito Traps

Get Rid Of Mosquitoes Mosquito

In contrast to repellents, mosquito traps base their protection on attracting mosquitoes instead of repelling them. Most trappers are pleased to watch how many mosquitoes they catched but overlook the number of mosquitoes that were attracted but managed to escape…

Furthermore, we humans will always be more attractive to mosquitoes than any mosquito trap, as they have evolved to detect and be attracted mainly to us! As good as mosquito traps will be, they will never be more than a mimic of us… For this reason, many entomologists reject the idea of using mosquito traps (and other nuisance insects trapping) as a mean to locally reduce mosquito population.

Nevertheless, mosquito traps can be quite useful as a complementary measure together with a more efficient local control method. For example, use of mosquito repellents in the target area and a mosquito trap somewhat far-off, as an attractant away from the target area.

The most common mosquito trap is a light trap, based on the fact that Nocturnal (night active) insects are attracted to light. Many mosquito traps are using ultraviolet light as it can be detected by insects, but does not disturb our darkness. These mosquito traps are almost useless for day-biting mosquitoes like the Asian tiger mosquito. Furthermore, they will normally kill other nocturnal insects like many species of moth, more efficiently than the mosquitoes themselves. Such light traps for home use are normally surrounded with an electric coil to zap the insects to death.

Carbon-dioxide (CO2) is a major attractant for the biting mosquito females, a fact that did not elude mosquito trap designers. With the addition of dry-ice, CO2 gas tank or a device that generates CO2, such advanced light traps will increase the catch of mosquitoes, sometimes even 100 times more. Some mosquito traps with CO2 generation even skip the usage of light completely.

The optimal CO2 concentration around a mosquito trap should be similar to the concentration of CO2 around a breathing person. The more sophisticated mosquito traps also mimic our body temperature, generating temperature of 37ºc (99ºf) around the trapping point. Modern mosquito traps even add additional odors that attract mosquito females, in their search for making the mosquito trap even more attractive. Such odors can be of lactic acid and even human sweat…

We focused here on mosquito traps for the adult biting mosquitoes. Other kinds are aimed to attract the mosquito females when searching for a place to oviposit (lay eggs). Since the mosquito oviposits only after getting her blood meal (i.e. biting us), the oviposition mosquito traps are of no real interest to the private consumer and are used mainly by researchers or as part of a large mosquito control campaigns.

To summarize, the best domestic mosquito traps should include as many attractants as possible and should be located only in the surrounding area. Such a trap will be fairly effective as it will attract and catch as many mosquitoes as possible away from us. Putting the mosquito trap too close to us can actually have negative impact, since it will summon mosquitoes to our vicinity that had no intention to be there in the first place…

Mosquito Control

Mosquito Control

Get Rid Of Mosquitoes Mosquito

The main target of mosquito control is to minimize the mosquito population in a given area to control their nuisance and risk for public health.

There are few pratical methods to obtain mosquito control. Still, the general recommendation for effective control is to operate in several types of action. In most cases, only a combination of few methods will significantly reduce the mosquito population size. Here is a review of the most common methods, divided according to the mosquito life cycle stage  affected:

1) Adult mosquito control 

Controlling adult (flying) mosquitoes is done by spraying insecticides. Most of the sprays commercially available are chemical agents; however more and more insecticides of vegetal extracts appear in the market lately. The control agent should be replaced from time to time to avoid resistance to appear among the treated mosquito population.

Generally speaking, adult mosquito control is not sufficient to obtain efficient results in the long run. It helps with the immediate relief only. For longer and sustainable impact, the efforts should target the younger stages too: eggs, larvae and pupae.

2) Eggs prevention mosquito control

The possible oviposition (eggs laying) sites should be identified and treated so they would not suit for mosquito larvae. This mosquito control type of action relies on the mosquito female’s high sensitivity to correct oviposition habitat selection. First, dry any possible water source of ponds, etc. to minimize the available larvae locations. If drying is not an option: Clean the water area from local vegetation, exposing the water source to a direct sunlight.

The direct sunlight will overheat the water, making them unsuitable for the larvae. It will also help the natural predators to prey the larvae which will become more detectable to them in the clear (plant free) water. Finally, make sure to seal any opening of water tanks to prevent the mosquitoes to reach the water.

3) Larvae and Pupae mosquito control

This type is covered by three different methods in general: chemical control, physical control and biological control:

• Chemical mosquito control uses chemical pesticides in the water, which are toxin to the mosquito larvae and pupae (and usually other organism as well). In big water bodies it should be sprayed mostly near the shores. The most common pesticides are: Carbon-chlorides, Pyrethroids, Carbamates and organic Phosphorous.
• Physical mosquito control is also called MLO (Mosquito Larvicide Oil). This special oil easily spreads all over the water surface and prevents from the larvae and pupae to come up and breathe air, which is essential for their existence.
• Biological mosquito control is based on using the mosquito natural enemies. A bacteria called BTI is an example of a parasite that kills mosquitoes larvae and do not harm any vertebrate. Predation of the larvae is another example for biological control: Such predator can be invertebrates like back-swimmers, dragonfly nymphs, diving beetles and others. Vertabrate predators can be different species of fish (Gambusia – the mosquito fish is the most famous) and tadpoles of salamanders and newts.

To summarize, remember that the best mosquito control results shall be obtained when using a mixture of the above methods. West Nile Virus and other mosquito transferred diseases can be avoided by consistent control plan in your area!

How to Get rid of Mosquito Bites

How to Get rid of Mosquito Bites

Get Rid Of Mosquitoes Mosquito Mosquito Bite

How to get rid of mosquito bites is a repeated question I hear again and again. Since this question bothered the American military, a chemical formula by the name of N,N-Diethyl-meta-Toluamide was developed during previous century 40′s, commonly known as the nick name DEET.

DEET is a highly effective mosquito repellent that stays active up to 8 hours. Many people fighting how to get rid of mosquito bites end up using DEET mosquito repellent, making it one of the most commonly used mosquito repellents, if not the most common one.

During the last 2 decades or so, several scientific studies raised the suspicion that DEET is a highly unhealthy mean how to get rid of mosquito bites.  Once spread on our skin, DEET penetrates into our blood system and is suspected to be carcinogenic, harmful for our fertility, harmful for our nerve system and more. Nevertheless, it would be only fair to mention that many other studies claim the exact opposite.

So how to get rid of mosquito bites? There is DEET and there are currently numerous other alternative products. Autan and Cutter, for instance, are examples of mosquito repellents that contain synthetic compound called Picaridine (also named Icaridin or Bayrepel), which is synthesized from black pepper and has similar long lasting effect as DEET. Other products use pure organic compounds as natural mosquito repellent.

While not all organic compounds are necessarily harmless, to the best of my knowledge those that are commonly used in natural mosquito repellents are safe. The downside of organic products is usually their price, which is higher than the synthetic repellents. In addition, many organic repellents get rid of mosquito bites as well as DEET, but their effect is limited to only a couple of hours and they carry strong odors which some people like and others do not.

So what’s the best way to get rid of mosquito bites? Lemon Eucalyptus essential oil and the organic compound Citradiol that can be produced out of it, proved to have long lasting impact with reasonable odor. Repel and Mosi-guard offer very good natural mosquito repellents with these organic active ingredients, that provide a long lasting solution like DEET, yet without any known health impact.

Catnip is another organic long lasting active ingredient one should consider for how to get rid of mosquito bites. Refined Oil of Nepata Cataria is such a natural mosquito repellent. Other essential oils are also effective as natural mosquito repellents but for relatively short times, like citronella, lavender and geranium.

Finally, how to get rid of mosquito bites is not the only nuisance bothering people around the globe. Many of the mosquito repellents may be effective against bed bug bites, flea bites, tick bites and others biting insects. There are some exceptions, where the product is a good mosquito repellent but not affecting another biter. Still, in many cases mosquito repellents will reduce flea bites on humans, bed bugs bites and others.

To learn more on mosquito bites, read more interesting facts in The secret behind Mosquito Bites.

How to Get rid of Mosquitoes

How to Get rid of Mosquitoes

Get Rid Of Mosquitoes Mosquito

Mosquitoes are well known pests and how to get rid of mosquitoes is a common problem, especially in the summer season. Here are 5 very useful tips to get rid of mosquitoes.

1. My number one advice how to get rid of mosquitoes would be to focus on avoiding the mosquitoes rather than on killing them. Mosquito lethal traps will normally contain some kind of attractant. While the happy consumers are watching with satisfaction the number of mosquito fatalities in the trap they have just bought, they usually overlook the number of mosquitoes the trap attracted but did not kill…

2. So now that we know that avoidance is the key factor, how do we get rid of mosquitoes? One of the common and most practical ways is using mosquito nets, covering the home windows and/or around the bed – to protect the sleeping person directly.

The drawback is that mosquitoes are active normally during the warm seasons and mosquito nets hold back the fresh air. Moreover, while netting around the bed does prevent them from reaching our skin, it does not help avoiding mosquitoes from detecting us. Thus, the mosquito females will wait on the mesh and the moment we leave the safety zone we will most probably get bitten…

3. Did you know that mosquitoes number one attractant is the slightly high CO2 concentration that accumulates around our body as we breathe? Accordingly, getting rid of this CO2 concentration around us should be our number one priority. A swinging fan blowing air towards us will do a very good job in this matter. Additionally, mosquitoes normally do not fly in a windy environment and thus will not fly around us while sleeping under the fan gust. So remember – a simple fan can be highly effective way how to get rid of mosquitoes!

4. As we are all aware of, not all mosquito bites occur at night and in a net-protectable environment. The easiest way how to get rid of mosquitoes during daytime and especially outside is by wearing long sleeves shirt and pants. In addition to the physical barrier that long sleeves clothes generate, light-color clothing will further reduce the attraction of mosquito females and minimize mosquito bites.

5. Finally, I believe that the ultimate way how to get rid of mosquitoes must involve using mosquito repellents. These repellents are divided to two functional groups: those we can spread on our skin as personal repellent and those we evaporate into the air to establish mosquito-free nearby-space (i.e. citronela candles). As a complementary control one can use mosquito traps located at the the back yard perimeter, to minimize the mosquito population in our area.

Learn more details on how to get rid of mosquito bites - using synthetic and natural repellents.

How to Get Rid of Asian Tiger Mosquitoes

How to Get Rid of Asian Tiger Mosquitoes

Asian Tiger Mosquitoes Get Rid Of Mosquitoes

The Asian Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is a small black mosquito with white stripes. It’s a day active mosquito, originated from the tropical and sub-tropical forests of Southeast Asia (from India to Japan – through China, Philippians and more).

The Asian tiger mosquito females originally oviposited (laid) their eggs in tree holes full with water. Their attraction to oviposit in small pools did not disappear when they moved into human habitat, using any small artificial pool available (e.g. flower vases, tires, buckets, debris etc.).

Like all species of the Aedes genus, the Asian Tiger mosquitoes stick their eggs one by one to the edge of the pool, slightly above the water surface. The eggs can tolerate short period of dehydration (normally up to two months), which enable them to be transferred from one place to hatch in another area. Add to this the increasing global trades, especially in used tires (a favorite man-made oviposition site) and you get massive global invasions.

Indeed, the Asian tiger mosquito was declared by the United Nations as one of the 100 most invasive species in the world. It can now be found in any continent but Antarctica and in most climatic areas which are not too dry. All these factors make the problem how to get rid of Asian Tiger mosquitoes a very difficult one.

The importance of the Asian tiger mosquito as an invasive species increases due to its high nuisance level and in its risk for public health. This is a day biting mosquito when most people are outdoors. The bite is felt by some people like an irritating sting and up to a minor pain by others.

The Asian tiger mosquito will often approach the victim in groups. As it is a new mosquito species in most parts of the world and most people are not yet immune to its bite, the response may be stronger compare to other mosquito bites.

The danger to public health that Asian tiger mosquito poses is due to its ability to carry more than 20 different diseases. However, the most common diseases related to the Asian tiger mosquito are Dengue fever, West Nile Virus, Chikungunya, Japanese Encephalitis and Dogs’ Heart worm.

The Asian tiger mosquitoes are poor fliers. This is why they bite mostly in the lower parts of the body. In tropical areas they demonstrate less than 1.5km flight ability from the pool they emerged from.  In drier areas they can do even less. For comparison, many mosquito species can fly 10km from their original pool, and even longer. Therefore, the Asian tiger mosquitoes that bite you were reared as larvae nearby, possibly in your own back yard…

So how to get rid of Asian Tiger mosquitoes?

• Make sure to dry any source of standing water: flowerbeds’ plates, vases, debris, plants holding water in their leaves, clogged gutters, etc. Any water source that holds water a week or more can reproduce.
• If you can’t dry – make the water ponds unsuitable for mosquito larvae: Add fish to the water (like Gambusia, the mosquito fish), seal the water source or add larvicide (like BTI dunks) to the water.
• Sunny backyards do not welcome Asian tiger mosquitoes. Also, odorous plants like herbs (mint, rosemary etc.), geranium, pines and citrus repel them though not too far.
• If you choose to spray your yard, make sure to replace the pesticide often to prevent resistance from evolving among your neighborhood mosquitoes.
• Talk to your neighbors to follow these mosquito control actions too. Having more neighbors controlling their property will provide a greater relief to you all.

Remember how to get rid of the Asian tiger mosquitoes considering their relatively poor flying capabilities. The larger the treated radius around your house is, the harder for them to fly all the way to you!