Surefire Way to Control Backyard Mosquitos?

Get some lemongrass plants. They are a natural repellent for mosquitoes. I added these to my patio last year and it was amazing how well it has worked.

Nothing really works 100% of the time. Make sure you don't have any standing water - no birdbath or swampy area - in your yard. If you have a pool, make sure the chlorine levels are high enough.
Plant the lemongrass. Spray your child with bug spray.
Citronella is dangerous. Don't use it.
When I was a kid, the town used to fog the neighborhoods with mosquito killer and that worked, but it was probably also cancer causing....

I agree that it's very important to make sure you have no standing water for mosquitoes to lay eggs. I've heard adding bat houses to your yard is effective, we know bats eat mosquitoes!

We use concentrated garlic oil spray and garlic granules. We have to reapply every 3 weeks but it works. When we moved into our house, we couldn't use our pool after 4 PM. After we treated, we have been able to use our yard and pool as late as we want to without being attacked by mosquitos.

We have this in the ultra version.

http://www.megacatch.com/mosquitotraps.html

We bought it two years ago and at that time Lowes was the cheapest but they only had it online.

That sucker works! I am a mosquito magnet. If anyone will be bit it is me and I have not been bitten in two years, well at least in my yard. Haven't got a thank you note from my neighbors mind you and it protects their yards as well.

I think the difference in reviews is based on where they are using it and if they are using it properly. Like if our neighbor had standing water all the time there is no way that thing could keep up. Also if you place it too close to where you are going to be at you will be bitten.

Like ours is on the back property line, away from our patio and pool. It tells you that in the instructions but some people just don't read them. They figure the closer to me the better. Nope! it attracts them and kills them, you are still more attractive than the bait. So on their way to the trap they see you, they bite you, then you go on the websites and say it doesn't work when it is actually your brain that doesn't work. :-/

I lived next to a park full of standing water and mosquitos. When the sun started to set we had to go inside because we were driven out of our yard by the mosquitos.

I read up on the life cycle of the mosquito. I bought a 1/4 to 1/3 acre bug wacker and hung it in the corner of my yard away from the house. I hung it face high so my nose was the same height as the center of the grid. Then I went to my local friendly butcher and bought some fresh liver and asked for some extra blood. (Yes, he looked at me like I was crazy.)

I took the container of beef liver and blood and attached it to my bug wacker. Then I went and plugged in the bug wacker around dusk. The first two weeks I got so many mosquitos, I couldn't see the light in the morning. I got about 1.5 cups of mosquitos each night for the first two weeks. (Just think of how many mosquitos it takes to fill a cup!) I would unplug my bug wacker and use a garden hose to carefully (!!!) spray the mosquitos out of the bug wacker. Then I would plug it in again at night after it had a chance to dry. After three weeks I could go outside and use above ground pool at night. After 4 weeks I could use the pool and BBQ outside with no problem. I killed so many mosquitos over the summer that over the next two years they never came back. (I moved after that.)

CAUTION ! ! ! This is so effective in ridding your yard of mosquitos that if you have any endangered species that depend on the mosquito or the mosquito larvae for its primary food source, you shouldn't use this.

BTW, beef blood and beef liver work much better than any other blood or liver. I don't know why.

Good luck to you and yours. (If you try this, PM me so I know I was able to help.)

i haven't ever found anything that i could call 'surefire' (although jo's story is very interesting and i may have to try that!) most of the mosquito 'traps' i've seen have been lights, which i don't want because i abhor ambient light when i'm out at night, which sucks because both of my neighbors are lights-on-all-night people. and pheromone traps attract more bugs than would have been there anyway.
bats are your best friend for sure, but they don't get 'em all. and i just can't stand to use chemicals, which affect my bat and bird friends as well.
i guess you've tried skin-so-soft? it does help, although not really all that much. also taking extra vitamin B1 has made a difference for me. snopes says no, btw, but i find i get fewer bites overall when i start taking it a month or so before the buzzies come out, and continue to take it daily until they back off.
khairete
S.

I just want to say that the standing-water comment is true. Where I live we don't have many mosquitoes, because it's usually too dry, but when they DO come they're happy around ponds and bird baths. So if you have a bird bath, a rain barrel, a watering trough, an old car tire, or some other receptacle for standing water, you want to clean it out thoroughly and, when/if you refill it, add just a little bleach (not too much). That's just to discourage the pesky critters from laying eggs there. There's also a product called Mosquito Bits (goes after mosquito larvae) that you can also add to standing water. You want to read the directions carefully. It's safe for humans and domestic animals to be around if used properly. Check at your local plant nursery.

Haven't tried this yet, was posted on FB this morn.
Combine in a 16 oz bottle:
15 drops lavender oil
3-4 Tbsp of vanilla extract
1/4 Cup lemon juice.

Fill bottle with water. Shake.Ready to use. Make some extra to gift to your family & friends. (Trust me.. it'll be appreciated!) Share this on your wall so you'll have it handy when it's needed.

Updated

Haven't tried this yet, was posted on FB this morn.
Combine in a 16 oz bottle:
15 drops lavender oil
3-4 Tbsp of vanilla extract
1/4 Cup lemon juice.

Fill bottle with water. Shake.Ready to use. Make some extra to gift to your family & friends. (Trust me.. it'll be appreciated!) Share this on your wall so you'll have it handy when it's needed.

When we are outside, we use the round rings that you light and then put on a holder or clay dish. I have even noticed that the wasps stay away from our table when we bbq. Bonus. They smell but work. I have bought the Off ones that come with a clay pot and I have bought the "generic" ones from Menards that just come with a metal stand thing to put them on. A friend of mine swears by these wrist bands/bracelets that she got off of HSN last year. I have not tried them. I have used a yard spray that comes in a can but it did nothing and our guests were getting bit like crazy that year.

Ugh! I feel your daughters pain, I hate Mosquitos (i think I'm allergic to them) but they seem to love me. Recently I used to Yard Gard spray and citronella candles which seemed to help. But for the most part, I avoid being out side during mosquito season, which sucks!
I will be watching this post for ideas :-)

have heard, that if you put fabric softener dryer sheets in your clothing, it repels them?????

In Hawaii, there are lots of mosquitoes. It is the tropics.
And mosquitoes can even breed, in a tablespoon of standing water.
To eradicate mosquitoes, you NEED TO GET RID OF, any standing water.
That is where they breed and propagate.
And per any neighbors, you need to know the distance of how far mosquitoes travel. If the neighbors for example, have a pond or water features in their yard etc., mosquitoes can breed there too. And then fly on over to your yard.

Traps alone, will NOT work.
Because, you need to, eradicate, any standing water in your own, yard/area. Traps are only, superficial devices to get rid of mosquitoes. It does NOT get rid of their breeding grounds.

You can also, spray the yard/standing water/water saucers for any potted plants... so that is kills any mosquito larvae in that water.
Even just using Clorox. Or "Neem" sprays for garden plants. It is a natural product.

And, they say that Avon's "Skin So Soft" product, repels them.
Or you just have to buy and get, a bus spray to put on her.
Get a natural type, versus those with "DEET" in it.
And when she goes outside, have her wear long sleeved shirts and long pants. And put on bug repellant on her exposed skin areas.

But again, traps do not work. It only kills the mosquitoes that happens to fly into it. To ERADICATE mosquitoes, you need to get rid of standing water in your yard, as well.

Here is an article:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/21580989/four-things-y...

do the clip-on things work? (haven't tried, so I don't know!)

also not sure about the dryer sheet stuff - it always says "Bounce" as the brand, but not sure it would make a difference...

I do special events. There are times that I just have to pull out the big guns and spray a yard. You cannot have an outdoor event with people in such discomfort.

I hate doing it, because I hate placing chemicals out there.. As a matter of fact right now my legs are covered in bites and scars from mosquito bites from just these few months. I have been trying all of the "Natural" suggestions, but none of them are up to the challenge for our mosquito I guess. My daughter is the one that said "Mom, this is enough, use the spray".

I use the "Cutter Yard Spray". You place it on a water hose and spray the entire yard. Start low, spray under shrubs, bushes, under decks, under stairways.. Those dark moist areas.

Follow the directions. This will last for 3 months.

This is one of my goals for today..

Anyone have suggestions on scar removal?