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Topic Title: Mosquito Control Plants???
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Created On: 05/14/2020 09:51 AM
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 05/14/2020 09:51 AM
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TATTOO74

Posts: 2407
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Taking it to the pros on here!

My house is already getting lit up with Mosquito's. I've tried the candles, thermacells, etc none of it actually works. Do citronella plants work if I line my patio with them? Are they kid safe? I have a 15mo old. Any other plants work for mosquito that you all find actually helps keep these things away?
 05/18/2020 09:57 AM
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Central Floridave

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From my experience, no plants get rid of them. Beauty berry leaves can be used to deter them. Just take the leaves and rub then on skin and clothes.
 05/18/2020 10:54 AM
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SurferMic

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^^^ same here nothing planted works, no natural "cure".... 4 options 1) CO2 powered Trap (works very well) or 2) "misters" usually run along the top of back yard fences (not sure I'd want chems misting )..Both very expensive, The CO2 ones run off propane tanks and electricity....OR 3) screen in porch...4) MY Method...WAY easier, a few big box fans for everyone sitting at the outside bar...blowing on you at med speed, bugs can'y fly in the made made wind zone and can't reach you...pesticide free..
 05/26/2020 12:09 PM
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Plan B

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Lemon grass supposedly helps..... but mic's man made gale is the best option.
 05/26/2020 09:24 PM
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paddleout

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I am pretty good on this one.

so here goes:

If you are OK with some light chemicals, spray your yard with the Cutter "Backyard Bug Control" that they sell at the box stores. It hooks up to your hose. It's a pyrethroid and will kill them all DEAD INSTANTLY. Try to keep it away from bees and water like river, ponds, etc.


If you want to go a little less nuclear, and more organic- get a lemongrass hose end sprayer. A little harder to find, I think Lowe's has one, or try Amazon. (Citronella is crap by the way) I saw lemongrass in use at a hotel in Costa Rica- they had sprayers go off every couple hours and mist the grounds, and it works. Just not much residual like the pyrethroids.

http://www.amazon.com/Cutter-9...-95962/dp/B00860Y3K4/

It's not a bad smell- kinda minty because it has wintergreen oil in it, or most of them do. I think the lemongrass is the key, though.

But here's another tip I discovered on accident:

I started keeping a few Lowe's buckets half full of water around my yard to throw cuttings into until I could get to them. I knew I would get larvae in those buckets, so I used the mosquito dunks in there that kills the larvae (and is quite safe- you can use them in fish ponds)

Interesting thing is- after having those buckets around, my mosquitos dropped.

I think what happens is they are still attracted to the water and lay their eggs in there- but they all DIE from the dunks and you collapse the cycle.

So give that a try too- remove all other standing water (including bromeliads and fallen palm fronds) Add a bucket of water or 2 with a dunk in there as an attractive place to lay and anything left over (including bromeliads) put a dunk or a piece of a dunk in the water. replace them every so often, and you will actually be creating death traps for future generations.

Edited: 05/26/2020 at 09:37 PM by paddleout
 05/27/2020 12:40 PM
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TATTOO74

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Great Info! Much appreciated and I will be trying all of this.
 05/29/2020 10:52 AM
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Plan B

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Originally posted by: paddleout I am pretty good on this one. so here goes: If you are OK with some light chemicals, spray your yard with the Cutter "Backyard Bug Control" that they sell at the box stores. It hooks up to your hose. It's a pyrethroid and will kill them all DEAD INSTANTLY. Try to keep it away from bees and water like river, ponds, etc. If you want to go a little less nuclear, and more organic- get a lemongrass hose end sprayer. A little harder to find, I think Lowe's has one, or try Amazon. (Citronella is crap by the way) I saw lemongrass in use at a hotel in Costa Rica- they had sprayers go off every couple hours and mist the grounds, and it works. Just not much residual like the pyrethroids. http://www.amazon.com/Cutter-9...95962/dp/B00860Y3K4/ It's not a bad smell- kinda minty because it has wintergreen oil in it, or most of them do. I think the lemongrass is the key, though. But here's another tip I discovered on accident: I started keeping a few Lowe's buckets half full of water around my yard to throw cuttings into until I could get to them. I knew I would get larvae in those buckets, so I used the mosquito dunks in there that kills the larvae (and is quite safe- you can use them in fish ponds) Interesting thing is- after having those buckets around, my mosquitos dropped. I think what happens is they are still attracted to the water and lay their eggs in there- but they all DIE from the dunks and you collapse the cycle. So give that a try too- remove all other standing water (including bromeliads and fallen palm fronds) Add a bucket of water or 2 with a dunk in there as an attractive place to lay and anything left over (including bromeliads) put a dunk or a piece of a dunk in the water. replace them every so often, and you will actually be creating death traps for future generations.
Solid advice.... I try to avoid the chemicals too, but I've used that cutter stuff before and it works. One year it seemed like I'd always find a tick on me in the shower after mowing the lawn (in some not nice places either) so that was the last straw. ..... no more ticks that year. I do have lemon grass growing in the bakyard now too, so we'll see how that goes (it's basically a jungle behind my house, so it's impossible to keep it skeeter free
 05/31/2020 11:30 AM
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KP

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Yes Thanks Paddleout and SurferMic! I just put a cover over my arbor and hope to get a little more porch time before it gets too hot. The beater box fan is one that I have employed in the past good reminder.

@Paddleout- is the Cutter 95962 Natural Bug Control Spray Concentrate (HG-95962) the product they were using in Costa Rica on the sprayers?


Anybody tried Summit Responsible Solutions Mosquito Bits - Quick Kill?

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Time and tide wait for no one.....

Edited: 05/31/2020 at 11:49 AM by KP
 05/31/2020 08:19 PM
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paddleout

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To answer the questions-

The Regular Cutter stuff is a newer synthetic pyrethroid that supposedley has a a 12-week residual. I'm not so sure about 12 whole weeks, but the new synthetics do have good residual.

This stuff is not all *that* bad safety-wise - it's just a lab-improved version of permethrin, which they actually spray on horses and dip dogs in for fleas. The military washes uniforms and tents in the stuff to ward off mosquitoes. You can actually buy permethrin as a laundry additive for camping.

I wouldn't drink it, and it can kill bees (or any insect) if hit with it. Also, it kills fish, so just don't spray it into a pond or get it into the river. Other than that, it's fairly safe and if you have a really bad problem, should likely be the first step- then move on to the lighter stuff.

In Costa Rica- they use the Lemongrass organic blends. You can see a Cutter version of this posted by me above- but the one I've actually used is here:


http://www.lowes.com/pd/EcoLog...ct-Control/1000342959



I got it at a local Lowe's. It works pretty good, but you need to reapply. I mixed some up into a spray bottle and use that to quickly clear out an area I might be working in- same way the auto-sprayers work in Costa hotel grounds.

The mosquito "bits" work too- they are designed for a "quick kill" of larvae in water. So if you have live larvae- you add the bits, and it kills them fast. Then you use a DUNK and that is a longer term solution to keep larvae from forming to begin with.

The chemical in those bits and dunks is "BTI" Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis

Is is quite safe. You can put it in a fish pond and it won't kill the fish. I personally have used it in buckets that had Cuban Treefrog tadpoles, and it doesn't even kill tadpoles- which is a good indicator of it being safe (amphibians are like a CoalMine Canary)

You could probably drink the stuff, but I wouldn't recommend that

I know that Brevard County Mosquito Control drops BTI over the conservation areas beachside by Helicopter to control mosquito growth.

So if you've got alot of mosquitos, knock them down with the Blue-Bottle Cutter Spray, then use a lemongrass formula like the EcoLogic or Cutter "Natural"


Also remove all standing water, but consider keeping some containers of water with DUNKS in them to attract mosquitoes to *think* they have laid, but you are really killing/collapsing the cycle with BTI


re: any plants you can put in the landscape to chase off mosquitos- I'm skeptical. I'm not so sure any plant just being there will get rid of them- more like they are used as ingredients in sprays, etc



Edited: 05/31/2020 at 08:25 PM by paddleout
 06/01/2020 11:26 AM
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SurferMic

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.

Edited: 06/25/2020 at 07:14 AM by SurferMic
 06/02/2020 02:45 PM
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KP

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Thanks Paddleout. I think I will try the dunks for the mosquitoes and the cutter to not them back and maybe help with the ants. I think I have a different species of fire-ant that has moved into our neighborhood. Used to never have the huge mounds and insta-swarm type of fire ant. I think they have moved out the other species that I have had around except the ghost ants.


-------------------------
Time and tide wait for no one.....
 06/04/2020 01:18 PM
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weldertom2

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Do you have lots of bromeliads around your property? Do your neighbors? They hold water/ larvae......... just saying.
 06/05/2020 06:17 AM
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TATTOO74

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The culprit at my place is I have a wooden patio as a front deck that sits just above the ground and pretty sure the noseiums and skeeters breed under there. I am going to try and spray the cutter between the boards and use the dunks in some buckets. No bromeliads around that I can see.
 06/15/2020 07:21 AM
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SurferMic

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.

Edited: 06/25/2020 at 07:14 AM by SurferMic
 07/12/2020 11:12 AM
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JBSURF

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Depending on what I`m gonna be up to depends on my approach, if just in the garage working, with door open, I turn on 2 fans blowing out, one on me working. Then I spray skin so soft on my ankles and rub it around, what ever is left i`ll rub the backs of my arms and neck.... If working around my front courtyard or the backyard deck area that`s fenced in I`ll first use either the leaf blower and start at one end and blow them lil suckers out of hiding and over the fence, or use the hose end sprayer on fan mode and do the same thing, sweeping the air. After that I mix up a hand spray bottle of water, a squirt of dish soap or Dr. Bonners peppermint and then about 10-20 drops of a variety of essential oils, lemon grass, citronella, peppermint, ceder and shake good and spray, works really well.

I`ll do this before company comes over to keep `em away from the front door and out of the house... Plus smells good.... and no poisons to handle or deal with, mainly repelling..

-------------------------
I've decided to accept the fact - I'll always be a big kid!

Edited: 07/18/2020 at 06:05 AM by JBSURF
 07/29/2020 09:25 AM
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saltylass

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Please please don't use permethrins or pyrethroids. Florida has over 300 types of bees, 29 are only found in Florida. Many should already be on endangered species list. Many live in the ground and are not aggressive so many people might not even know they have them in the yard. Where there are flowers there are bees, and whenever pyrethroids are sprayed bees and other beneficial insects die. Spraying one yard doesn't stop the mosquitos from a neighboring yard from coming in. I know its a bitch, we have a retention pond in the back yard and spend lots of time there. We just have to cover up and use fans. We have a couple garage type fans that live in our sitting area. I try to keep lots of beneficial plants around and lots of plants that attract frogs and lizards. Pyrethroids has been shown to cause convulsions, seizures, lack of limb control, twitching, reproductive changes, hatching decline, and death in lizards, frogs, and snakes. I inspect the yard every day for water standing. I purposely leave a bucket of water out and dump it every 2 days to a dry area. I don't know if it works but makes me feel like the mosquito has to lay its eggs somewhere so might as well do it somewhere that I can control if the larvae survives or not. Sorry for the rant. Seeing colony off wild dead bees sucks.
 07/29/2020 12:21 PM
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TATTOO74

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So my neighbor was kind enough to splurge on "Wondercide" all natural no harsh chemicles pest/skeeter control and we sprayed it on the entire yard. Well... It didn't work. The best solution so far is a 50' extension cord for a box fan and some natural Off for the boy and that seems to hold the skeeters off for a little while.
 08/11/2020 12:57 PM
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KP

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The dunks in my rain buckets seemed to work for me knocking them back... and a box fan for the stragglers roaming in from off property

-------------------------
Time and tide wait for no one.....
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