While many others believe themselves to be the ultimate mosquito magnet, I must argue, I have yet to meet anyone who can match my ability to get bitten. As a child, my bites were so plentiful and humongous that my poor legs were a mess of scars, bruises, and red lumps. I was forbidden to swim in the public pool at times. Parents and teachers questioned me about if I was being beaten at home. Medicines were sometimes taken.
There is some medical confirmation of my attraction. A doctor once told me that folks with my blood type (AB negative, present in less than 1% of the US population and the most rare) seem to attract more mosquitos. A possible, but odd, confirmation of this: on a Discovery show about vampires (I watched an odd assortment of things while confined to a breast pump after Will was born) a woman who claimed to be a vampire said that blood did differ in taste according to blood type, and that AB negative blood tasted the best, it was the sweetest.
Anyway, my point is:
What the frack is the deal with the mosquitoes in our front yard?!? I am beyond tired of getting bit several times every time I walk out my front door. And I *swear* it is something unique about our house. Yet there is no standing water anywhere in our front yard, porch, or (so we know) neighbors yards and porches. So where in the world are these beasts coming from?!?
Current thought: we have a storm drain in front of our house. Could they live in the storm drain? And if so, is there something I can do to kill them off? I will surrender my usual affection for organic yard applications in this instance. I want them dead and gone!!!
Randy | 24-Aug-05 at 6:11 am | Permalink
Maybe tieing a string to one of these and hanging in the sewer will help!
http://www.pestproducts.com/mosquito_dunks.htm
Eli | 24-Aug-05 at 6:37 am | Permalink
Is there anytype of citrus or banana tree near your home? Those are huge attractions to mosquitos. Also, watch your banana intake. This is somewhat of an old wive’s tale but I would swear by it.
A really good but probably not the best pet (are they even legal in Louisiana) for keeping the nasty bugs away is a bat. Mosquitos are candy to them…
Final thought get a bug-b-gone spray for your front patch of grass. It will control some of the mosquito problem.
Matt and Laura | 24-Aug-05 at 7:11 am | Permalink
There’s such a thing as a mosquito magnet. Not cheap, but I hear they do wonders. I’ve also heard that it takes six weeks for it to start working at full potential.
http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/
You can also do something called “fogging” your grass, but it is lots of chemicals…
Set up a bat house! Paul could build one!
http://www.batconservation.org/content/bathouse/bathouse.htm
Holly | 24-Aug-05 at 7:47 am | Permalink
Thanks for all the awesome suggestions!
There are no fruit trees in the fronts of anyone’s yards… although we have a lime tree in the back (about a 100 feet away from the problem area on the other side of the house).
I love bats — Paul’s parents have bathouses and my parents have bats behind their house as well.
The city fogs the streets pretty regularly. We don’t have any room for equipment, so it’d have to be something spray-able, I think. I dunno… maybe we could stick something under the house? Anyway… Paul swears there is nothing in the sewer, he says he’s seen inside and it’s impossible. (I’m not so sure, after all, it’s a big catch basin for water! But I think I’m suppose to defer to him on this one.)
Some people have signs advertising “mosquito free yards” so there must be some type of application — maybe the bug-be-gone stuff?