When it comes to pests, it’s hard to find one as awful as the mosquito. Everyone knows what they are, and everyone hates them. However, as much as we dislike them, mosquitoes are a fact of life, and we have to deal with them in one way or another. Learning the best way to keep mosquitoes away from your Bay Area property will help you have to deal with them a lot less frequently.
What Are Mosquitoes?
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know what a mosquito is, but there are probably a few things about mosquitoes that you don’t know.
Mosquitoes are small, flying insects. They have thin bodies, six long legs, and a proboscis that they use to eat.
All mosquitoes eat nectar, but only the females also feed on blood. Female mosquitoes need blood in order to lay eggs. After a blood meal, mosquitoes will digest it, then find an area of stagnant water to lay as many as 300 eggs at a time.
Mosquitoes are active during the warm months of the year, which means they can be active all year long in The Bay Area. They tend to rest during the hottest parts of the day and are usually out and about more frequently at dawn and dusk.
What Problems Do Mosquitoes Cause?
Mosquitoes are certainly a nuisance. If you try to spend time outdoors in the late afternoon or early evening, you’re likely to be swarmed. Furthermore, when they bite, the bites can be itchy for days afterward.
However, their nuisance factor pales in comparison to the real dangers of mosquitoes. Believe it or not, mosquitoes are the deadliest pests on the planet. They are responsible for over one million deaths every year.
What makes mosquitoes so dangerous is the many diseases they can transmit. If you get bitten by an infected mosquito, they will transfer that disease to you. There are many mosquito-transmitted illnesses. Some of the more common ones in our area include the West Nile virus, dengue fever, and malaria. Mosquitoes also spread the Zika virus, yellow fever, Western equine encephalitis, and more.
While most of the illnesses spread by mosquitoes are treatable, some can be deadly if not caught in time, and others can lead to lifelong problems.
How Can You Reduce Mosquito Populations Around Your Bay Area Property?
Reducing mosquito populations on your Bay Area property can be attempted in many different ways, with some techniques far more effective than others. Some of the most common ways people try to reduce the mosquitoes on their property include:
- Using citronella candles or torches: This method may keep mosquitoes away from the area immediately around the candle or torch but will do nothing more.
- Using a fan: This method will keep mosquitoes away from the area until you turn the fan off.
- Wearing bug spray: This method effectively keeps mosquitoes off of you but must be done every time you go outside.
- Wearing light-colored clothing: Mosquitoes prefer darker colors, so wearing light-colored clothes can sometimes help keep them off of you.
- Using bug zappers: This method is not effective at all. Mosquitoes are not attracted to light, but to carbon dioxide. That means that they’ll be drawn to a person over a bug zapper ten times out of ten.
- Planting mosquito-repelling plants: These plants can help, but will only work in the immediate area around the plants.
- Eliminating areas of standing water: This pro-active step is the most effective do-it-yourself method to reduce mosquito populations on your property. If there are no areas of standing water, mosquitoes can breed on your property. If mosquitoes can’t reproduce on your property, they will find somewhere else to breed, leaving your property with far fewer mosquitoes.
Is Professional Mosquito Control Worth It?
Professional mosquito control may sound like something you’re not interested in, but it is the most effective way to reduce the mosquito populations on your Bay Area property. When you contact Bay Pest for a mosquito control treatment, we’ll use a mosquito fogging machine to treat the areas of your property where adult mosquitoes spend their time resting during the day.
When done in combination with the removal of standing water, such as puddles, clogged gutters, and birdbaths, we effectively eliminate the adults, eggs, and larvae on your property.
Bay Pest offers our mosquito control as a monthly service to keep mosquitoes off your property all year long. We can also provide this service on a one-time basis for special events.
If you’re sick of mosquitoes and want to keep your Bay Area property a safe and healthy place to spend time outdoors, contact Bay Pest to request our mosquito control service. You’ll be glad you did!