Does Wearing A Face Mask Help Keep Mosquitoes In The Bay Area Away?

Since the pandemic began, we’ve discovered many benefits to wearing masks, including that your face stays warm in cold weather, but what if wearing a mask was to help protect you against mosquito bites? We’ll take anything we can get. Right?

Pest control in the Bay Area is the best way to protect yourself against mosquitoes, but there are a few other ways to protect yourself, too. For more on mosquitoes in the Bay Area, whether face masks can protect you against them, and how to get rid of mosquitoes in your yard, keep reading.

Does Wearing a Face Mask Protect Against Mosquitoes?

Masks are generally pretty tightly conformed to your face, and loose-fitting clothing is more likely to prevent a bite. If you’re worried about breathing in a mosquito, absolutely a face mask can prevent that. Besides protecting against harmful particles, there isn’t much that a mask can do to prevent bites. Instead, what you wear on your arms, legs, and ankles can prevent mosquito bites.

To keep mosquitoes from biting and, consequently, to protect yourself from the diseases you can get from mosquitoes, try wearing this kind of clothing when you’re outdoors:

• Long-sleeved, light-colored, loose-fitting shirts and pants.
• Long socks tucked into your pants and boots.
• Clothing treated with Deet or other picaridin-based repellants.
• Essential oils like lemon eucalyptus, lavender, cinnamon, soybean, and others.

You can also avoid bites by showering and wearing clean clothes before leaving the house, not drinking when you’re outdoors, and being extra cautious about layering up if you’re pregnant. In addition to wearing protective clothing, adding some plants that keep mosquitoes away from your home to your garden will help limit the number hanging around your property.

Why Mosquitoes Around Your Home Are A Big Problem

Generally, when you’re just hanging around your backyard or working around your home, you’re not dressed to protect against mosquitoes. While not every mosquito carries disease, mosquitoes and malaria are the number one killers in the world. Other dangerous diseases are still transmitted in the United States every year, albeit much more rarely than outside of the United States.

If they are thriving in yards, then mosquitoes in homes are a natural consequence, and one mosquito has no limit to the number of times it can bite you or your kids while you’re sleeping. This can become quite a nuisance, and excessive scratching can put you at risk of developing a secondary skin infection. In addition to being vectors for dangerous diseases, mosquitoes in large quantities may attract other problematic pests as they are the primary food source for many other species of animals, including bats.

How Mosquitoes Spread Malaria & Other Dangerous Diseases

Mosquitoes do not naturally carry disease. They pick up diseases in the bloodstream and transfer them to their next victim by biting their prey. For the most part, in Malaria-heavy countries, this happens from mosquito to person to mosquito to person. If a mosquito bites an infected person, they now carry the disease and infect other people.

Mosquitoes and malaria are a minor concern in the United States. The West Nile Virus is the more significant threat regarding diseases you can get from mosquitoes. The number of people infected in 2020 was a quarter of the number infected in 2018 but still exceeded 500 cases.

How Do You Control The Mosquito Population In Your Back Yard?

The number-one most effective way to get rid of mosquitoes in yards and eliminate mosquitoes in homes is with help from Bay Pest Solution. With our mosquito control treatment, we eliminate adult mosquitoes through fogging, and we can help you get rid of eggs and larvae by making recommendations to reduce standing water.

With monthly treatments, Bay Pest Solution can protect you from these dangerous pests in and around your home. To request a free estimate, call Bay Pest Solution today. In addition to monthly treatments, you can help keep mosquitoes away with a few modifications to your yard.

For DIY mosquito prevention, try these techniques:

• Add plants that keep mosquitoes away to your garden, including Citronella, Lavender, Marigolds, Rosemary, thyme, basil, catnip, and lemongrass.
• Keep your yard mowed and reduce debris in your yard, including leaf piles.
• Clear gutters and repair anything causing excess moisture around your yard, like leaking pipes and landscaping issues.
• Treat standing water, and if you’re giving water to the birds and don’t want to poison them, make sure the water is circulating.

It can be hard to know where to start, so if you need guidance on prevention methods or need treatment to get rid of mosquitoes right now, call Bay Pest Solution.