What can I do to get rid, or at least reduce the population, of these pests. I am not opposed to pesticides, but would prefer to go the natural route. The mosquitoes are absolutely terrible, even after we've had a few frosts. Any advice? We just bought this place and would like to enjoy it.

-- Jo (mamamia2kids@msn.com), October 22, 2001

Answers

move out west, worked for us. :)

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

This may sound strange, but garlic works great to get rid of mosquitoes. A friend of mine comes from the tropics and if you didnt wake up with a million mosquitoe bites there it was a miracle. Anyway, what she did was grind up, or cut up the garlic into little bits and put it next to her bed...it seems to deter the beasts. This probably won't help much...but it's some neat info.

-- D (Muhawi@aol.com), October 22, 2001.

I bet one of those bug zappers would take care of the skeeters. flys, too. I'm putting a bug zapper on my Christmas list this year. I good dosing of some sort of pesticide would probably take care of the chiggers & ticks, however, i'd likely opt for a misting of Off everytime i went for a trek outside.

-- Buk Buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), October 22, 2001.

Get some guineas.They keep the population way down. They spend the whole day out there eating them. For mosquitoes get some swallow houses or have a open door on a barn to attract barn swallows. They love mosquitoes

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), October 22, 2001.

Guineas and bats. Bats are the BEST mosquito eaters there are. Guineas are great for ticks. I, personaly find guineas to be one of the stupidest birds, but they work the ticks over. We (family of four) couldn't go outside without getting about ten ticks between us, let alone the animals, until we got guineas. Found one tick on my cat in four months. Tana

-- Tana Cothran (tana@getgoin.net), October 23, 2001.

I have to agree with the guineas. They are great at getting rid of ticks. They are noisy, but they are sooooo much fun to watch! They really do make chickens look smart!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 23, 2001.

Fire ants will eradicate the chiggers.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), October 23, 2001.

Bug zappers are ABSOLUTELY USELESS for getting rid of skeeters!!! Those stupid things just suck up a lot of electricity and fry all the beneficial bugs...like ladybugs. Not to mention that the ziiip! zaaaaaap! sound and the stinking smell of fried bugs will drive you up the wall.

The main way to get rid of mosquitoes is to target them where they breed, in pools of water. Make sure there are no buckets, old tires, children's playtoys....anything that collects as little as a gallon of water for mosquitoes to lay their eggs in and for the larvae to live in. For the chiggers, if there are shrubs or bushes or tall grass around that aren't necessary, try trimming back a bit. Chiggers and ticks hide in foliage.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), October 23, 2001.

Another suggestion: Put up some bat houses. Bats eat an incredible number of mosquitoes. Swallows and purple martins also eat their fair share.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), October 23, 2001.

Catnip...mosquito's hate it.

-- Judy (inhishand65@yahoo.com), October 25, 2001.

Chelsea - I've heard that bat houses don't really attract bats. Maybe Purple Martin Houses would be a better idea.

-- rick K (rick@notmail.com), October 25, 2001.