Summer is undoubtedly the best season of the year to invite friends and family over to your home for barbecues. Unfortunately, those fun cookouts in the backyard can turn into a disaster rather quickly if your yard is infested with mosquitoes. Their bites make everyone uncomfortable, and they can even be dangerous if they carry potentially deadly diseases like West Nile virus.
Bug spray can help keep them from feasting on your blood for a little while, but there’s no better way to keep yourself from becoming an all-you-can-eat buffet than preventing mosquitoes from coming into your yard in the first place. Here are a few things our exterminators in Bartlesville, OK recommend you try this summer if you’d like to live in a mosquito-free area:
- Get rid of water: Mosquitos lay their eggs in standing pools of water. The problem is that their eggs are so small that they hardly need any water to get the job done. In fact, a plastic bottle cap can hold enough water for them to deposit eggs. Take some time after a summer storm to walk around your yard and remove any standing water or puddles. This will help reduce breeding sites and prevent mosquitoes from hatching in your yard to begin with. If you have a birdbath in your yard, make sure you dump the water and wipe it out every couple of days. Eggs can stick to the basin and survive even in the absence of water.
- Biological control: Biocontrol is an eco-friendly way to manage a mosquito problem. These methods use mosquitoes’ natural enemies to eliminate them from your yard. If you have a pond in your yard, consider purchasing fish that feed on mosquito larvae. The most popular of these breeds is the aptly named mosquitofish. If you don’t have a pond, dragonflies can also be helpful in reducing the mosquito population. Immature dragonflies eat larvae in the waters, and adult dragonflies eat mosquitoes whole.
- Keep your grass short: If you haven’t done any of the things mentioned above, you’re probably going to have an adult mosquito issue. The best way to try to reduce the adults’ presence is by maintaining your lawn. The shorter you keep your grass, the fewer places adult mosquitoes will have to rest when they’re tired of flying around. If there aren’t any good places to take a breather from flying, the less attractive your yard will be to adult mosquitoes.
- Call exterminators: The above DIY tactics can do wonders to mitigate the presence of mosquitos in your yard. But sometimes, the only way to keep the population in check is by bringing in the professionals. Our team of exterminators in Bartlesville, OK uses a variety of human- and pet-friendly methods to get rid of mosquitoes and other pests quickly and efficiently.
Be sure to give Excellence Pest Control a call today to take care of your mosquito infestation once and for all. We look forward to helping you enjoy your summer and avoid a bunch of mosquito bites!