Home » Writer's Blogs » James-Burns

Garden Solutions With James

James Burns ^(1,307) United States

Rational Environmental Solutions

How To Use Natural Mosquito Control

Posted Sunday, September 13, 2009 (68 days ago.) Viewed 62 times.

We all know that mosquitoes carry West Nile Virus, Malaria, and a variety of other diseases which can be passed on to humans and animals, besides that, they hurt when they bite, and they are a general nuisance. This page will provide some advice on natural mosquito control to help you keep yourself and your family safe. The prevalence of disease makes every step to prevent mosquito problems an important step in your health and safety.

What is natural mosquito control?

The most natural mosquito control is the same as the most natural control for any problem, that is, prevention! This is done by changing the habitat from a place that they can use for living and reproducing, to one that makes living and reproducing difficult for them by denying them what they need. Any mosquito control system should start with mosquito prevention. It should be the first line of defense, and without it, all other methods are doomed to failure. All other mosquito control methods are secondary. Sprays, nets, foggers, and even exclusion will fall short. All the flavor of the day, newfangled contraptions in the world will not solve your pest control problems! Sprays, electronic devices, potions and spells can't help if prevention is not given it's proper place at the beginning of the program.

Mosquito control using prevention

Mosquitoes, like any other type of pest, prefer certain habitats. In the case of the mosquito, they need:

Water for larvae to hatch and grow.

Cover to hide in.

Blood for the female to reproduce.

If you eliminate any of these, mosquitoes will not be able to reproduce in your area.

How to do it.

Water:

If you have puddles of standing water, buckets, tubs, or any other receptacle for water on your property, mosquitoes can find it, and use it against you. If receptacles are the problems, dump them, and make sure that they can no longer hold water. If the problem is standing water in low spots or puddles, provide a way to drain the water either through surface drainage, that is, fill the low spots and holes, or sub surface drainage, such as a french drain, or a pipe drain with a catch box. If you use the catch box and pipe drain, make sure that the grade on the system is consistent, so that water doesn't accumulate in the pipe. This could cause mosquitoes to use it as a basin, and become a home for other pests.

Don't just look at the ground, there are other areas which might hold enough water to encourage mosquito populations such as home gutter systems, which should of course, be cleaned and maintained frequently.

If the water problem is a pond or lake on your property, the problem is not only water, but also cover. This is a problem I see on a regular basis. It has less to do with water, than with cover.

Cover:

If mosquitoes are exposed to natural predators, the predators work very well as a green mosquito control method. If the predators can't get to them, they can't eat them. If you have brush and weeds around your home, it gives mosquitoes a place to hide from the things that like to eat them. It also gives them a place to find small animals for the blood needed for reproduction. If you eliminate hiding places like brush, weeds and high grass, you will drastically lower the population by exposing them to predation by their natural enemies.

If ponds or lakes exist on your property, you obviously do not want to drain them to get rid of mosquitoes, but you can reduce the amount of cover available. High weeds, and shallow water around the shallow edges of a pond should be removed. If filamentous algae, or pond scum as it is commonly called cover a large part of the body of water, the mosquitoes have a perfect habitat. They have water easily available for producing young, they have blood available from the animals that come to the water to drink, and they have cover in the water for protection from the fish who would otherwise dine on them! Skimming off the algae, or otherwise eliminating it will remove the cover, and and allow the fish to do their job.

Blood:

The female needs a blood meal to produce offspring. That may often come from you! Sometimes it comes from small animals. Reducing the availability of water and cover, reduces the numbers of small animals present to feed the hungry female.

Off site mosquito problems.

If you paid attention to the mosquito prevention information above, and followed the suggestions, most of your problem with mosquitoes is gone. There are however, other circumstances that can allow mosquitoes to be a problem for you and your family, and some of them may not be within your means to control. This could include such problems as swampy areas on adjacent properties, or ponds and lakes that exist nearby, and are not properly maintained. Even if this is your situation, you should still do the work mentioned above, which will still eliminate most of the problem, and then concentrate on the things you can do about your off site problem.

Neighbors and Officials.

Talk with the people who own the adjacent property about the problem. Do this before contacting public health officials. See if there is something that can be done by the owner before involving officialdom. If not, that is your next step. Encourage them to practice long term control rather than short term controls like pesticides. It will cost them less in the long run. If they are reluctant or obstinate, explain the health and public safety issues involved.

Prevention is the most natural of natural mosquito control methods because it denies them what they need to thrive and reproduce, and exposes them to natural predators like birds, bats, and fish. These natural predators are the next step in our mosquito control system, biological control.

Biological mosquito control:

Biological mosquito control is the next best step in green mosquito control, after we have used the best prevention methods. You have modified the habitat to work against the mosquitoes, now, you should modify the habitat to work in favor of their predators. This can be done by providing shelter and other encouragements for such predators as birds and bats. This can mean providing food sources like natural, native plants that birds enjoy, and a source of clean water like a fountain, or a well maintained, non stagnant bird bath. Bats require the same things. Bird and bat houses differ, but are fairly easily attained.

Botanical, or organic mosquito control.

Unfortunately, this is what most people think of when they think of natural mosquito control. Botanical, or organic products are a great addition to our green mosquito control arsenal, but they are not the main line of defense. Prevention is the first step, biological controls or predation is the second, and only after these methods are effectively used can you hope for success with botanical or organic mosquito control. The use of such things as citronella, or some of the commercial products designed for insect control has a place in the system. These products can be used in a couple of ways. They can be sprayed in areas where mosquitoes might have cover, and may have some preventative effects when used in outdoor living spaces, and they can be used in misting systems. Such misting systems are falling under more careful scrutiny these days, but when used in conjunction with botanical products other than pyrethrins, should pose little problem to your health, or the health of your soil. Still, with any system, there are costs, and possibly collateral damage.

Other natural mosquito control methods:

If you have followed the stages outlined above, you should not have any unmanageable mosquito problems at this point, however, if you have not followed them completely, or other extenuating circumstances exist, these tips will help.

If you have problems with mosquitoes inside your home, you should make sure all entryways for insects are sealed or screened.

If you have trouble in outdoor living spaces, mosquito netting for exclusion, fans to improve airflow, and citronella torches will provide a degree of relief.

If you have standing water that cannot be drained immediately, some light mineral oil can be sprayed evenly over the standing water from a spray bottle to help break the reproductive cycle.

Permalink Comments (0)

How To Control Bahia Grass

Posted Sunday, July 19, 2009 (124 days 22 hours ago.) Viewed 384 times.

When it comes to dealing with Bahia grass, or Paspalum, (note that paspalums include Bahia, and Dallas grass etc) you have a number of options:

You can live with it, and mow it at least once a week during the growing season.

You can control it by suppressing it's growth with a number of different agents.

You can kill it.

You can prevent it

Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Living with Bahia grass

If you live with the problem, you will need to mow pretty often, since at certain times of the year this invasive grass will grow more than a foot in under a week! Mowing twice each week is what I would recommend. The advantage of this course of action is that it allows for doing nothing, the disadvantage is that you will need to mow more often, or learn to live with the tall grass.

Controlling Bahia grass

It is possible to control the growth rate of Bahia grass using chemicals. There are a number of chemicals which can accomplish this when used in combination with other chemicals, and some that are labeled specifically as preventative growth regulators. These "pgr's" are expensive to use. There is however one chemical which will do the job with a low dose, and at minimal cost. It is glyphosate.

Glyphosates are made under several brand names, many of which are labeled for the suppression of Bahia grass, and do a great job of doing just that. The dosage is generally 2 to 6 ounces of 41% glyphosate per acre. At this rate, damage to other grasses is minimal to non existent. This combination will give seed head suppression for several months.

The lower level of treatment will require re treatment after a couple of months, but will give a lower level of phytotoxicity, or yellowing. The highest rate will give season long control, but will cause a higher level of yellowing.

The advantage is, that you get to lower the number of times you mow, and avoid the problems of erosion, and weed invasion that can occur when you kill off the majority of your Bahia grass turf. The disadvantage, is that you do not kill the Bahia grass. This however is offset by the weakening of the Bahia which allows other grasses to catch up, which might later allow you to actually kill the invasive grass without totally destroying your turf.

Killing Bahia grass

Why not kill the Bahia and be done with it? Well, that is an option. If you plan to kill it, there are products available such as the metsulfuron ureas that will do the job selectively. If you plan to do this, I recommend extensive forethought. If you kill the Bahia grass, and do not replace it with another grass, and it is your primary turf, the result will be grass burs. You must take care to use only the proper ratio, over the exact area, or you run the risk of salting out the good grasses.

You should plan on seeding, fertilizing, and irrigating as soon as the label directions allow, in order to prevent the growth of grass burs and other weeds. If you do not do this, you will have grass burs in areas that have become bare. It is a fact, grass burs won't grow where there is competition. You must make the soil able to produce competition for them, to prevent them.

Preventing Bahia grass

The best way to deal with Bahia grass, or any other weedy grasses The best way to deal with any weeds, or for that matter, any pest is to prevent it from gaining a foothold! If you avoid, or prevent a problem, you don't have to deal with it. How can you prevent Bahia from taking hold in your yard?

The number one means of transporting weeds in lawns is dirty mowers. If you clean your mower before you mow your lawn, you can prevent the majority of seed transfer problems. If you have a Bahia grass right of way, mow your lawn while it is clean, and before you mow your right of way, or wash it between. This simple act will prevent the majority of transfers.

It should be mentioned that you can not legally perform a chemical treatment on a highway right of way without a license in that category.

The next thing that you can do, is to develop a healthy lawn. A healthy lawn will prevent a host of problems, and will prevent weeds from getting a foothold. Think of your lawn as an organism. If the organism is healthy, it resists disease and parasites. Weeds are parasites!

Permalink Comments (0)