bat's will eat an amazing amount of mosquito's if you can convince them to move in and there are any around to be coaxed. bat houses are an easy afternoon's wood working project and entirely worth the effort. There is a disease killing bat's off lately though so you may not have any around to help out.

The wife and I planned to make a bat house over the winter, but we kinda forgot. I read that there are different bat house designs for different species, so you should find out which are the most common in your area.

We have some lavender in front of our house and the only difference it made is that mosquitos don't land on it. I'll add that this is the second summer in a row with LOTS of rain (and flooding), so there are so many little buggers that they are desperate. They don't seem to care about the basil growing in our kitchen, either, nor the garlic that's laying around on the counters:rolleyes:

I decided that since I can't get keep them away, then maybe I could make a trap. I'm not too keen on traps which use gas, electricity and/or chemicals, so I found a DIY version. You put water, sugar and yeast into a soda bottle, the yeast produces CO2 to lure them in, after which they stick to the water and drown.


After a week there wasn't a single skeeter in the trap, but the fruitflies just love it:) So now it's in the kitchen luring the flies away from our fruits and veggies. The mosquitos in the kitchen don't seem to be interested. Maybe I got the water/sugar/yeast proportions wrong.

So, I'm still using the best working solution I know of:

Hmm, the bat idea is a good one. I know we do have bats around, I see them now and again at night. Just don't let the Mrs hear about it as she hates em.

I'll give the Piwoslaw trap a try too. I need all the help I can get.

There are also birds which eat mosquitos, swifts for example. They usually nest close to human settlements and I recent found out that they can eat hundreds of skeeters every evening! We don't have too many bats around here, but a whole army of swifts has gotten fat and still hasn't made a noticeable dent in the mosquito population;)

The main problem I have with the "bats and birds eating the mosquitoes" meme is that mosquitoes seem to spend most of their time near ground level in and around the bushes and other vegetation, whereas bats and birds spend most of their time at and above the treetops. How many mosquitoes are there to be found 50 feet above the treetops where they are unlikely to find a host for a blood meal. Dragon flies, damselflies, robber flies, and spiders would be more likely to put more of a dent in the mosquito population since they spend more time at the altitudes frequented by mosquitoes.

I have plantings of rosemary, basil and marigolds. I don't think they did anything. There were still mosquitoes everywhere.

At least, there were until our historic heat wave and drought removed them.

just saw this

How to Make Your Own DIY Mosquito Repellent Device | Apartment Therapy Unplggd

The other day I saw a simple device to not repel but trap mosquitoes see: Skeeter Bag. It seems simple enough to build one and eliminate some of the pests.

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Did anyone else try the yeast solution this summer? I made a total of three batches, and none of them caught any skeeters, but this is the first time in a while that we don't have fruitflies in the kitchen. During the last few years they'd be hanging around well into December or January.