Keeping Mosquitoes Out Of Your Garden

Everyone with a lovely garden, patio or deck will surely enjoy sitting outside on a warm summer’s day or evening. But if there is one thing that can blight it for you, it is mosquitoes. Sometimes, it only takes one of two persistent mosquitoes to make your blood boil. Mosquitoes are a pest for sure, but they can also be a health hazard, spreading dengue fever and malaria and several other really horrible diseases. So how do you go about keeping mosquitoes out of your garden?

Maybe you cannot realistically hope to keep mosquitoes out of your garden entirely, but there are some things you can do to deter them and keep their numbers down. Stopping them breeding in your garden is the first step to take. Mosquitoes do not have a long flying span. A lot of the mosquitoes that bother you in your garden will have been born in your garden.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water, so make sure that there is none in your garden. They will lay eggs in water butts, dogs’ bowls, water that has collected in old tyres, bottles and tins and your rubbish bins, so make sure that no water can collect anywhere. Blocked gutters are another breeding site. if you have a water feature, put fish in it to eat the larvae.

Mosquitoes detest the smell of lemon, so you could grow citronella plants, lemon thyme, lemon grass and even a lemon tree, if the climate is right. If not, you could burn citronella scented candles or oil in the vicinity They not only keep the mosquitoes at bay, but the aroma is very fresh and envigourating.

If they are still bothering you, you may have to resort to mosquito repellent. You could impregnate your clothing with permethrin, like the army does for jungle warfare or just rub a deet-based product on your skin. There are also plenty of natural mosquito repellents too, such as lemon oil, citronella and eucalyptus oil.

Garlic is supposed to repel mosquitoes, so you could try growing garlic close at hand. It is also meant to repel ticks and has demonstrated to discourage greenfly (aphids) from roses. What could be better, particularly if you like garlic as well?

You could hang up one or two of those lamps that attract insects to them and them vapoourize them with a high voltage shock. These electric bug killers are particularly good for killing mosquitoes and house flies, which can also be a nuisance when you are sitting outside.

They are inexpensive and will last for years. They give off a pleasing glow and some claim to be able to clear areas of a quarter, a half and even a full acre of land of all flying insects by the use of the ultraviolet light and pheromones.

By using some or all of the above methods of keeping mosquitoes out of your garden, you should be able to enjoy your drink, a chat or a snooze in complete peace and freedom from flies and mosquitoes.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently concerned with work on mosquito bite treatment problems. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.

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January 24 2012 | Gardening | No Comments »

Using Soaps As A Natural Insecticide

How much do you know about soap in its various guises? If you wash with it, it makes you clean and destroys some germs, especially those originating from using the toilet. It makes children vomit if they eat it. Shampoo hurts if it gets in your eyes. It does not taste very nice. Most dogs hate being bathed in it. Anything else? Did you know that it is it is a killer to the majority of creatures on the planet? The clue is in that it destroys germs.

Soap can be employed as an insecticide as well as a germicide. Everyday soap does not kill ‘ninety-nine percent of all known germs – dead’, as the advert for a bleach once went and it perhaps does not kill all the different types of germs either, but as a broad-spectrum insecticide, it is pretty good. Some types of soap are more effective than others.

Neem Tree oil soap is a good example. It will poison some insects such as fleas and repel a whole load more and it is a potent fungicide. In fact, there has to be a lot more study carried out on what Neem can do. It is a tree from south-east Asia, particularly India, where it has been used for hundreds of years minimum for its antiseptic, insecticidal and fungicidal properties.

However, it is very potent If you use it on your plants take care. It may kill delicate, scrawny or young plants, so you will have to make a few tests first. The oil seems to work by increasing the properties of sunlight in some manner.

Household washing up liquid, at the strength you use to wash dishes can be used to kill wasps, greenfly and some mites. However, but some plants depend on an outer layer for defense and de-greasing soaps can have an effect on that layer. It is safest to only use this detergent on woody plants like roses. If you want real, commercially-produced insecticidal soap, try your garden shop.

Soap usually works on insects by dissolving their outer waxy layer which is meant to stop them dehydrating. It can also cause cell injury. As a repellent? It possibly smells bad to them, which is a good enough motive for washing surface areas often.

Domestic soaps, with the exception of Neem, are only effective as an insecticide when they are wet, but you should never apply soap suds in strong direct sunlight or they may burn or boil your plants. Automatic dishwasher soaps are not good for plants as they are too harsh, but may be effective against ants’ nests and wasps’ nests and the like.

The most effective insecticide the world has ever known, borax or boric acid, used to be added to a lot of soaps and may still be added to some intended to poison insects. Boric acid is a little less safe than table salt to humans and their animals, so if you see that chemical in a soap, you know that it is not a cause for worry and that it is an insecticidal soap. Borax is meant to be consumed and will kill a whole ant colony in a few weeks.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on many subjects, but is at present involved with Terro Ant Bait. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please visit our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.

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November 11 2011 | Landscaping | No Comments »

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