The local weather here in Houston is calling for anywhere from five to fifteen inches of rain through the end of the week and parts of the greater Houston area have already had over five inches in a single day. These rain events present obvious hazards with flooding and traffic accidents at the top of the list but another unfortunate side effect of the heavy downpours is mosquitoes. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water that can gather in a myriad of different locations. After one of our patented Houston rains these breeding sites increase exponentially and it won’t be long before we’re seeing healthy swarms of these annoying pests. Mosquitoes are not only a nuisance but they have the added threat of being vectors of dangerous diseases like Zika and West Nile Virus. Mosquito control treatments are one way to control these pests.
So how do we attempt to control these Mosquitoes?
Eliminate Breeding areas
One of the first things to think of when it comes to mosquito control is the mosquito breeding sites. Mosquitoes can breed in as little as one inch of stagnant water so we should make every attempt to eliminate these areas when possible. This is usually as simple as storing items that can hold water inside or making sure they’re turned upside down. I’ve seen mosquito larvae in old buckets, recycling bins, old tires, bird baths, and ditches with standing water. When I’m out doing a mosquito control treatment for a customer’s home, I will point these areas out and dump out the offending item to eliminate the mosquito larvae and the breeding habitat.
Reduce Mosquito Habitat
Another method of mosquito control is to reduce the likelihood of mosquitoes gathering around your home by reducing mosquito harborage areas. A harborage area is just a fancy word for a location mosquitoes will hang out in when they aren’t actively searching for their next meal. Most mosquitoes like to hang out in dark moist vegetated areas during the heat of the day. We will often see them on the underside of leaves in the most heavily landscaped areas around a home. We also find them gathering in crawl spaces under homes, shaded doorways, and even down in french drains. It therefore goes without saying that the less shady, bushy, grassy areas you have around your home the less mosquitoes you will attract.
Mosquito Control Treatments
Although mosquitoes are difficult to control with chemical treatments alone, we have had good success in employing what we call Mosquito Barrier Treatments. In these mosquito control treatments we use a power blower to apply residual insecticides combined with insect growth regulators into the harborage areas around a home. When mosquitoes land in these areas given enough time they will die. This mosquito treatment is designed to decrease the population of mosquitoes around your home so that there is less chance of them biting you and your family. The mosquito treatments are designed to last for about a month and it is safe for people and pets to use these areas after the treatment has dried. We will never eliminate all mosquitoes but, knowing a bit about their habits and biology can go a long way towards arming us with knowledge so we can use the right mosquito control treatments to reducing the threat to you, your family and pets.
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