Mosquitoes may well be the most persistent and obnoxious of all home pests. In particularly bad years they become a downright plague. Since there’s no real way to permanently prevent them, you must look to other forms of control. In the case of a mosquito, this means eliminating their preferred breeding sites by removing standing water from your property.
Aside from mosquito bites being uncomfortable and annoying, they are also responsible for a variety of health complications and illness. This can make mosquitoes an even more heinous issue. Many people are subject to allergies related to mosquito bites. Bites can become infected as well. An even larger issue is the West Nile Virus—a leading mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. according to the CDC.
Mosquitoes rapidly advance through their life stages—egg, larva, pupa, adult—and can complete the process in as little as a week. They flourish in warm, damp weather, and use pools of water as breeding and nesting grounds. It is the female mosquito that bites because they require blood in order to lay eggs. Once they are ready to lay eggs, they will find any nearby standing water. The fledgling mosquitoes will live and feed in the standing water.
Aside from keeping puddles to a minimum, it’s important that you also examine your entire yard. Any bucket, bowl, or receptacle of any kind can fill with water from one little rain shower. It doesn’t take much standing water for local mosquitoes to take notice.
Discard, fill-in, or stow away that can contain standing water from your yard:
While your impulse may be to simply cover anything that can contain standing water, covering is not enough. Tarps and other popular covers will sag, creating the same bowl space that the object it is covering would. Additionally, covering an object will often allow for condensation and dew to form in the covered item. Any amount of standing water can become a nest—mosquitoes aren’t looking for a lake, they just need enough space to lay their eggs. You need to completely remove standing water from your property.
When you remove standing water from around your landscape, you will drastically limit the sources of nesting grounds for mosquitoes. However, these pests have been known to migrate up to miles away in search of food.
For optimal control, a combination of larvicides and insecticides should be used. Properly applied, these human-safe chemicals will prevent larvae from progressing into adulthood. This will either kill the mosquitoes or force them to leave your property.
McDonald Pest Control is here to help you remove mosquitoes from your property. We carry both the materials and training needed to provide comprehensive solutions for pest control.
Reach out to us today at 727-734-0963 to schedule a free consultation for mosquito control services in Tampa.
