There's a hero in all of us, but I just want to get rid of all these freaking bugs.

ANTVGM64

Howdy friends. I currently live in a nice house with a very nice porch, and that very nice porch is currently territory in a cold war. Me vs. bugs. Namely mosquitos. I can deal with spiders and other non-biting insects, but I was curious if there is some tried-and-true secret to combating bugs and keeping them away from lights and people? I know about Citronella candles and such, I just wasn't sure if anyone had any cool remedies I could try.

knitdan

Bug Zapper.

Is your nice porch too nice to completely enclose in screen door type material?

Citronella is probably your best option, and you need several for maximum effectiveness.

Shogun

Bat house. A small brown bat will eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour. I bought a bat house, but you can make one super easy. Basically some plywood/stock and some mesh on the inside so they have somewhere to hang. Hang the house as high into trees as you can get it. I mean as high as you can get it. 40 feet off the ground may not cut the mustard. Also, preferably, please don't nail the house into the tree. Hang it. The bats will take a while to find it and move in, but once they are in they will probably stay forever as long as there is plenty of food nearby. They can take months or even a year to find the house and move in so be patient.

Arch

Actually, both of these solutions are not going to work.

Bats will only eat mosquitoes if there is no other option. The common comparison is a mosquito is like...a potato chip and there are usually better options for bats to eat at night (moths, beetles, craneflies, particularly). Bats can eat a ton of mosquitoes, but tend not to because the energy investment in mosquito hunting usually isn't worth the reward.

Also in many cases mosquitoes aren't attracted to bug zappers.They are more attracted to CO2 than to lights, so they will basically ignore the bug zapper and go for you.

Citronella candles and misters are only partially effective- they are short term, and you have to stand in very close proximity to them for it to work.

The best option is screening in your porch, as annoying as it is. Mechanical barriers are better than chemical, sadly. Long pants and shirts (I know, I know, summertime) work better than candles.

The other way is "an ounce of prevention"- get rid of any standing water around your house. This is perfect for mosquitoes to breed. These include bird baths, buckets, rain barrels, toys, tires etc. Pay attention to clogged gutters! Secret mosquito breeding pool!

DEET based repellents work okay, better than most. I avoid permethrin stuff because permethrin just sketches me out, but it apparently works.

Source: I'm an entomologist

Arch

Ironically, bug zappers tend to destroy non-target insects far more than they kill target pests. For every one or two mosquitoes, you will kill like a hundred moths and beetles that probably aren't doing any harm.

The Ender

Shogun wrote: »

Bat house. A small brown bat will eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour. I bought a bat house, but you can make one super easy. Basically some plywood/stock and some mesh on the inside so they have somewhere to hang. Hang the house as high into trees as you can get it. I mean as high as you can get it. 40 feet off the ground may not cut the mustard. Also, preferably, please don't nail the house into the tree. Hang it. The bats will take a while to find it and move in, but once they are in they will probably stay forever as long as there is plenty of food nearby. They can take months or even a year to find the house and move in so be patient.

While I can endorse this plan, as you've stated, it's very long term. I think the OP might want something a little more immediate. :P


Citronella candles are sort-of hit and miss; mosquitoes in particular are a difficult to control insect, because deterrents only ever go so far. At the end of the day they have to bite to stay alive, and they'll do it even if it's unpleasant for them.

Kill methods are basically the only option: bug zappers, mechanical traps, insect eating plants, spraying, etc. Unfortunately, bug zappers and insect eating plants are of limited use because mosquitoes aren't drawn to most varieties (mosquitoes aren't particularly attracted to light, for example, and most insect eating plants produce strong nectar scents rather than blood scents because nectar eating insects are more common than blood sucking insects). Spraying is usually something only feasible if you own a lot of land. So, that leaves mechanical traps.

I know people who swear by these things. Just check your local bylaws before buying one, and make sure nobody is operating a beekeeping operation nearby, because the traps can and will incidentally kill things like honeybees (which will get you quite rightly slapped with a big fine in some areas).

Essee

Pillbugs, right? I dunno, I'm in a basement suite right now and they seem to looove sneaking in here. I haven't really tried to do anything about them, because they're harmless, so I don't really know anything in specific you should do with them. I originally THOUGHT I had resolved the problem by sealing one of their routes into here, but while that has kept most other bugs and spiders out, the pillbugs still show up somehow. Every week or so I realize my kitchen is littered with ex-pillbugs.

Jam Warrior

Woodlice.

Require and seek out the damp so an infestation my be an indication of damp issues. Might just need a dehumidifier.

No health hazard at all. Chemical treatment is likely to be a very short term solution.

V1m

ANTVGM64 wrote: »

Howdy friends. I currently live in a nice house with a very nice porch, and that very nice porch is currently territory in a cold war. Me vs. bugs. Namely mosquitos. I can deal with spiders and other non-biting insects, but I was curious if there is some tried-and-true secret to combating bugs and keeping them away from lights and people? I know about Citronella candles and such, I just wasn't sure if anyone had any cool remedies I could try.

I don't know if you can get it in the US but one thing that repels mozzies really well is TCP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP_(antiseptic)

Put out a saucer or something with a little water in and add a spoonful of TCP and you create a zone that mosquitoes will avoid. Personally I just dab a bit around my neck but I quite like the phenol smell.

The Ender

So, kinda piggy backing on this thread. I've got those little bugs that turn into balls when they are disturbed. I'm in a basement apartment, and already had exterminators come by to take care of another bug problem the apartment building was having and then these guys showed up. I only ever really see one at a time crawling around, but I do notice their dead bodies piling up in several corners of the apartment.

Are they invading or just coming out of the woodwork after the exterminators came through and are slowly dying? Anything I can do besides getting another round of spraying from the exterminators?

Pillbugs / woodlice, like Elf mentioned, are a sign that you have moisture issues or rotting wood somewhere - they mostly eat detritus (incidentally, they're not actually bugs - they're crustaceans).

They're totally harmless. My solution to them has been to set-up a small aquarium, collect the ones I see and keep them as low maintenance pets.