Mosquitoes

[Emma S]

How to get rid of the buggers?

we have a moat (I suspect therein lies the problem) and a small pond which dries out in summer. But the wood is absolutely full of them and they are really big bitey ones

 

I am past the repellant stage and moving towards anihilation. BUT father in law has a pheasant run which encloses the moat, so any chemicals need to be bird friendly.

 

The moat has no fish, and as its a scheduled monument we would probably not be allowed to put fish in. Besides its a bit dodgy looking so might well kill them anyway. It was overgrown and we took all bankside trees away last year, so there is no new leaf fall into the moat, and its got sunlight (well, not at the moment.....)

 

so, what do I use? Fumigation/gas/pellets something in the water???? any deterant on the platforms of the campsite yurts/domes in the wood??

 

any advice would be fantastic

[treequip]

Get some fish, fish eat the nymphs.

[Pumpy]

I live in a wetland so I know your pain, I can't do much about it besides a screen door, I did research it anyway a few yrs ago

 

As Treequip said, fish would be good, also encourage dragon flies and damsels, they tend to like clean water so it might be worth cleaning the moat up, you can add specific aquatic/pond plants to encourage them to lay eggs, the larvae/nymphs will eat mosquito larvae.

 

There are outdoor traps that have multiple lure mechanisms, Co2, IR, heat etc. the bigger ones cover an acre but are pretty pricey, the couple I looked at were over £500 I have no idea how effective they are.

 

Mosquitos will also breed in wet leaf litter, bung a load of chickens in the wood, they'll scratch up the leaf littler and eat the larvae too, mine seem to love catching them flying.

 

Besides that you're into fogging chemicals, seen it done in Columbia, nasty stuff IMO, I don't know if it's even legal here, might be best speaking to a pest controller or someone with a weed-killing licence who can ask the chemical suppliers about products & regs.

 

Pumpy

[County4x4]

Mate of mine has a place on some land by a river in Ireland - and invented his own trap with an extractor fan, some ducting and a light. Not sure of the ins and outs of construction - but he'd found a scientific research paper online which revealed how much your average mozzy weighs - and going on that - he caught well over a million on the first night of operation - which I thought was pretty good going!

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

High prune to allow light and breeze into the wood and some trout to munch the bugs.

[renewablejohn]

If we have a problem in the polytunnels we use an ultraviolet light with live electric mesh grid. Always a pleasing sound when they get fried. Only time we can sit outside is when we light the chimnea. Copied the idea of using one to repel mosquitoes while on holiday in Holland at a dutch pub next to the dykes. Could not move for mosquitoes but they kept 3 chimneas going around the pub tables which really kept the mosquitoes away allowing a pleasant drink.

[pault]

The best repellant by far is Avon skin so soft. Not strictly a repellant but it works like a dream. I also work as a white water raft guide in the highlands of Scotland and the Mozzies are fierce up here! A splash of that and they dont look twice at you. The brittish army have just started using it as well as far as i know for their far flung operations. Worth a shot if you ask me.

[splinters]

i was a pest controller for 8 years if you have power to your yurts then i would suggest UV electronic fly killers also try (red top fly traps) dotted around your site you also get repelent candles.

[gensetsteve]

I will probably get shot for saying this so check out and research well its only an idea. The small tank I wash my hot tub filters in sometimes gets overrun with mozzies if I forget to change the water. so one day I dropped a couple of pinches of chlorine into it within 3 seconds all dead and floating. Swimming pool chlorine is cheap and goes along way.