Best mosquito repellent?

[kage69]

Maine is nothing but thick forests and water, so we tend to have some pretty crazy springs as far as bugs go... the black flies in particular can be hellish, even worse than the mosquitoes.

I've tried a variety of methods to keep all things flying and biting away from my house and surrounding areas. Zappers, foggers, sticky traps, pesticides, ultra sonic noise makers, etc etc...

I feel like I finally found the ticket the other summer, and plan to keep it up. It's called Mosquito Barrier , http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/ Great stuff! One gallon has lasted me 3 summers!

Basically it's a species of super potent garlic in concentrated liquid form. You mix it with some dish detergent and veggie oil, then add that to a gallon of water and spray it wherever you don't want bugs. Stuff is amazing, it drives away all the stuff with wings that I hate, even ticks, rabbits, deer, carpenter ants... Need to reapply after a couple of hard rains, but if it stays dry out it's staying power is impressive.

Non toxic, won't harm plants or animals, or the water table. Everything smells like garlic for an hour or so after application, but then it wears off to the human nose. To mosquitoes it's like mustard gas. I usually dose my barn, inside and out, then spray a wide line around the whole property making sure to get bushes and trees as well.

I use this stuff in conjunction with diatomaceous earth and simple sticky fly traps. Cheap, non toxic and effective. To be fair, if I'm going to be outside working on things for awhile, I still put some repellant on my arms, neck and head. Herbal Armor from All Terrain is a great product in the form of a cream, which can also be had with sunblock in it. Good stuff that doesn't make you stink like a chemical plant or load you up with DEET.


Just my experience...

 

[highland145]

I feel like I finally found the ticket the other summer, and plan to keep it up. It's called Mosquito Barrier , http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/ Great stuff! One gallon has lasted me 3 summers!



Just my experience...

How long does it last with rain or a sprinkler system?

 

[kage69]

the citrus-based stuff has found to be the most potent anti-bug compound. And, it seems, that grapefruit has the highest concentration of that specific compound, whatever it is. They not only flee in terror from this stuff, it kills them super dead, as well as noseeums and other nuisance/biting bugs.

not sure if they have a new, marketed product out there that utilizes this stuff, but ah, I don't know, plant a grapefruit tree in your back yard?

I read about the citrus stuff awhile ago and gave it a try myself. Don't recall the name of it, but I remember the manufacturer's proprietary active ingredient was something called Limeon, which I think was a concoction of the oils from limes, grapefruit, etc. This stuff is apparently effective on any kind of insect, but this also includes bees which I didn't want to harm. The garlic based stuff seems to work especially well on anything that feeds on blood, and won't harm bees at all.

I like where your heads at, but trees take too long to grow! You want to line your house with geraniums, marigolds, mints, and rosemary. I think catnip also repels biting bugs but I might be wrong. A good tactic is to put them in planters right under any windows you might leave open in the warmer seasons.

 

[kage69]

How long does it last with rain or a sprinkler system?

It's hard to quantify, but in my experience I need to reapply after 2 good downpours. Depends on how strong you make the solution, and how much you put down. Some surfaces (really thick grass, under sides of tree leaves, tree trunks) seem to hang onto it better than others. Can tell you that I've gone a whole month (granted, it was pretty damn dry) on one application before though.

As with most things, YMMV. You can buy the stuff in a 2qt container too I think, a lot cheaper than a full gallon if you just want to try it first. Just be careful not to get any on your hands, its so strong it's damn near caustic and you will smell like a clove of garlic for weeks. Flying Spaghetti Monster help you if you get any in your eyes! Like I said, this is no normal garlic. It knows no fear, IT CAN'T BE REASONED WITH!

 

[kage69]

Oh, for those of you down South, works great on tiger mosquitoes too I hear...

 

[highland145]

Oh, for those of you down South, works great on tiger mosquitoes too I hear...

That's me. Thanks.

 

[brainhulk]

can you just buy a bunch of garlic, throw it into a blender with some water and cooking oil and call it a day?

 

[highland145]

In for 1 quart. I'll let you know in a week or 2.

 

[Zeze]

I have a wet areas where I live. A little stream, a pond, and lots of trees and grass. Sort of swampy.

My property in the hot summer days would result in literally what he said. Go outside for 20 seconds and you have 20 mosquitos on you.

I bought 2 bug zappers (started off with 1), bigger ones, one that are built for multiple acres.

It didn't really help, but they sure worked very well. They basically have 2 screens surrounding a black light. When mosquitos fly between the screens, they get zapped. There is about an inch between the screens.

When I first ran it, I'd fill up the entire 1 inch gap with dead bugs.. The thing is as long as my keyboard on my desk, so take that 1 inch, 6 inch diameter, long as a keyboard, and that is alot of buggers.

Got sick of cleaning them out every night so I bought another one to atleast make it every other night. Nope, they both filled up and jammed full of bugs every single night.



But it would be thousands of mosquitos killed per night. These reviews on the mosquito magnet were like a few hundred at best.

Bug zapper $20-30 at home depot, mosquito magnet $300+?

Yikes. Buy a bug zapper.

In my case I did not reduce the population any... There is just too much wet, they breed faster than I kill. Maybe I'll bump it up to 4 bug zappers for this year!

Dude, be a man and wage a full-scale war. Screw the environment and continue until you win this zapper war.

Buy about 50 zappers to start. Surround your house with those and see how it fares. Clean the dead bugs off every night. It may take you time, but this is now personal.

If it still doesn't work, double the zappers to 100 for double the concentration.

If it still doesn't work, make it 500. Network those bitches with a streamlined power.

Don't rest until there's not a single flying ah heck in your yard.

 

[bignateyk]

Dude, be a man and wage a full-scale war. Screw the environment and continue until you win this zapper war.

Buy about 50 zappers to start. Surround your house with those and see how it fares. Clean the dead bugs off every night. It may take you time, but this is now personal.

If it still doesn't work, double the zappers to 100 for double the concentration.

If it still doesn't work, make it 500. Network those bitches with a streamlined power.

Don't rest until there's not a single flying ah heck in your yard.

This.

This is how I took care of the bumblebee nest in my rock wall. I had an exterminator come out like 3 times and he never seemed to be able to get rid of them. Finally I said screw it. I got a gallon of gasoline and dumped it into the little hole they were coming out of. After that I stood by the nest at sun-down and killed every one of the fuckers with a shoe that decided to return to the nest.

By the time I was done there must have been 300 bumblebees laying dead in the yard (and who knows how many more in the nest) from either gasoline or my shoe.

 

[brainhulk]

This.

This is how I took care of the bumblebee nest in my rock wall. I had an exterminator come out like 3 times and he never seemed to be able to get rid of them. Finally I said screw it. I got a gallon of gasoline and dumped it into the little hole they were coming out of. After that I stood by the nest at sun-down and killed every one of the fuckers with a shoe that decided to return to the nest.

By the time I was done there must have been 300 bumblebees laying dead in the yard (and who knows how many more in the nest) from either gasoline or my shoe.

i wouldnt try that with africanized bees, lol

 

[Rill22]

Dude, be a man and wage a full-scale war.

I took 99% deet to SE Asia last year and it worked well. Then again, it also recommended burning your clothes and washing in a decontamination chamber afterwards, so I'd go with one of the other suggestions.

 

[Zeze]

This.

This is how I took care of the bumblebee nest in my rock wall. I had an exterminator come out like 3 times and he never seemed to be able to get rid of them. Finally I said screw it. I got a gallon of gasoline and dumped it into the little hole they were coming out of. After that I stood by the nest at sun-down and killed every one of the fuckers with a shoe that decided to return to the nest.

By the time I was done there must have been 300 bumblebees laying dead in the yard (and who knows how many more in the nest) from either gasoline or my shoe.

Oh MAN, this reminds me of the funny ass incident dad and I had!

About 9 years ago in college, I was home for the summer and there was this.. MASSIVE hornet nest inside my dad's shed. How big is it? It's about the size of a full-frontal bathroom mirror, equivalent to an adult's whole torso.

(google img as a reference, 1.5x bigger than this)

I had no idea hornets nest got that big!? I thought they were MUCH smaller and only honeybees made them big. But such infestation was right at my dad's shed.

Fuck the exterminators, we decided to take the matter into our own hands. I did some quick googling and saw their activities get low at night. So we went to home depot and bought 4 cans of bee killers that can shoot about 10 ft'. And we waited until dusk.

I also learned wasp's sting can pierce horse skin. Pfft, even in the dead summer, we armored up with ski jackets, pants, ski mask, ski goggles, wrapped beach towel all over our neck and wore hats on top. Our armor was twice thicker than the wasp's entire body length.

So we weighted til night. Dad and I grabbed a big rock to crack open the face of the nest. It was quiet in the shed and my heart was pounding. I threw the rock and heard a LOUD CRACK. And oh my god, it was still surreal to this day- the MASSIVE buzzing completely surrounded my dad and I. It was unbelievably loud, I thought I was in a movie theater.

We fucking went to town with the spray. I squeezed the trigger in the general direction and held it until they were empty. We were COMPLETELY surrounded by the swarm and I could here all these 'tick tick' body slams of the wasps trying to sting all over my body. It was just a surreal sensation.

Suddenly I heard my dad scream, "FUCK I'm hit!" And he ran out.

After the battle, my dad got stung about 4 times in the ankle. Wasps don't have any vision in pitch darkness. It looks like they went batshit and tried to sting anything in the shed. I was completely unscathed.

Next morning, I went to the nest to see the aftermath as soon as I woke up. Oh my god. The floor was covered in wasp corpses and there was a head-sized mound of dead larvae right underneath the massive broken nest.

Crazy indeed.

 

[brainhulk]

lol

 

[kage69]

can you just buy a bunch of garlic, throw it into a blender with some water and cooking oil and call it a day?

I have heard of people doing that, both with garlic and chrysanthemum leaves. The results can vary quite a bit and the overall strength of the garlic tincture is said to be a lot lower than that of MB. Garlic we get at the farmers market or produce section is nowhere close to what they use in MB, I've heard it likened to the difference between a jalapeno and a Scotch Bonnet.

 

[highland145]

zeze, that is one cool pic.

Story, too.

 

[brandonb]

Dude, be a man and wage a full-scale war. Screw the environment and continue until you win this zapper war.

Buy about 50 zappers to start. Surround your house with those and see how it fares. Clean the dead bugs off every night. It may take you time, but this is now personal.

If it still doesn't work, double the zappers to 100 for double the concentration.

If it still doesn't work, make it 500. Network those bitches with a streamlined power.

Don't rest until there's not a single flying ah heck in your yard.

Good plan! I'm on board!

 

[alien42]

I have a wet areas where I live. A little stream, a pond, and lots of trees and grass. Sort of swampy.

My property in the hot summer days would result in literally what he said. Go outside for 20 seconds and you have 20 mosquitos on you.

I bought 2 bug zappers (started off with 1), bigger ones, one that are built for multiple acres.

It didn't really help, but they sure worked very well. They basically have 2 screens surrounding a black light. When mosquitos fly between the screens, they get zapped. There is about an inch between the screens.

When I first ran it, I'd fill up the entire 1 inch gap with dead bugs.. The thing is as long as my keyboard on my desk, so take that 1 inch, 6 inch diameter, long as a keyboard, and that is alot of buggers.

Got sick of cleaning them out every night so I bought another one to atleast make it every other night. Nope, they both filled up and jammed full of bugs every single night.



But it would be thousands of mosquitos killed per night. These reviews on the mosquito magnet were like a few hundred at best.

Bug zapper $20-30 at home depot, mosquito magnet $300+?

Yikes. Buy a bug zapper.

In my case I did not reduce the population any... There is just too much wet, they breed faster than I kill. Maybe I'll bump it up to 4 bug zappers for this year!

bug zappers do not attract mosquitos but do kill hundreds, if not thousands of non biting insects that are critical to the local ecosystem.

 

[zinfamous]

We have 3 orange trees planted in our yard along with 2 tangerines, 2 pawpaw, 2 coconut trees, and a few palm trees.
Grapefruit? meh.

wah? you no lika the grapefruit? D:

anyway, your yard sounds awesome.

 

[kage69]

bug zappers do not attract mosquitos but do kill hundreds, if not thousands of non biting insects that are critical to the local ecosystem.

The ones I've used did in fact attract and kill mosquitoes, the problem was the mosquitoes were only about 10% of what was killed! Moths, in particular, seem to be powerless in avoiding them, and due to their girth and ability to be huge (Luna moths for instance) they clog up those zappers quick like. I gave the zapper method one more try with the purchase of a zapper that uses a different wavelength of light to attract mosquitoes and to not attract other insects. Supposedly it works during the day time too, but so far I have been thoroughly unimpressed with any and all zappers.

The mosquitoes magnets work alright, at least for the first season of use anyway. My parents invested in 5 units back in 2004; 4 of them were out of action within the first year of use. American Biophysics, the maker, was completely unwilling to support them in any way other than to offer a discount on replacement units. Fuckers.

If you don't mind spending the money and don't want to spray anything, the mosquito magnets made by Blue Rhino are probably the best. They have a beneficial black/white color scheme on the business end that helps attracts bugs, and it is also adhesive in nature so even if a gigantic moosefly lands on it just to investigate, he's still screwed. These models have better quality ignition systems and fans then those made by the cocksuckers at American Biophysics.

 

[zinfamous]

bug zappers do not attract mosquitos but do kill hundreds, if not thousands of non biting insects that are critical to the local ecosystem.

:thumbsup:

dumbest machine, ever. But highly entertaining, of course.

 

[zinfamous]

Oh, and when all else fails: Nuke from orbit, WITH LASERS! :awe:

serious:

http://www.physorg.com/news156423566.html

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/video-laser-zaps-pesky-skeets

Reagan's dream of shooting down Ruskie rockets may have finally come to some technological reality, though in much smaller, and potentially more useful applications!

 

[BoomerD]

That's what we're trying to figure out. The mosquito nets used seem to be inadequate and I also get the feeling that they can come through under the doors as well. Every night before we enter to spray the sleeping room, I usually kill about 3-4 that are just sitting on the door waiting for us to open it so they fly inside.
This is our house in Lagos, not the one in the US BTW.

The funny thing is when I go to my grandparents village in the woods, there is zero mosquito and no need to spray the rooms at all.
The difference? No street gutter with standing water.

Ours is about the size of the one in the 1st picture, maybe a little less and it's not as close to our house as what you see in that picture. From my point of view I can't do anything about that breeding ground since it's outside our compound, so I have to stick to indoor methods.
Putting a mosquito magnet outside our compound near the gutter is just asking for it to get stolen, not to mention the Amazon reviews of that product are pretty bad.

Lagos? So you're the Nigerian scammer who keeps offering us all Millions of $$$ to help you get money out of your country... :sneaky::hmm:

 

[highland145]

Lagos? So you're the Nigerian scammer who keeps offering us all Millions of $$$ to help you get money out of your country... :sneaky::hmm:

I see the money. It's flowing down the streets.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Wear a blue shirt.:awe: