Thursday July 24th, 2008
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Keep Mosquitoes Away, Naturally
Posted by Marisa Belger on June 6, 2006 - 3:28pm.
It's only early June and I've already been beaten (and eaten) by a couple of ambitious mosquitoes. I chased them down unsuccessfully and woke up the next morning with their signature red, itchy welts on my legs and feet. While I've had moderate success with natural insect repellents - made from nothing more than citronella oil, cedarwood oil, lemongrass oil, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and water, Quantum receives Skin Deep's approval - I'm most interested in a non-toxic solution to the mosquito-heavy barbeques I suffer through each year. Specifically, is there a way to decrease the mosquito-to-human ratio present in my parents' New England backyard every summer?
I'm going to suggest that my parents look into one of the following mosquito-zapping methods before they send out an invite for another BBQ:
Hammacher Schlemmer makes an electric mosquito trap called the MegaCatch. The device emits a scent that mimics human breath. The bugs are drawn in and then trapped in a mesh bag. Hammacher Schlemmer claims that the MegaCatch can trap up to 1,200 mosquitoes a night.
A carbon dioxide yeast brewing machine follows the same concept, drawing the insects in with a fabricated scent of human breath.
Install a bat box. If you can get over the vampire association, bats may save you from a summer of scratching. Bats eat about 2,000 insects every night (though it is not clear just how many of those are mosquitoes).
[via Mercola]
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Boy do I understand... I live in Wisconsin! When you have heat and humidity, it's hard to keep the mosquito population down, much less away. What I've found is some natural remedies that keep them off of all of us during the worst of the mosquito months since I get really sick from the bites. And I gave the remedies a "trial by fire" on a camping trip, so it really did work! The remedies are: Vitamin B-complex and Skin So Soft by Avon. Since Skin So Soft is an oil, don't use it when you go in the sun since you'll burn. But I use it at night time. I don't particularly care for the scent of it, but it sure works well! And in the heart of mosquito season, I take the B-complex, in addition to my other vitamins, 2x a day. B vitamins aren't stored in your body like other vitamins so the excess your body doesn't use will make your urine bright yellow. But the B vitamins put a scent on your skin that keeps the mosquitos away! Yeah! So until you can find a way to get rid of the mosquitos, I hope this helps!
I was really excited when I heard about the idea of having a bat house, but then I thought about it and it concerned me if this would be right.
Does anyone have experience with one of these bat houses?
How do you make sure that they are trapping mosquitoes and
are getting fed properly.
What happens when climate changes and there aren't that
many mosquitoes or insects out there that they can feed on.
I'll try to research this and really look into it since I am consiering installing one of my own, but I'd appreciate it if anyone that has had experience with these so
called bat houses would share their stories on how their experience
went or is going.