It’s up to you to keep your home and business mosquito free. With that in mind, try to take these steps to eliminate sites where mosquitoes can deposit their eggs.
- Dispose of old tires, buckets, ceramic pots and other containers on your property that collect rain water or pool morning dew.
- Fill in tree rot holes and hollow stumps that hold water.
- Drill holes into the bottom of tire swings.
- At least once per week, empty standing water from decorative containers, including birdfeeders, on your property.
- Drill holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers. Drainage holes in the sides of containers allow sufficient water to collect in which mosquitoes may breed.
- Clean clogged roof gutters, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug up the drain to the downspout. Flooded roof gutters are easily overlooked but can produce hundreds of mosquitoes each season.
- Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.
- Turn over wheelbarrows when not in use.
- Store boats covered or upside down, or drain rainwater inside them weekly.
- Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish. Water gardens are fashionable but become major mosquito producers if they are allowed to stagnate.
- Clean and chlorinate swimming pools that are not being used. A swimming pool that is left for a month can produce enough mosquitoes to infest an entire neighborhood. Be aware that mosquitoes may also breed in the water that collects on swimming pool covers.
- Keep drains, ditches and culverts free of grass clippings, weeds and trash so water will drain properly.
- Fill in low areas on your property to eliminate standing water. Ponds or streams where fish are present or the water is disturbed by current or wave action and do not produce many mosquitoes. However, standing water is more of a breeding area. So if you have mosquitoes, the standing water in your backyard has got to go. This will be the start of your anti-mosquito campaign!