I feel like this is too easy of a blog post for me: I spent my last six summers working for one of our local mosquito control districts, learning about ways to effectively reduce the population of nuisance mosquitoes to keep the citizens of Fargo, ND and the surrounding areas safe. We spent ten hours a day searching for mapped out spots that hold water after rains and applying biological pesticides to kill mosquito larvae while they’re still in the water – not the flying, buzzing adult variety we all think of when we think mosquitoes. We also used a couple different techniques to knock out the adult population in the rare event of a mass-hatch off the water.

Mosquito control agencies are great – if you’re lucky enough to live within a densely populated area, which is where these organizations spend the majority of their time. For most of our readers, this isn’t the case. Not only are you not getting your area treated by professionals, you most likely have more breeding and loafing grounds near you. Stock ponds, sloughs, ditches, and even your tire piles or barrels could be breeding areas for mosquitoes to lay their eggs. Think about this: a can of Coke with water in the bottom half can breed over 100 mosquito larvae, imagine how many little skeeters the bucket on your front end loader or skid steer could have in it if you leave it full of rain water for a week or two! That’s another point – if it’s warm enough, a mosquito can go through all it’s life cycles (egg – larva – pupa – adult) in as few as four or five days.

Larviciding (killing mosquito larvae in water)
How to prevent these horrible devil babies from emerging as the nasty adults we all hate (and also carry diseases, like the deadly West Nile Virus and others that could hurt your family or livestock), you may ask? Prevention is the key word here. Don’t leave containers that could hold water laying around, bring old tires in to be recycled, and dump out any large containers or equipment that gathers water in your yard. Make sure your ditches are draining properly. A simple walk through your farm yard could easily prevent a couple thousand mosquitoes from hatching and bothering you this summer.

There are also pesticides you can use, some of which I can recommend without feeling like an eco-terrorist. The best larvicide in my opinion, as well as many other seasoned mosquito control agents, is Bti, a product that kills mosquito larvae while not damaging any of the other organisms that use the water (think ducks, fish, cattle, dogs, kids on the loose). Bti, the abbreviation for Bacillus thuringiensis serovar israelensis (I think we’ll keep referring to it as Bti), is a naturally occurring soil bacteria that is generally infused onto corn cob granules. When the granules are tossed into water, the bacterial spores are released and filter-feeding larvae ingest the spores. The spores disrupt the digestive tract of the wiggly little mosquitoes and kill them, while not affecting any other under water creatures.

Where to Buy
Bti is available at many home improvement stores, and I believe many grain elevators who supply pesticides carry this product in bulk. Here’s a link in case you’re into the whole online shopping scene: Google Shopping: Bti Products (Mosquito Dunks are one of the most popular ways to buy Bti, they’re essentially granules stuck together in a convenient donut shape to last a little longer. One tip I learned: shove a thin stick through the hole and into the mud and your Dunk won’t blow away in the wind).

Adulticiding: Killing the Big Biting Ones
Farm yards are also prime locations for adult mosquitoes to hang out during the heat of the day (they’re most active at dawn and dusk, as you may have noticed while doing chores). Many yards are surrounded by thick trees to protect from the wind, but guess what – mosquitoes use them for protection as well. They also enjoy any tall grass or shrubs they can find, so use your weed whacker around buildings and keep bushes trimmed.

Adulticiding Methods
If you want to kill them, you have two options: ULV(ultra low volume) Fogging or Barrier Spraying.

Fogging is what many people think of when you talk about mosquito control. Many city dwellers have seen the big trucks roll down their street shortly after sundown with the beacon on and a large cloud of toxic looking fog pouring out of a bed-mounted sprayer. For the most part, the fog is only harmful to bugs – but even though it smells like citrus, don’t breathe it in. ULV fogging is a quick knockdown of an existing adult population in your yard, but just know that they will come back. I’d suggest getting a sprayer you can mount on the back of an ATV or UTV/yard tractor (always wear personal protective equipment: dust mask, glasses/goggles, long sleeves and pants, gloves) and spraying beyond the edges of your farmstead to get the most bang for your skeeter killing buck. Some products you could use: The Zephyr (mounted sprayer), Propane Foggers (use by hand)

Barrier Spraying is a less well-known method, but one I recommend whole-heartedly. It’s also pretty simple: you can get barrier spraying products in a few different forms (for smaller yards, Ortho brand makes an applicator (Mosquito-B-Gone) that you hook up to your hose and spray on tall grass and shrubs, or you can purchase a larger container to mix in your chemical sprayers), but no matter how you get it, look for something with Permethrinas a main ingredient. In my experience, Tempo is over priced and kills EVERYTHING, including beneficial insects that could be eating mosquitoes or garden intruders.

Biological Mosquito Control
Why not introduce more bats to an area? How about dragonflies? Don’t they eat mosquitoes? Of course they do – but the amount of mosquitoes they eat don’t affect the population nearly as much as you’d think. These creatures are opportunistic – they’ll eat moths or flies or anything else buzzing around if they get the chance, mosquitoes are just a bonus. People ask me about Mosquitofish – “Don’t they eat larvae?” they certainly do, but they don’t survive our cold winters, and the mosquitoes we get in our neck of the woods breed mostly in flood water – which eventually dries up, killing Mosquitofish. They do work well in swampy areas of the south, and they’ve been introduced to backyard pools of foreclosed or evacuated houses in Arizona and Louisiana to eat larvae growing in abandoned pools. (I’m a dork – I’ve fed larvae samples brought home from work to my fish at home. Bettas love eating them!)

That’s about all I got – I hope you can use some of this information around your farm and enjoy a little more of your (all too short) summer. Leave a comment if you have any questions or something to add, I’d be happy to help you out.

-Al Winmill (alec.winmill@titanoutletstore.com)

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