spraying for mosquitos.JPG

I have this thing about mosquitoes...With my immune system now, (reduced because of the big C) I can't afford to get bit by one carrying something.

Using a thermal fogger..I fogged the neighborhood Tuesday evening. The winds were perfect..calm...The fog just hung over the neighborhood....95% effective...NO MORE MOSQUITOES..or any other flying bugs for that matter.

Last year the police came out..Thought there was a major fire..the way the fog just hung over the area. Nope, just this nut with his fogger, suited up with my PPE.


WuzzFuzz

That pic could be me the last time I used a charcoal grill...

For me it's not the bite so much as the following days of itching and scratching.

I used to get eaten alive when I lived on the gulf coast of Texas.

So glad I live in Colorado now. I bet I've been bitten maybe three times in the last eighteen years.

Due to cancer, arthritis and my heart, the magic potion that runs through my veins will cause any mosquito to die happy.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Mosquitoes were so bad.......How bad were they?


They are/were so bad...the first mosquito would signal out to the others..."Supper is on, come and get it". And they would.

Seriously, before I bought that fogger, the neighbors and I would be held under house confinement. A person couldn't go out between dusk and about 8 in the morning...Even my dog would have mosquitoes on her. So I said enough is enough...

Those foggers aren't exactly cheap, but to me it was worth the expense...Now even the neighbors love their goofy ole neighbor.


"If you see me coming, better step aside. A lot of bugs didn't, and a lot of bugs died".


WuzzFuzz

I wish I could say the same. The stuff they gave me for my cancer killed the cancer, but it didn't seem to do any good with mosquitoes.

WuzzFuzz

wuzz, you need to move someplace dry.
i'm outdoors all the time n haven't seen one in maybe 15 years.

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susie

After all of the rain I got last week and before, the blood suckers are out in full force. I doesn't help that my lawn guy is a week behind and the grass is high. I just came in for the night because of them little bleepers.

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Dum vivo cano

You do realize don't you, that it's the females that bite and suck your blood....Mosquitoes I'm talking about.

WuzzFuzz

Glad that fogger worked for you.
I was gifted one of those propane tank-top devices that is supposed to lure them to sudden death, called I think "squito-deleto", or some such silliness.

If it killed even one of the little varmints in a week's use, it did not "thin the herd". Ended up using the propane tank for my grill, gave the metal stand to the scrap man,and invested more in spray cans of "Cutter Backwoods".

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wanna do right-- not right now

A five year ocean cruise would be nice!!!!!!


WuzzFuzz

How bad are the mosquitos you ask?

I was out at the ranch talking to a new hand.. He was swatting skeeters with both hands.. Bout that time a Huey Chopper came over and that feller fainted......

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Eccentric old coot

And somehow the poison you are using to kill the mosquitos is better??? If we would all just put the dad gum poison away and let nature run its course, we'd all be better off! For cryin' out loud, the poison you used to kill 'em is cancer causing in its own right. We all need to get our heads out of our darn cracks and WAKE UP!!!!

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"You're messin' up my Zen"

Put up a bat house or two. Bats love to eat mosquitoes.

That pic reminds me of the Papa sahn we had in my perimeter. He would come around a smoke those bunkers with one of those things, but we stopped him because it just made those Me Cong Delta mosquitoes meaner!

I'd love to do that in the seniors' apartment complex where I live, but all the old biddies would shriek. "Oh, they'll get in your hair, they suck blood," etc., etc. I'm not even sure the owners would go along with it.

Mosquitoes here aren't too bad, but I did see one stand flatfooted and service a barn owl.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I'd rather have Zika or Malaria too.

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Dum vivo cano

No animals were killed or injured in the making of this movie.

.Permethrin - Wikipedia

Permethrin is what I use in my fogger. I use the oil based fogger.If I change the nozzleI could use the water base carrier.

The oil base carrier, is vegetable oil. The veg oil is what gives it the "smoke, or fog". I mix 1 to 2 oz of the permethrin with one gal of the veg oil, or I can buy it pre mixed in 5 gal jugs. 1 or 2 oz per gallon is a pretty heavy mix. I also sometimes mix in some stuff for killing the mosquito larvae. You know, those little buggers that thrive up in your gutters, that have a bit of left over water in them. Or anywhere else water settles.

The permethrin I buy, and I buy a couple different different strengths, varying of 3% to 36% solution. So I have to mix according to how much I'm going to spray.



I chose the oil base fogger over the water base, because the oil base clings better than the water base...But either the water based or the oil will become in-effective after a rain. So I try to fog with little rain in the fore cast.

Weill I suppose I could fog using DDT...if a person could still buy it...But permethrin is the safer stuff to use these day..

The stuff I use is the same as municipalities use now...The difference between me and a municipality is, I go between my house and around my neighbors houses to make sure the stuff gets into/around everywhere...Especially in the back of my place as the woods are back there...

This stuff is also good for killing ticks, and Chiggers..So far my little girl..(dog) has not come in with either on her..My other neighbors with dogs are real happy to see me too....AND we can go out and sit on the porch in the evening and not get eaten alive..

Yes I suit up in my PPE..I'm not completely crazy..Because I am exposed directly in the heaviest concentration of of the fog..But if I were 20 feet away where the fog has a chance to dissipate somewhat, a person wouldn't need to suit up with PPE.

Next time you go to the local Wally World or anywhere that sells bug spray, or use around the house or where ever, look at the label and see what the chemicals are that are in it...Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!!

And to make the enviromentalist happy, I do have a resident bat or two..and not just in my belfrey...Since I really don't have any bat houses for them, one for sure rests
right at the front door..I see it's little treasures is left for me at the entrance to my front door.

Did I mention....I HATE MOSQUITOES.


WuzzFuzz

As a addendum to my above lengthy post, I and others here who have a bout with cancer, our immune systems are weakened. Therefore we cannot tolerate any type of infection. And mosquitoes do carry stuff I don't want to catch.

But I don't want to be a prisoner in my house for the summer...And I can't afford to go on the 5 year ocean cruise to get away from them.....SO...


WuzzFuzz

Mosquito Deleto, or Mosquito Magnet...they work, but people don't seem to read instructions. They have to run 24/7, and first week to ten days, will actually make things worse, as they attract every skeeter and gnat within range, to your yard. As they gradually bag & kill em, you get the relief, and finally, they're just...gone. Not cheap to run, but they do work.

Wuzz Fuzz- I use Permethrin spray (Sawyer brand, 0.5% concentration) applied to my clothing prior to heading out in the woods. Does a great job killing ticks. It is designed to be sprayed on your outer clothing, then wait at least 4 hours to allow it to dry before using said clothing.

Warning on the bottle states in part, "Under no circumstance should bare skin or clothing on the body be treated. Do not allow product to come into contact with skin. Not for use on humans"

Don't know if I would want it on my skin, or breathing it in, in any concentration? DEET works well on skeeters, and seems safer?

Might want to note Permethrin is extremly deadly to cats, so if you are fogging the neighborhood, I'd make sure there are no feline owners nearby.

One nice bonus to your fogger is if your neighbors ever get on your nerves, it can be loaded with OC (pepper spray) concentrate....

Larry

If you're gonna sit in one place, consider a ThermaCell. In my opinion, it's inventor should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It will keep you skeeter-free in an apprx. 10' radius as long as it's running.
A wonderful machine.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

My home is surrounded by swampy woods. Mosquitoes are something more than unbearable most years. I have tried all the over the counter sprays, nothing has worked. This year I signed up for a service that comes in every 3 weeks and sprays. It's expensive, but for once I can use and enjoy my property, something I have not been able to do since we moved in.

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Plastic has no soul

I have a couple of those cheap tin railroad lanterns knock offs found for less than 10 bucks at the local Mart. That and the tiki torch fluid with citronella serves me well. I spring the extra couple bucks for the cedar scented.


It won't do miracles but when I light them and walk away for 10-15 minutes, long enough to get home from work, have a beer and walk the dog, the little suckers found somewhere else to be.


With the wick dialed back, set on the ground out of the breeze I'll let it burn all day on my weekends. Does well in my carport or back porch.

Oh, heck no, that actually takes some creativity and effort. Just dust the planet with poison......yep, that's the answer. And we friggin' wonder why we're plagued with cancer in the first place!!!

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"You're messin' up my Zen"

Hmmmmm...And all this time I thought I was going to die someday because I lived. Bats haven't helped me any to live longer or better.


WuzzFuzz

Try Cutter's Yard Guard. It attaches to a garden hose and covers 5000 sq. ft. They say it lasts up to 12 weeks but 4 -5 weeks is more realistic. The fact is the stuff works quite well and for $10 bucks a bottle it's worth every penny. I just sprayed my lawn and bushes two days ago. We can now sit in the yard for hours without even seeing a mosquito! I'll spray again in late July.

Shhhhhhh--we must worship The Planet (but be kept free of religion)!

"Green, Ommmm, Green, Ommm!".

I like what you say, but my garden hose won't reach the far ends of my property. It would take 4 fire trucks and their hoses to do all the woods behind my house.

Too, I can't convince my neighbors mosquitoes to stay in their yards and not come over to mine.

WuzzFuzz

This is one of the products I tried. Maybe your mosquitos are different than mine. Mine just laughed at that spray.

I also have a number of bats that live in my woods, and a good number of frogs that live in the swampy areas. I would have loved to have them take care of the bugs naturally but they did a terrible job.

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Plastic has no soul

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

You mean Cutters Backyard?

It's ingredients are just another synthetic pyrethroid like Permethrin.

A man made form of Pyrethrin from Chrysanthemum Flowers

Florida style years ago. Malathion and Diesel Fuel!

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Still Running Against the Wind

Permethrin is not nearly as benign as natural pyrethrum. It's deadly to felines for example.
We have them here in the desert due to our ponds and irrigation ditches. I use Bt, Bacillus Thuringiensis floats in my ponds but most of my neighbors don't and mosquitos have a 3 mile range. The best repellent I've found is one the CDC is now recommending as better than DEET and safer. It's a chemical called Picaridin. There are several brands, but I like the Avon Skin So Soft repellent wipes. We buy them in bulk for summer. I can swab down arms, neck, ears, legs etc. about 5 times with one wipe by putting it back in its plastic wrapper.

One thing you should never do is put used oil down the storm drain in front of your house. Down here they flow directly to the bayou. Save it and take it to a recycling facility.

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Forum consigliere

Larval control (ie with BT is the current main control for sqeeters (BT is also good formany plant eating caterpillars)

That said there is still a need to use adulticide sprays. Down here Salt water and fresh water mosquitios are a menace and vector for many diseases.

As to repellent. DEET has safely been used for many, many years. The new Picardin seems to work OK but has not undergone long term tests here in the US,
As to toxicity both DEET and Picardin are a Class 3 with Picardin a class IV as to eye exposure (so a tad safer in the eyes)

DEET is oily and dissolves plastic

A simple way to use either product is spray it on you clothes and not your skin,

Rather than classes, a easy way to determine toxicity is signal words Danger(skull cross bones), Warning and caution. Most household products under the sink are warning or caution as are DEET and Picardin.

Most highly toxic pest products are long gone, it still remains that the risk return trade off is still better in controlling disease carry insects, than the perceived slight danger of the newer chemicals.

Malaria, Zike, Yellow fever and others are a great danger than the control. Same with other insects and rodents,

The long forgotten Black Death or plague as been making many outbreaks in recent years. Rats and Fleas!

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Still Running Against the Wind

BTi is for aquatic use against skeeter larvae...BT is for leaf-eating land-based caterpillars.

Sorry for your condition, BUT I don't feel you have the right to fog anyone else's property but your own, without their permission. Here's hoping you are a licensed exterminator with a knowledge of the chemicals you are using, and none of your neighbors themselves nor pets are allergic/sensitive to it. Watch out for NIMBY'S. A heads up to the Neighbors, local Leo's, HOA etc AHEAD OF TIME may have helped. BATS: eating hundreds of skeeters an hour EACH and a 2'x2'x4" bat house can hold hundreds of them + leave you with excellent fertilizer. I hope it's not another case of a cop or former, believing it's OK for them to break the law, but nobody else. My neighbor has a huge coy pond with very big $ fish in it, He would have freaked out, rightly so. Try the thermacell, get a bug zapper and have a Ha Ha every time one gets fried. As for ocean liner cruises, ground zero for stomach viruses????

I have NICE neighbors...They even chip in for the price of everything. (One lady even makes me home made fudge...HeeHee...I have a sweet tooth)

Nice thing about living in Podunk, no lic is required...Even the city does not have a lic to spray. Neither the city, nor I spray commercially...(Take money for what we do)

The city uses the same chemicals as I do. The difference is, the city mixes with water, I mix with veg oil. The city uses a pick-up truck, I use a wagon pulled behind my rider mower.

Also, Permethrin is not a regulated chemical, no lic is required...As far as knowing what I'm doing,,,Hmmmm...I guess a little background from aerial ag spraying, and working with the plant board
in the past has helped somewhat.

I mentioned above, I contact the neighbors before I spray. We wish the city would notify us when they're going to come around...Problem with the city, they only make one pass down the street, no matter the wind direction..Fine if a person lives down wind, not so good if you live up wind.


Thank you for for your concern for me.


WuzzFuzz

Gee, we are going to break down the bacteria into SUB SPECIES?? Family and Genus is not good enough for a gun forum??

Nacho,

Step away from your copy of "Silent Spring"

I hope you are on the Dept of Ag notification list.

PI-5/PI004: Registry of Persons Requiring Prior Notification of the Application of Pesticides

A Homeowner can pretty much do what they want, its the Certified Operators (PC) that get nailed for violations.

The synthetic pyrethroids are available to anyone and are very short lived, break down quickly.
As mentioned before without mosquito control and Air conditioning not many people would live in Florida or elsewhere.
I am more concerned with what the Army Corp of Engineers did to the Glades to "control mosquitoes" and now we are gonna pay Billions to try and undo the one of the biggest eco disasters of all time.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Don't expect much from anybody who believes a bug zapper works with mosquitos.

What great timing..........

I just woke up this morning with a mosquito bite on the underside of my left forearm !!

Now I will be itching and scratching for days.

I hate those little suckers.......

Do as you please on your own place or where you have permission. Now ANYONE, without your great education/experience, is free to go spraying whatever/wherever/however??? Silent spring, don't feel the need to enlighten me, blissfully unaware.

The zappers work by attracting insects. Buy one and give it to your neighbor....

Well.....To keep this lively conversation going...

Chose one.


1. Mosquitoes..carry and spread disease.

2. Bats, get and carry rabies. (My resident bat that sometimes roosts at my front door, leaves it's little surprises there, just like a mouse would leave it's little surprises.)

Now if bats are so great at consuming mosquitoes, why are there still mosquitoes?

Now as far as spraying/fogging around my neighborhood....If we had any fish around this area to be concerned about, they'd have to be that kind that can live out of water and walk across the ground.

No one in our little area has a cat, so there is no worries there.
(Did I mention that everyone in this area looks after one another, so we pretty much know the names of each other, their kids names, and their animal names, if they have a pet of some sort.)



One nice thing about living in this neck of the woods, is neighbors helping neighbors..I need some help with a project I can't do alone,,,I'll have help. They need help with their project...I'll help....(As long as it doesn't involve strenuous strength) neighbor will be gone for a while, another neighbor will take care of their yard while their gone.

I've got another neighbor who keeps a daily watch on me....If the front curtains are still closed after 10, then I'll get a phone call to see if I'm alright.(Or still alive, which ever).

Another nice tid bit about living in a Podunk area, since everyone knows everyone, we don't have to ask for permission before we pass gas or go to the outhouse. Everyone in my neighborhood knows right from wrong...(Just a regular ole Mr. Rogers Neighborhood)

So...It's a good feeling that I can help my neighbors when I can, by returning the favor by help keeping the mosquito problem at bay.

Why shoot, this neck of the woods is so good, we just had our neighborly BBQ pot luck feed last month, weekend before Memorial day.


WuzzFuzz

PS...They're good gun people too, hunters, another pistol shooter, a couple of cigar smokers like me. Three others that have had their bout's with cancer.

I'd go with the bats. They seem to be less aggressive right around closing time.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Hey, just correcting your error

You can find BT (Thuricide, Dipel) at Ace. It does a great job on tomato hornworms, but won't do a thing to mosquito larvae.

BTi (bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) is the opposite--kills the skeeter kiddies.

Saul Goodman!

I mix beer Listerine and Epson salt. Use a pump up sprayer, spray the lawn and shrubs, no more mosquitoes.

Better Call him,

Walter White

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Still Running Against the Wind

1:ALLOW NO standing water to breed the little pests.
2: trim trees/bushes to allow the sun & breeze in.
3: simple soap/Listerine/tobacco juice/ammonia in a hose end sprayer deters most all bugs & cleans most everything & fertilizes/de bugs plants as well.
4: simple home brews are safe/effective/inexpensive/you probly have most of it already & may be all that's needed before resorting to chemical warfare. I use them if I must, ON MY PROPERTY.
The coy are in a man made pond inside a screened enclosure. The Lady on the other side has COPD.
NOT EVERYONE lives in Nirvana.
FOR WHATEVER REASON, some people are simply NO CHEMICAL TYPES, they have rights too.

To radically reduce the skeeter population, No it don't. You may get some enjoyment hearing them fry, if you hate them so much. I live in some prime skeeter territory, but would rather see the fire ants gone first.