In Dallas and Fort Worth, there are many businesses that have outdoor recreation or dining areas. When mosquitoes show up, they can make a fun time out a miserable experience. This leads to bad reviews on social media. It can also create fear for customers. Mosquitoes are known to spread many dangerous pathogens. You can calm fears and reassure your customers by taking steps to reduce and eliminate mosquitoes on your property. Here’s how mosquito control works.
It Begins With One Female Mosquito
When a female mosquito wanders onto your property, she can be the source of hundreds of newly hatched mosquitoes. The key to preventing mosquito bites is to make it more difficult for that female mosquito to find appropriate breeding sites. Where does she breed? She can breed in stagnant water or on damp ground, depending on what species of mosquito she is. If you address these conditions, you can significantly reduce mosquitoes.
How do you reduce stagnant water and damp ground?
- Remove any objects that can hold rainwater.
- Pour out objects that can hold rainwater. It takes over a week for a mosquito to grow from egg to an adult mosquito that can fly.
- Loosen compacted ground to allow water to soak into the ground.
- Remove obstructions from gutters. This prevents mosquitoes from breeding in rainwater that is captured by your gutters. It also prevents water from pouring over the sides and saturating the ground.
- Trim tree branches to allow the sun to dry the soil in damp areas.
- Trim landscape vegetation to provide better airflow, which works to dry top soil after watering.
- Water plants and grass in the morning. This will give the sun time to dry the moisture before nightfall.
Direct Control
There are many mosquito-prevention devices available. Sadly, most do not work at all. Some provide minor protection and some can actually make your mosquito problems worse.
- An example of mosquito prevention that doesn’t work at all is any sweet-smelling trap that catches mosquitoes. These do not address the problem of mosquitoes breeding on your property and they are only effective at killing male mosquitoes, which don’t bite.
- The methods that provide minor protection have to do with creating smells that repel mosquitoes, such as planting marigolds or some other plant that mosquitoes do not like the smell of. But these plants must be touched to activate the mosquito-repelling scents.
- Bug zappers are an example of a prevention method that can increase mosquitoes on your property. These devices can lure mosquitoes from a distance if they emit carbon dioxide. When mosquitoes come onto your property, only the males will get close enough to be eliminated by your bug zappers. The females require more confirmation that they can get a blood meal, such as moisture, heat, the smell of chemicals on the skin, etc.
There is a form of direct control that does work to control mosquitoes. It works because it addresses mosquito breeding sites and directly targets the female mosquitoes that come onto your property. An application of a mist control product makes your landscaping a large mosquito trap that works to eliminate female mosquitoes. It is applied to areas where female mosquitoes rest. Since mosquitoes rest much more often than they fly, these treatments are likely to eliminate female mosquitoes before they can lay their eggs.
The Best Way To Apply Mosquito Treatments
For the greatest control of mosquitoes on your property, it is best to have a licensed commercial pest management professional handle your treatments. Professionals use field-test products and methods to ensure the highest level of control. If you have questions or you’d like to schedule service for your Dallas-Fort Worth business, contact Delta 1 Pest Control. We can help you get your mosquito protection in place and guide you in protecting your reputation from these pests local to Texas.
