We spray the lawn with some generic Mosquito/insect repellant from Menards that you hook up to the hose. Lasts for about 6 weeks and seems to work well for everything but those little ant-like, flying gnat things that chew holes in me 10x their size and itch for weeks! At least mosquito bites only last a week!

Char

I generally am not bothered by mosquitoes so I don't do anything, but I was wondering if anyone has tried those bug zappers, not the electric kind which mainly kill moths, but the kind that uses, I think, propane or some other gas that supposedly attracts the mosquitoes to the zapper.

I got a couple of bites this past weekend, but otherwise it hasn't been bad. But now that we've had some rain Monday, I suppose they'll be out full force soon. They are mostly by my gardens, so we don't really use anything. Even then I only have 2 gardens that are bad with them. I just stand back from them if I water at nite.

Kat

I guess the fact that most of my gardens are in shade doesn't help me much. (scratching as I sit here).

We still don't have mosquitos. I was out for about 2 hours last night killing earwigs and didn't get a single bite or even hear one buzzing in my ear. Now earwigs...... that's another story. Three nights, two bottles of insectacidle soap, one bottle of seven, and a half bag of diatomateous earth, and there are many more that I missed.

Mosquitoes haven't been too bad here yet. It varies where I live- we live near a pond so some Summers are nightmares and we get swarms- as it has been in the past. Lately we've been getting them, but not en masse so far, thank goodness. Makes watering plants all that much less enjoyable. I never really like to spray myself (I always thought that the kid OFF! worked against me, too)- mostly, I've found the best way to avoid them is to simply keep moving. I've actually done little dances outside, looks stupid but I usually only get one or two bites, even if they're horrible.

Also, jeans jackets, even if they're too hot, protect you from mosquitoes pretty well- they get get through that fabric. And I've also noticed, mosquitoes seem to like berries quite a bit- if you don't already know, the females don't survive off of blood, but flowers, like bees- blood helps them reproduce. And for some reason, they love berries. So if you've got any, watch out. lol

Skeeters are bad here in Madison (Fitchburg). I use the Deep Woods OFF and it works well. Pulled out the pea vines today, mulched everything with hay (newspaper underneath), and the garden is on auto pilot for the rest of the year. Somethings eating up my zinneas though, perhaps I need to do a late night earwig search?

Yeah, it's the shade making them bad for you, Kathy. I used to have a shady backyard and they were miserable there...now we're in a new subdivision with only small trees, so we hardly get any here. It's a mixed blessing because I miss the mature trees and landscaping and coolness of it. But I basically just tried not to be out there when they were most active (dusk and dawn), and just sprayed on deep woods off if they were still bad...on my clothes for the most part, tried not to put too much on my skin if i could help it. Good luck!! Maybe you could put up a couple of bat houses to help get rid of them.

Bat houses! I don't know why I didn't think of that. Thanks, violet skies. I'm off to google bat houses.