Operation Bloodhawk Down

Snobdds · Sep 25, 2018

We really don't have a huge problem here in Wyoming, but we do see them for a few weeks after the hatch at the end of June. I hate mosquitoes like the plague, so one winter I made 15 bat houses. Put them up all over the property. It took a few years but I can say I have the happiest bats around. At dusk you can see them feast.

It's been pretty mosquito free ever sense...

strantor · Sep 26, 2018

Snobdds said:
We really don't have a huge problem here in Wyoming, but we do see them for a few weeks after the hatch at the end of June. I hate mosquitoes like the plague, so one winter I made 15 bat houses. Put them up all over the property. It took a few years but I can say I have the happiest bats around. At dusk you can see them feast.

It's been pretty mosquito free ever sense...

Did you have to buy bats to fill the bat houses? Where I grew up we had bats and I can easily tell their distinctive flying style apart from birds at dusk. I have not seen a single bat in this area and I have lived here for 3 years.

strantor · Sep 26, 2018

rd_macgregor said:
Here, various commercial formulations of Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) have been used for years to control (especially) blackflies and mosquitoes. The big attraction of Bti is that it has pretty high specificity to dipteran flies, with almost non-existent toxicity to mammals, birds, fish, and non-dipteran arthropods (eg, bees and butterflies). Bti can be very effective, when used properly (as a larvacide), but I don't know how cost-effective it is compared to the synthetic chemical pesticides.

Hm... haven't heard of it. I''ll look into it. Although I'm not sure how much help a larvacide will do me since I've mostly ruled out my property as a breeding ground. I believe they are breeding in nearby rice fields and then swarming my home. I would need to convince local farmers to apply larvacide which might be harder than just killing mosquitoes with a wall of propane fire jets surrounding my property.

rd_macgregor said:
Too bad the powers that be won't unleash Oxitec (Google it, if you are interested) to damp down populations of these bloodsuckers when they reach nuisance levels.

This seems like the intro to a doomsday sci-fi movie. Present day: after 98% of the world's population has died off.... 100 years prior: a genetically altered mosquito had been released which inhibits reproduction, but had unintended consequences...