How to keep mosquitoes out of your home
Ugh, mosquitoes.
We swat, squash and curse them. Those blood-sucking culprits behind viruses such as West Nile and Zika can be more than just annoying, they can be dangerous.
Jennifer Henke, interim scientific operations manager for the Coachella Valley Mosquito Vector Control District, says the risk posed by mosquitoes is real. But there’s no need to panic. So far, no one in the United States with Zika virus has been infected by a mosquito here.
“It is concerning, but we can do lots of things to protect ourselves,” she says.
Here are six tips for making your home off-limits to mosquitoes:
1. “Get rid of any types of containers you have in your yard” that can hold water, says Joseph Conlon, technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Assn. That means removing old junk and trash, properly storing children’s toys, empty water containment trays beneath potted plants, dispose of old tires, and check the drip pans beneath the air conditioner — these are all potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
2. Mosquitoes like to hide. Cut down weeds and brush. And, “if you’ve got anything with a tarp on it, like a woodpile,” Conlon says, “the creases in the tarp are wonderful places for a mosquito to breed.”
3. Clean the birdbath. “Scrub it every week when you dump it out,” Henke says. Invasive mosquitoes lay eggs just above the waterline.
4. Mosquitoes are attracted to flowering plants, especially bromeliads. “They have little cups of water,” Henke says, “where the larvae can live.”
5. Clean the rain gutters. Water can collect amid the debris in there, too.
6. Screens, screens, screens. If you want to keep mosquitoes out, you need screens on windows and doors. (And repair any holes.)
Follow Bonnie McCarthy on Twitter @ThsAmericanHome
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