After the storms passed, we had no power for a while, no TV for several days and now our fridge is acting up. So the heavy rains and storms took a few things away, but they also left something behind... Plenty of water for mosquito breeding! It has been miserable! The Pleasant Grove area of Dallas, TX that I live in, has long been notorious for bad mosquitoes. This season, we have beat ourselves! Mosquitoes are so bad this year, it is literally difficult to function at all outdoors. Not only do we have more of the typical, annoying, little grey ones, we have giant black and white ones! And they are highly aggressive! I have done some research, and I believe these are Asian Tiger Mosquitoes. I can't say for sure, but they're big and mean and look much like the one in the picture!

Well, it's quite a dilemma when the humidity is so high and the mosquitoes are out in droves! And these little beasts are out all times of the day, so it doesn't matter whether you prefer to mow right after dusk or at dawn, they're waiting.. I prefer to mow in the evening just as there is enough daylight left for me to finish. It is still humid, but the mosquitoes are all over me, so I wear jeans, a long sleeve shirt and a hat.. But now I'm dying of heat! So, I take all that off and now I'm pestered by mosquito bites! (Oh, I did put on a T-shirt and shorts after I took all that off).

I've never had ANY luck with repellent sprays. They smell me right through it, I reckon! If you've never tried it go ahead, it might work on you! I've heard AVON Skin So Soft Lotion also seems to keep them off, but I've never tried it, as I don't order from AVON! Here are other things I've tried to ward them off:

Citronella Candles: I like the atmosphere of sitting out at night with candles going, but these made little or no difference with the mosquitoes coming around! So if you enjoy candles, just get ones you like the scent of!

Water Misters: Misters seem to annoy the mosquitoes away a bit, but you'll still get a fair amount. They do cool you off though!

Fans: I noticed while working on something in the garage that a box fan set on "HI" significantly cut down on the mosquitoes around me! Maybe the airflow of the fan makes it hard for them to fly!

It just occurred to me that none of these help while you're mowing, so I suggest you hurry up and finish mowing, then go hang on your porch with nice candles, water misters and fans!  Grill something!  You earned it after getting eaten-up by mosquitoes while mowing!!

Of course, we all know NOT to allow standing water around our homes. My neighbor has several objects in his backyard that for now I'll just refer to as "artifacts". These artifacts have been there for quite some months.. well, years.. but they pool water and contribute to mosquito growth. We also have a grass alley behind our home and most of our neighbors do not maintain their alley property. As a result, there is a lot of brush for mosquitoes to hide in hidden from the birds. Except for behind the houses I maintain here, you could not walk down this alley without a machete!

I've done a lot of research tonight and have seen a lot of different ideas on natural mosquito control. Everything from using catnip oil, hanging bags of water, putting up bird houses and even putting in bat houses! It seems that 90% of a bat's diet consist of mosquitoes, so I can sure see the benefit of that! That would be cool! Having a bat house!

I'm not going to write about all that, I'm going to include links to the articles I found that I think are relevent and interesting! So please support these other web writers and check out their articles! You may find your solution with them!