Keeping Mosquitoes Out of Your Summer Garden
Our summer gardens are filled with all kinds of pests at one time or another. One pest that has potentially nasty health consequences to many species that may be welcome additions to your summer garden habitat is the very unwelcome mosquito. Keep reading to discover steps you can take to keep mosquitoes from invading your personal space and keep friends, families, and animals safe and protected in your summer garden.
One way to minimize your exposure to mosquitoes is by minimizing their ability to procreate. They must lay eggs in still water in order to breed and you can remove as many sources of potential breeding ground as possible by keeping your lawn and summer garden area free of any debris that will allow even a minimal amount of standing water to collect after a rainfall. This means you must keep your gutters clean and free of debris, make sure all cans and bottles are picked up and placed inside a garbage can that is lidded. Keep lids on garbage cans at all times, and change animal bowls daily.
Burn citronella oil. This is highly effective at dusk when the mosquitoes seem to be at their worst as it not only provides a natural repellant for mosquitoes so that you can enjoy your summer garden a little better but also because it provides its own mood setting light that is well suited for enjoying in a summer garden environment. In addition to the oil you can also choose to burn citronella candles and use repellants that are created to spray or rub onto the skin using natural ingredients for added protection for you and your children from these dangerous pests.
It is also possible to find garlic based mosquito repellants that are highly effective at making your garden inhospitable to mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. This is a little different than citronella as it is applied to your lawn and garden area rather than burned or applied to the skin.
Another thing you can do to make your garden inhospitable to mosquitoes is to fill it with creatures that prey on mosquitoes. There is nothing like a bigger fish in the sea to run the smaller fish to different hunting grounds. Plant trees, shrubs, and bushes that attract the birds that eat mosquitoes. This will provide plenty of nutrition for these birds while diminishing the mosquito population one snack at a time. Purple Martins are well known for eating mosquitoes and a great addition to any summer garden (though not for this reason alone).
Plant lemon thyme in your summer garden. If you crush the leaves it is believed to be an effective repellent for mosquitoes. Choosing this plant for your garden can help you naturally repel mosquitoes without smelling bad in the process, which is something that must rubs, sprays, and oils cannot always claim.
Mosquitoes are a huge problem in summer garden largely due to increased fears of West Nile Virus and other diseases they may carry from one person to the next. For this reason it is now more important than ever to control the population and limit our exposure to these harmful animals. Most of us wish to do this without adding new risks due to chemical exposure. Hopefully this article has given you plenty of natural alternative to consider when it comes to controlling the mosquito population in your summer garden.
I live in a very “moist” region by a river, we have a meadow next to our house and the amount of mosquitoes we sometimes get is just staggering. Thanks for the tips, hopefully you will make our garden livable in the summer
February 28th, 2008 | #
Thanks for the advice. I always wondered how I could keep those pests out!
February 28th, 2008 | #
I am a gutter contractor and most people never clean out their gutters! When they don’t it’s true water can pool inside the gutter and attract mosquitoes and other unwanted pests.
March 4th, 2008 | #
forgot to add, be careful getting up on a ladder! they reported some 200k injuries from people falling from ladders last yr. make sure yo call a professional!
March 4th, 2008 | #
Mosquitos are such a menace to everyone. Bites irritatingly and what I hate really is the itchiness of the bite, I would have to go and scratch it to relieve myself.
March 19th, 2008 | #
I do what I can to keep mosquitoes from breeding in my own yard. But what can you do about those who live close by. One local school has a huge drainage pond breeding mosquitoes by the millions, I’m sure.
March 19th, 2008 | #
not to mention the malaria or dengue fever they carry. malaria has killed more humans than any other disease since the stone age.
March 23rd, 2008 | #
If you don’t mind bats, bat houses tend to keep mosquitoes at bay.
March 24th, 2008 | #
I would have to agree with the above post, what a pain they can be.
March 24th, 2008 | #
Are mosquitos really that much of a problem for you? where do you live?
March 26th, 2008 | #
I hate those things! I’ve never heard about the garlic-based stuff, I’ll have to look into it.
April 10th, 2008 | #
Wonderful tips! Mosquitoes are a huge problem where I live — so any advice to keep them away is greatly appreciated!
April 22nd, 2008 | #
Thanks for a very informative article! This post is filled with lots of great information on how to manage mosquitoes in the garden.
The town where my parents live has a mosquito spraying plan that I would swear just feeds them. They are very vicious! I think finding natural ways are a good way to go and less harmful to the environment and the people who live there.
April 23rd, 2008 | #
Hmm.. There seems to be a plant called mosquito plant too that repels mosquito. I’ve tried it but then it doesn’t seem to work that well =/
May 22nd, 2008 | #
How much I hope I read this before I got bite few days ago. Thanks for the post. I may probably forgotten to do these few steps and it causes me to be bite.
May 29th, 2008 | #
I am one of the weird folks but for some reason, I kind of enjoy getting mosquito bites, just so I can scratch them. On that note, I also like to get sunburns sometimes.
June 5th, 2008 | #
I really hates mosquitoes and we had always a big problem about breeding in our yard. This tips are really so helpful. Thank you very much for the awesome tips.
June 5th, 2008 | #
I hate those things! I’ve never heard about the garlic-based stuff, I’ll have to look into it.
June 7th, 2008 | #
Mosquitoes are really big problem in any places. Thanks for the very helpful tips.
June 13th, 2008 | #
I hate mosquitoes because it is very dangerous. Thank you for the tips.
June 16th, 2008 | #
Thanks for the tip about lemon thyme, I couldn’t remmeber which herb it was.
June 18th, 2008 | #
We’ve been using citronella oil for quite some time now and it actually works well. Would also help if you could minimize build up of stagnant water. Great tips and great blog you have! I’ll be back
June 20th, 2008 | #
Thank you so much for a nice tips. I really hate mosquitoes and I want to get rid of them.
June 30th, 2008 | #
Perhaps that is the biggest problem in having a beautiful summer garden. Not only mosquitoes but many other species make it almost impossible for me to manage my garden. All listed techniques and suggestions are very effective but those are not easy to follow. May be I need a gardener on permanent bases to handle it.
July 1st, 2008 | #
Chemical larvicides is a microbial larvicidese which is a chemical solution to the mosquito controlling.
July 7th, 2008 | #
We live between woods, a swampy area and a pod. Needless to say, mosquitoes are a problem
August 8th, 2008 | #
It is a plant that can kill mosquitos. Onfortunately i don’t know her english name but in romainian is “musetel”, and carry away any mosquitos from your garden.
August 13th, 2008 | #
The citronella oil is what I like best here in your tips to drive mosquitoes away. i really like organic ways to do things like using organic fertilizers for my garden here in our tropical climate country.
As an additional, please make sure that your leaves are all free of small amounts of stagnant water in between your plant’s nodes and buds. We all know that some big leaves have the ability to retain water in those areas so you might as well want to consider checking on them too. This is just to be 100% sure that there is nothing of small water residue that those pesky and sometimes dangerous mosquitoes can regroup and repopulate from.
September 11th, 2008 | #
I live in the UK where we see rain, rain and more rain. I wish we had the weather for mosquitoes… lol. Nice blog, btw.
September 28th, 2008 | #
Oh!Thanks for the tips.I have been so scared of dengue for my lil kid that I opt not to maintain a garden.But now I can relive my garden without the fear of mozquitoes.Thanks again!
September 28th, 2008 | #
I hate mosquito’s they are such an annoying part of life
However, I also find that the off bug lamp thing works quite well too 
October 15th, 2008 | #
now the question is, how do i keep them out of my house LOL.
October 18th, 2008 | #
eliminating standing water will help the most
October 25th, 2008 | #
I hate Mosquitoes.I will poison them to buy medicine.
October 25th, 2008 | #
Ohh bug of all kinda are annoying but mosquito’s are the worst. I have to agree with the above poster the OFF lamps works really well.
October 30th, 2008 | #
Thank you so much for the useful tips. It’s a great method to keep the mosquitoes out of my garden…
November 4th, 2008 | #
Thanks for your advice. We had a lot of them this year and finally with the weather getting cold they are going away.
I will watch out for the standing water next year.
November 4th, 2008 | #
Good thing you mentioned the steps in preventing mosquitos in a garden,This is very useful especially here in Phil where a lot dies because of dengue.
November 9th, 2008 | #