need creative ideas for *catching* mosquitoes hovering around windows

[patandchickens]

So we live in, basically, a mosquito swamp. It's really, really bad, like insect-version-of-"The Birds" bad, like we do not take kids outside after about 5:30 pm and don't go outside ourselves after about 7 except in very dire circumstances, that kind of bad.

When the house windows are open, dense clouds of mosquitoes accumulate just outside, I guess they can smell people and warmth and see the light and all that. We not infrequently have literally one mosquito per 1-2 square inches on the screen, with further droves hovering around nearby under the eaves.

Help me think up a way to collect and kill them, from around the windows there?

I mean, our house windows are basically already performing the attractant feature of a $400 commercial mosquito-magnet type trap. (which I might pony up and buy despite the price, except I worry about their effectiveness and durability...)

So it seems like if I were only clever enough, I could find some way to capitalize on having already attracted all them skeeters into one place. I don't have illusions of putting a real dent in the overall mosquito population, but the problem is that the ones attracted at nighttime camp out in vegetation around the house during the day, so if I could kill each night's 'crop' there would surely be a lot less mosquitoes in the yard annoying us.

I've tried spritzing pyrethrin spray (horse fly-spray) all over them, while wearing a mosquito jacket and hood. I killed a few, but did not make a huge difference (because the basement windows stick up aboveground, the main floor windows are too high above my head, the eaves even further) and used an awful lot of flyspray proving that it didn't really do much good.

So far my ideas consist of either building a big wide net of mosquito netting and sweeping it back and forth to net up a bunch, then drowning them (but I don't think that's practical with a 10-foot handle on the net, which is what it'd take) or vague fantasies involving a vacuum cleaner or a leaf-blower set to run backwards, to suck hordes of mosquitoes fatally into a bag.

Any and all ideas, however 'creative' they may be (sometimes weird things can actually work), are welcomed! I just can't believe there isn't SOME way of making this work.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[Beekissed]

Man! I have no idea that doesn't involve massive bug spraying! Or building some really good bat habitats in your yard.

 

[patandchickens]

Man! I have no idea that doesn't involve massive bug spraying! Or building some really good bat habitats in your yard.

Our whole barn loft is usually prime bat habitat - alas I have seen very few bats this year, either they croaked in last winter's coldest snap or they got some bat disease or maybe they are just too fat from overeating to be able to fly any more

"Massive bug spraying"... now that you mention it, I suppose in principle I could install something like the auto fly spray systems they use in some horse barns, only manually triggered. I am not at all into pesticides in general (except flyspray for the horses), but I suppose I might consider doing it around the bedroom window where the worst mosquito accumulation occurs... hmmm...

Pat

 

[Beekissed]

Hey, Pat, around here the bats are all dying from "white nose disease" which is some kind of fungal infection. I have seen fewer bats at my own place. I do, however, have more flycatcher birds and barn swallows this year, so they seem to be picking up the slack.

I don't like the spraying either but thats an awful lot of mosquitoes!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

There are traps you can use. Dunno if they will be any good for your steroidal infestation.
http://www.mymosquitodeleter.com/index.php/how-it-works

Do you have purple martins? They like gourd houses and they eat almost as many mosquitoes as bats.

 

[keljonma]

I read somewhere that Formula 409 cleaner will kill bugs, but I've never tried it.

We haven't seen any bats this year - last year had a ton of them.

Barn swallows and chimney swifts - if you can entice them to your barn....are wonderful at bug control. This year, the barn swallows and chimney swifts are taking care of the bug population. We have lots of enjoyment watching them swoop out of the barn over the pastures each evening.

 

[freemotion]

Tether a guinea fowl to each window....

 

[Mackay]

Man, I wouldn't mess with mosquitoes. They carry some bad stuff these days.

I purchased a light that attracts them and when they go for it it kills them. Got it at home depot. Just remember to turn it off when you don't need it.

 

[sylvie]

If they are congregating at your windows, I'd head out there with a vacuum. With some persistence you should decimate a lot of them. Actually, I'm kidding but who knows, it might work. I have to do that with the Asian lady bugs some years and it does seem to help.

 

[big brown horse]

If they are congregating at your windows, I'd head out there with a vacuum. With some persistence you should decimate a lot of them. Actually, I'm kidding but who knows, it might work. I have to do that with the Asian lady bugs some years and it does seem to help.

FIrst vacuum up some 7 dust.