Culicidae

[psocoptera]

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Just now attempted to step out into my backyard, for the first time since getting home. Was immediately swarmed by about a dozen mosquitoes. Stepped back in but I already have three bites, not sure how many on Quentin. I am honestly not sure I would have bought this house if I knew I wasn't even going to be able to enter my backyard during certain times of year - so much for the vegetable garden, I guess. (How did it do while I was gone? Who knows, I can't get there!)

(Yes, I can try again during the main heat of the day, but then I'm *very* limited in how long I can be out to avoid broiling Q.)

(My god, these itch.)

Comments

[irilyth]

These have become a *much* bigger problem while we were out of town. :^( I'm definitely interested in trying to do something about them.

(I wonder if the wasps were eating them. :^p)

If all else fails, we could always sell the house -- I heard about a really nice condo about to go on the market in Somerville... :^P :^P

[glassonion]

My $0.02 is to not get too worried about it this year --- after all, you have no idea what the previous owners were optimizing for in their garden. I'm sure there is some way to optimize for fewer mosquitos and also the other things you like in the yard, and you can either do your own research or invoke an expert to figure out what would help.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

No, sure, and in fact, I'm already aware of some of the problems - the tall grass, standing water in the saucer under one of my pots, things I wasn't around to do anything about. But I am just really struggling today - I had been counting on having taking Q outside as a safety valve, as a break from his constant attempts to mess with the entire contents of our house, and now I don't have that, and I can't take him anywhere like the library because his cold is still so bad that that seems antisocial, and, I am just effectively trapped in my house with this insane toddler, and, I'm just out of tricks. I was just really counting on getting into the backyard today. Maybe things will be better sometime in the future but that's a long time from now.

[irilyth]

Can you go somewhere outside that isn't the backyard, like a playground?

Bleah. :^(

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

Given that I'm currently in IKEA for the second time in less than two weeks, feel you, big time. Exhausting toddlers are exhausting! Can you take him for an exciting trip to Target to pick up that herbal armor stuff?

[kelilah.livejournal.com]

Erg, that sounds really tough, and gee, I know how you feel! Which is to say, hi, I am also often a person who feels trapped in the house with an insane toddler, and we live very close to you, and we have a yard that, while smallish, is often shady, does not seem to include ridiculous numbers of bugs, and has a grassy area, a sandbox, and a small climbing structure. And we have a playground that's a 5-minute walk away. So you could give me a call when this type of thing is happening, and we could hang out, and that would hopefully make us feel better.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

As soon as we are over our terrible colds we are totally going to descend on all of our local friends...

[irilyth]

TSOR suggests that a well-maintained garden pond is actually a good way to attract dragonflies. Sadly, it is also a good way to attract one-year-olds, so probably not on the table for us at this time.

[jaipur.livejournal.com]

Bug repellent? I'm going to have to invest in OFF once I'm living in Atlanta.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that would work for me, but I don't want to put anything too heavy-duty on Q... I just bought some citronella oil balm stuff that I think I'll try on myself first, and then maybe on him if it seems okay on me. I'm sure as the kids get older we'll just start buying DEET by the bucket, if the mosquitoes are going to be this bad every summer.

[irilyth]

Wikipedia mentioned permethrin-laced nets, and I wonder if you could do the same thing to a screen. If so, treating the front door screens might be an interesting experiment, if we thought we could do it while keeping Q safe.

Bleah. :^(

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Maybe I could make a sort of sachet of the clove stuff and hang it between the screen and the front door - if it were hung high, Q couldn't get into it, and the smell might discourage the mosquitoes from congregating there...

[jaipur.livejournal.com]

That, and remove all standing water and sources where they can reproduce. Buy frogs? :)

[sheepboyofchaos.livejournal.com]

This has been a bad 'skeeter year in the Frozen North due I suspect to the rains we have been having. Last year was dryer and they were much more manageable.