{"id":7001,"date":"2012-08-29T02:00:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blitransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=7001"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:18:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T19:18:45","slug":"five-tips-to-prevent-mosquitoes-and-their-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/2012\/08\/29\/five-tips-to-prevent-mosquitoes-and-their-bites\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips to Prevent Mosquitoes and Their Bites"},"content":{"rendered":"

With this year setting records for West Nile virus infections<\/a>, reducing the number of mosquitoes has never seemed more important.\u00a0 The mild winter and, oddly enough, the drought much of the nation is experiencing have come together to produce a bumper crop of mosquitoes.\u00a0 This is the peak breeding season, so we still have at least a few more weeks to get through before mosquito populations die off a little.\u00a0 Freezing weather will finish them off.\u00a0 Orkin<\/a>, a pest control company has put together a list of tips to prevent mosquitoes and their bites.\u00a0 And that’s before you call them.<\/p>\n

Get rid of any standing water around your home and yard<\/strong>.\u00a0 You’ve probably already checked the obvious places, like the bird bath and flower pots, but don’t forget to check gutters and downspouts, children’s toys and playsets, even piles of leaves or other yard debris can hold small amounts of water.\u00a0 Other overlooked places might include a car, a landscape statue, a rain gauge, or a plastic garbage bag.\u00a0 Some landscaping plants can collect water at the place where the leaves meet the stem.\u00a0 Mosquitoes can breed in less than a thimble’s worth of water, so check carefully.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, your neighbor may not be as diligent as you, and wind can blow mosquitoes in from other areas.\u00a0 So you still have to:<\/p>\n

Wear long sleeves and long pants and use mosquito repellent<\/strong>.\u00a0 The more skin you cover, the less area the mosquito will have to bite.\u00a0 Put mosquito repellent on any exposed skin.<\/p>\n

Stay indoors an hour before and an hour after both dusk and dawn<\/strong>.\u00a0 Those are the times when mosquitoes are most active.\u00a0 The heat of the day seems to keep them from coming out, but watch out for them in the shade.\u00a0 They like shade as much as you do.<\/p>\n

Replace outdoor bulbs with yellow bulbs that are less attractive to mosquitoes<\/strong>.\u00a0 I had never heard this one before.\u00a0 I checked and our outdoor bulbs are yellow, but we also have geckos that hang out around the lights and keep any mosquitoes from surviving a trip near the patio.<\/p>\n

My only addition to their tips would be to have a yard that encourages mosquito-eating wildlife.\u00a0 We have geckos and toads out at night and some lizards and a variety of birds to keep the mosquito populations down.\u00a0 Check out how to build a frog pond<\/a>.\u00a0 A properly built and maintained pond shouldn’t breed mosquitoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With this year setting records for West Nile virus infections, reducing the number of mosquitoes has never seemed more important. The mild winter and, oddly enough, the drought much of the nation is experiencing have come together to produce a bumper crop of mosquitoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[2854,789,1399,2500],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7001"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}