quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:
They are bad this year.
For the seven years we lived at the house in Richmond (until we moved in 09/2017), you could not go out back to grill, play with the dogs or cut the grass without being swarmed by them. It was so bad we even had companies come out and spray

It was the worse I have ever seen.

In my part of Va, first time I have been bitten more than once this year.

Kill them all. Every damn one.

When I was in high school I helped my dad do some surveying in south Alabama, anytime that you got near water mosquitoes would cover you up, so I asked our family doctor (old country doc) what I could do to keep the bugs away (chiggers, ticks, etc) he told me to take a small pinch of sulfur power, mix it with molasses and eat it once a week. Now sulfur in small amounts just tastes nasty, too much and it has a laxative effect, and a few days after take no it you will notice a sulfur smell on your skin, and if you get hot and sweaty you will really notice it. The up side is that it does not was off due to sweat, bad side effect it messes with your sex life.

 
Believe it or not, we have mosquitoes here in the desert. It is not very often we have any standing water, but the eggs are there waiting to hatch, even in mud. They don't need to wait for the water and then breed. Their eggs lay dormant until anything like "wet" appears. Like most AZ flying insects, they are very persistent and nasty. We close up and stay inside as much as possible during their brief appearances.
 

Living in SW Florida, basically next door to the Everglades, I figured the Skeeters would be pretty bad. Surprisingly, they are rarely a problem at all. My county's Mosquito Control District is so effective that it makes me half-wonder if it's safe to live here with all the chemicals they are spraying from planes and helicopters.

I'm surrounded by swamp land. As the sun sets, they form a wall and devour everything.

Usually my backyard is infested with the little buggers. This year I finally had a colony of at least 30 bats take up residence in a bat house I built on a pole out there. It was blissful for about 2 months! Apparently those little bats were feasting on the skeeters, allowing us to enjoy the yard again.
Sadly, the bat colony decided to find another home for reasons only they know. They left when we were having a hot spell in the high 90’s for days on end. Now it’s back to slathering on the deet if I want to relax out back again. I am hoping they return next year to gorge themselves on the never ending skeeter buffet here.

They are so bad this year that I actually started using a lot of bug spray. Usually, I try to avoid the stuff. Even bought a couple of those Thermacell. The result was mixed with those.

I rarely get them here but when they do show up a couple big Vornado fans on low and aimed right create enough buffeting to break up their attack runs. Works quite well and they’re pretty quiet on low.

quote:

Originally posted by Minnow:
Usually my backyard is infested with the little buggers. This year I finally had a colony of at least 30 bats take up residence in a bat house I built on a pole out there. It was blissful for about 2 months! Apparently those little bats were feasting on the skeeters, allowing us to enjoy the yard again.
Sadly, the bat colony decided to find another home for reasons only they know. They left when we were having a hot spell in the high 90’s for days on end. Now it’s back to slathering on the deet if I want to relax out back again. I am hoping they return next year to gorge themselves on the never ending skeeter buffet here.

Sorry to the OP for derailing the thread...

Check out this link. https://batmanagement.com/blog...some-bat-houses-fail

Likely your bat house was too hot and why they left. Bats really are a wonderful way to combat mosquitos but they are a little temperamental.