I used to make a spray on repellent for people and dogs on ebay.
Do you think anyone would be interested if I put it on there again?

If it is non-toxic, probably. Bear in mind that I have products with deet (that I don't like to use), a 'lotion' that is a blend of essential oils - all to use on people. I have a spray with some essential oils and pyrethrins 0.10$ that I can safely use on the dogs. It says it's safe for cats, but I'm a bit wary. Besides, catching and spraying *several* cats **every** day doesn't sound doable. (I see medical care in my future if I go that route.) What I'd like to find is something - a machine, a treatment, whatever - that I could use in/on the environment to stop the breeding and swarming. Now back to your spray: Would it be safe to apply to cats?

Hey - remember I told you about that garlic spray years ago? I found the bottle I looked all over the place for last time we talked about it.

When we had cat claw growing all over as a patio cover, the skeeters seemed to breed in there and were a real nuisance. I sprayed the stuff all over the cat claw vine and it worked. We've since pulled out the cat claw and I don't notice the skeeters anymore. If you want to purchase this full, unused bottle I found in the laundry room cabinet, you can have it for less than the on-line price. lmk

Here is a link that might be useful: Mosquito Barrier

I just read an article about using mosquito-repellent plants. There were also instructions for making mosquito traps on page 2 of the article.

Here is a link that might be useful: Article from Mother Earth News

McP, what size bottle? Tell my you don't have a gallon! Heck yeah, I'm interested. E-mail me.

Haname, I'll try the trap, although no other so-called trap or bait has ever worked. I may try the basils to see if any of that works.

It's a quart. I'm thinking you would need a field of basil the size of a corn field.

No DEET. I saw an ad by some company that was selling a mosquito cream (anti-osquito, that is) with citronella in it. Makes sense.
Has anyone been around here long enough to recall when Phoenix didn't have mosquitos? The good ol' days.

We just got bit sitting outside for a few minutes a couple of evenings ago. Big nasty bites and you don't even see them coming!

Yes, I've been here since 1981 and there were none then. In fact, I don't recall any mosquitoes until about 5 years ago. Mind you, we are OUT in the desert, (50% developed and then all natural desert type lots), not in town, not on an irrigated lot. We have only the horse & bird/bunny water out and that is dumped daily. We have a pond but it has constantly moving water and we have a lot of goldfish. The only place I can think they are breeding would be in damp soil in or under my planting containers and/or at the neighbors. Very frustrating to have them after a life of fighting them in MI :(.

I understand the bT is the only real natural control but it is required to be put in the water source they breed in to kill the larvae. Hard to do when you don't know where they are coming from...... Good luck, Tommie!

you can try maintaining an "ideal pool" for them and treating it with BTI..

they can be real tricky to find all their places. like old tires you think would dry out.. one of those movie theatre style garbage cans with the flap bred thousands last year until i noticed and drilled a hole in the bottom so it would drain.

Ive been in Phoenix all my life and the valley has never had mosquito issues like its had in the last 8 years or so. Grew up in Chandler back when it was a tiny place surrounded by hundreds of acres of irrigated crop land. There was very little mosquito issues then so it really cant be blamed on irrigated lots. Just my opinion....but I believe its due to our ever increasing enviromental laws and the effective pesticides that are now out of reach. The safe types we are now left with are pretty much useless. So we have a population of mosquitos that react very quickly and aggressively to local conditions now. Im afraid its just something we are going to have to now get used to. Sure miss the way it used to be.

Frankly, I'm all for environmental laws that tightly regulate - or ban - pesticides. As it turns out, the blasted mosquito can adapt to any poison and come back strong. (Pretty much like bacteria respond to antibiotics.) As much as I hate mosquitos, I do **not** want to be sprayed with some foul chemical that will no doubt hurt me worse than the danged mosquitos.

I discovered through some reading that boric acid will prevent the emergence of larvae, but I can't use that because it will hurt the lizards and beneficial bugs. I'm beginning to think that no matter what I do, they're gonna win. I'm going to get some Mosquito Bits today and bait a bucket of water with it.

Here is a link that might be useful: resistant mosquitos

As long as you have damp soil, you can be breeding mosquitoes. When I lived in an irrigated area I would add pieces of bT dunks to the irrigation water.

You might also want to skip an irrigation cycle and let the soil really dry. Of course, there's still your neighbors. But mosquitoes prefer damp, dark-ish spots. Hot sun is not their friend.

If you have ant standing water, mosquitoes will breed. Have you tried to plant a lemon balm plant? Mosquitoes are most active in the morning and dusk. Try to do your gardening in the middle of the day. How to get rid of mosquitoes is not an easy task, maybe you can get some bats in the area.

One thing they've come out with is this DEET product that you don't spray on, but you just stick it on you like a pin where you are and it has a little fan that blows it around. Then you don't have to get it on your skin and I heard it worked for that person. I saw it at Costco and I've been told it works well.

I haven't used it though. I've been bitten all over already.

I'm still all for getting rid of pesticides. I see people spraying stuff all over their yards. We are breathing that.

I hate using chemicals of any kind. And the things they're supposed to kill will breed resistant offspring.

I read in a forum this one lady said she left a container of water in her yard for three days and then dumped it and added some fresh water and so on. She figured that the mosquitos would lay their eggs there since it was the only available water in her yard (she made sure there was no other standing water). It makes sense to me.

I get lots of mosquitos in my Oasis planting area (in the shade and watered often). They must love it there. I'm going to try that three day water container idea.

And yes, I remember Tucson had no mosquitos when I first moved here in 1980.

hi..this year we have mosquitos too!!!! My husband and I must taste awful because we don't get bitten, but our daughter gets chomped and so does the grand-girl. We used our swamp cooler for april, may, june and part of July and figured they must be living in the swamp cooler.. tho it is a master cool and changes its own water. so we bought mosquito dunks at home depot and put in the cooler water. I don't know that it helped..as daughter continued to compain.
we thought they might be living in the toilets also, so put a mosquito dunk in each toilet tank. not a good idea.. made a real mess in the toilets..flecks of black stuff..
when we turned on the a/c and turned off the cooler, the
mosquitos went away . they didn't bother the dogs..only the girls came up with bites.
and we have no water standing around. our dogs are tiny and their water dishes are the size of a tea cup.
just a mosquito-ish year, I guess.
My daughter hired a pesticide company and it didn't make any difference in the mosquitoes or the tiny red ants we
get in the house in the summer.
amijo