The female mosquitoes suck blood form animals They will have no affect on your trees. The male mosquitoes diet is plant based. You might look up what kind of mosquitoes you have by region then google what do the mails eat. The only damage the female mosquitoes do is keep us from tending our trees as we should

Don't get bitten; Steve

Those aren't mosquitoes. Some other Diptera, likely a fly of some sort. Any chance of a close-up view of one?

Can't see much in the image, my guess is that these are Long Legged flies, tiny colorful insects that act as predators. If you are observing a lot of these around your citrus trees, inspect for the aphids, scale, and other small pests that will be their food source.

Those sticky cards should only be used for very short periods of time. They are not intended to be used to trap pests but simply to give an idea of the population of pests. As you have so perfectly illustrated, they entrap many kinds of beneficials.

The first time you see a butterfly, lizard, hummingbird, or other beneficial critter caught on one of the traps, you won't want to use them anymore at all.

hi, this is another pic, sorry I can't get a better definition from the Iphone camera:

{{gwi:625471}}

The only thing I noticed is that they look like regular blood-sucking mosquitoes, but with a shiny blueish body.

I'm sure it's a losing battle, but there are so many of them I wonder if they're harmless. I'm in the California desert, but we've had some rain, maybe the increased humidity made their population explode, and with winter approaching, they'll die out until next spring.

Jean and Rhizo (our resident bug expert) are correct, not at all a mosquito, but I agree with Rhizo, they appear to be Long Legged Flies (Dolichopodidae), which are beneficial insects. You're very, very fortunate to have them in your yard. They are going after spider mites, which are our nemesis at this time of year, especially in our hotter, drier areas. I get spider mites every August/September. Long Legged Flies eat spider mites, one of the best at it, in fact:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/100
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-25_long-legged_flies.htm

Get rid of the traps, they are trapping more beneficials than the bad guys. As Rhizo has mentioned, they should only be used for identification purposes, which they have done for you :-)

Patty S.

tks Patty for the links, I think you guys figured it out ... it does look like the pics on the bugguide.net link.

I'm removing the traps ... thank you all for answering!