With summer in full swing in Iowa, so are those dreaded mosquitoes. It seems like they are everywhere this season, attacking us in all directions. Mosquitoes can turn a fun night of entertainment with family into a nightmare. Fortunately, there are a few ways we can help protect ourselves from this blood-thirsty creature by making our landscapes and outdoor properties less attractive to mosquitoes. Smitty’s Lawn and Landscape have provided you with a list of five ways to help deter mosquitoes from taking over your backyard.
Life Cycle of Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes, despite their annoyance, are quite interesting creatures. Only the female mosquitoes bite, and that is because she needs protein in her blood in order to produce her eggs. She lays those eggs in standing water. Laying up to 300 eggs at one time, she also lays eggs every few days. After the eggs hatch, the larvae spend the first five days swimming in the water and feeding on organic matter. Within two to five days, they turn into adult mosquitoes.
Knowing this, one of the first things we can do to help prevent mosquitoes from taking over our property is to remove all signs of stagnant water. While this may seem like a no-brainer, we often forget about the most common items such as rain gutters, rain barrels, flower pots, birdbaths, empty tires, and wheelbarrows. Be sure to empty these items and keep kids’ water toys and swimming pools clean every few days.
Five Ways To Attract Fewer Mosquitoes to Your Fort Dodge Yard Include:
1. Keep a Well-Maintained Lawn
Mosquitoes and many other insects, including fleas and ticks, love tall grassy areas. You can help discourage them by keeping your lawn mowed, weeds under control, and trees and shrubs trimmed. To avoid pooling water to form on your grass, cut it early in the morning so the sun has time to dry it out.
2. Clean Out Your Gutters
As mentioned above, stagnant water is a mosquito magnet. Debris such as dead leaves, twigs, and dirt often get clogged inside our gutters, making the perfect home for mosquitoes, other insects, and rodents. Keeping your gutters clean can help prevent them from becoming a mosquito sanctuary.
3. Invite Mosquito Predators to Your Fort Dodge Area Yard
Bats, swallows, and purple martins love the taste of mosquitoes. So put up a bat house, a birdhouse, or a purple martin house, and invite them to your yard. You can build your own or find already built wooden shelters here at our Garden Center. We sell a variety of different garden décor for all landscapes. Our staff can even help you determine which designs are best suited for your property.
4. Plant a Variety of Plants and Trees That Are Natural Mosquito Repellants 
Mosquitoes are attracted to us through scent. And with that, there are plenty of aromas they do not find appealing. Most of us are familiar with citronella. It is made into candles, infused into liquids to put in tiki torches, and used as an ingredient in many repellents. But there are other lesser-known plants that serve as natural repellents as well. Here is just a list of some of them:
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- Citronella grass
- Marigolds
- Lavender
- Basil
- Rosemary
- Peppermint
- Lemon balm
- Citrus
- Pennyroyal
- Catnip
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5. Install an Overhead Fan
While it may sound crazy since mosquitoes have wings and can fly, they are not very good at it. This is why there are typically fewer mosquitoes on windy days. Have a ceiling fan installed on your outdoor patio or put a box fan outside, and the area underneath or surrounding your fan will be mosquito-free.
Protect Your Outdoor Fun With Mosquito Control Services From Smitty’s Lawn and Landscape
To truly ensure mosquitoes don’t ruin your backyard fun, invest in Smitty’s Lawn and Landscape’s mosquito control service. We provide high-quality pest control services, including an effective mosquito control service throughout the Fort Dodge area and beyond. Our unique power blower applies a fine mist to your shrubs, trees, and lawn around the perimeter of your home, targeting the mosquitoes at every stage in their life. Our program consists of four treatments from late spring through fall. We use a new advanced-generation pyrethroid and archer insect growth regulator for ultimate mosquito control and prevention.
Take back your yard and learn more about this proactive service now. Visit our website to fill out our contact us form, or give us a call at 515-576-0985. While we’ve just begun our monthly blog, we will be providing tips and ideas on all things lawn care, landscaping, trees, and plants via our monthly blog, so be sure to stay tuned. You can also get to know us better by following our Facebook page.