I am getting eaten alive by these...

[NCC-1701]

damn mosquitoes...:mad::mad:

[snide]

http://blog.adlo.es/images/2008/11/nelson-haha.gif

[Defib1961]

I take Bactrim daily, mosquitoes don't like me. :D

[Datawiz]

Mosquito Control only recently stepped up their game in our area. About 2 weeks ago, it was brutal in the mornings when I took the dogs out.

[Norm]

Skin So Soft by Avon works well, don't smell too bad either. :D

[FRISKY]

Going Bats


I was at Our Lady of Lowes last Sunday morning when I spied two friends walking down the aisle with what appeared to be a birdhouse.

Oh no, they said, it was a bat house and it’s all the rage now for clearing backyards of mosquitoes. Now I’m as anxious as the next person to avoid B-52 mosquito squads, but the idea of inviting bats to the party to deter mosquitoes seemed rather like inviting a carnivorous plant over to keep weeds off the lawn. I’d rather have a swarm of blood-sucking mosquitoes than a bat swarm.

No, No, said my friends, bats are lovely guests, you hardly see them and they insure a mosquito-free picnic on the deck. They are nature’s best insect deterrent. To me, nature’s best insect deterrent is staying in the house.

Next, my buds told me you have to mount the bat house on a twelve foot pole, which I agreed was perfect as I wouldn’t touch anything to do with bats with a ten foot pole. My spouse’s eyes just rolled as the bat house went into our shopping cart. Lovely.

So I did some research. All you have to do to attract bats is to provide them with a bat-friendly structure. Apparently bats like crowded, warm spaces, so we’re lucky we don’t attract them to happy hour. And they like it to be 80 to 100 degrees where they can bask in the sun. Perhaps they’d like a cruise.

Experts suggest putting a thermometer atop the pole along with the bat house so you can check if the temperature is right to attract occupants. I can barely stagger to the TV in the morning to check the weather channel, so there’s very little chance of me shinnying up a pole to check the bat climate.

Here’s good news: “a single brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in one hour.” I imagine that a single gray schnauzer can eat one bat in the time it takes for me to hit them both with a broom to break up the feast. This concerns me.

“A single bat consumes up to 3000 insects a night - a third of those are usually mosquitoes!” Good god, what are the other two thirds, locusts?

“Bats kill mosquitoes that spread West Nile Virus.” Oy, something else I never worried about that I can obsess over now.

Here’s a great fact. In Austin, Texas there’s a place called Bracken Cave, which is the summer home to between…ready…. 20 to 30 million Mexican free-tailed bats. Like I needed another reason never to go to Texas .

On the internet I found a pamphlet called Attracting Bats, which, along with Field Guide to Moose Dressing is something I figured I never would have to read. Apparently, using lures like bat guano don’t work, thank god. Did I ever think I’d be typing the words “bat guano?”

Holy Bat Box Batman, this attracting bats thing is much like field of nightmares – build it and they will come. Eventually. We should have put the bat box up this past spring, before the bats came back from their winter hibernation. That’s good, actually, since my mate can have all the fun in the world installing it now and I won’t have to worry about going bats for at least a year. Now that’s a project I can encourage. Do you think bats hibernate in Ft. Lauderdale like the rest of Rehoboth?

Another bat book warns that it could be three to five years before I get a healthy contingent of bats. At that rate, when we sell the house the bats will convey. This project is sounding better and better.

I wound up on the internet half the night looking at bat stuff. I especially liked the site with advice on getting rid of nuisance bats, which, at that point in my reading seemed to be the only kind.

But no, there are a zillion varieties. According to the Bat Conservation Organization (Conserve Bats!) you can even sponsor a bat, choosing from big brown bats or Vampire Bats. They even have names, like Gandolf the Egyptian Fruit Bat. I wanted to know whether I would get a welcome kit and wallet-sized picture of Gandolf if I sponsored him. Can we e-mail and get updates? Is my sponsorship enough to feed and clothe a bat for a year? I was actually considering making a donation when I got an e-mail from Facebook noting that I had a new friend request. Good lord, did my bat intuit that I was thinking of sponsoring him?

No, it was just a simple friend request from Rehoboth. But I made the mistake of posting my little bat project on Facebook and immediately started getting all kinds of dire warnings.

Most began with “Are you crazy????,” followed by the advice that building a house for Purple Martins would work just as well against mosquitoes. Then somebody suggested I forget the Purple Martins and go directly for purple martinis which suited me fine. I could get back to the bat project later.

But then came the most dire warning of all. “Careful! They love coming in the house - and I don't mean the mosquitoes! Ever try catching one as it fly dives from room curtain to room curtain! We did - finally had to call a bat catcher to do the job.”

Okay, now I’m picturing having to call Dracula Exterminators for a bat geek to prowl around my darkened house with a giant fish net while the dogs and I check into a motel.

That did it. I returned the bat house and the twelve foot pole to Lowes, trading them for a mess of Cintronella candles and Deep Woods Off. I’m relieved there won’t be bats at Schnauzerhaven any time soon, but I’m seriously worried about all my neighbors in Rehoboth trying to lure bats into their belfries. Give it up, kids. Want to get up close and personal with bats? Check out the Annual Great Lakes Bat Festival next year, As for me, I’ll be on the screened porch with a purple martini. ...

[Kerrmudgeon]

Bat houses are the answer for sure, and easy to make. And make sure you put a mat under neath the house to collect the guano (bat poop) which makes the richest fertilizer you can get!

http://mary-kate.org/gardenshedplans/wp-content/plugins/ablgr123/images/backyardhousereasonshousehaveyoubatbatplansshouldwhy.jpg

[Skia]

...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[carlton_fritz]

Mosquitoes last year were the worst I had ever seen. About half as bad this year.

[Rapid Roger]

Moving right along with the hijack......Has anyone tried one of those battery driven "Personal Protection" devices being marketed by "Off"..........?

[Jeff '79]

Dilute standard Listerine in a spray bottle, with 1/4 water, and spray it around your perimeter, and on the ground where you are... It's cheap, and it really works........The penny on the wasp sting worked too.....:yesnod:

[Nemesis]

http://www.momlogic.com/bug_spray_270.jpg

[HeatherO]

Bat houses are the answer for sure, and easy to make. And make sure you put a mat under neath the house to collect the guano (bat poop) which makes the richest fertilizer you can get!

http://mary-kate.org/gardenshedplans/wp-content/plugins/ablgr123/images/backyardhousereasonshousehaveyoubatbatplansshouldwhy.jpg

my father made one. he wouldn't let me paint the batman logo on it.

[LATB]

the mosquitoes are not too bad here...

it usually depends on how wet out winter is...and we have had several dry winters lately.

[Uncle Pervey]

No skeeters here... no rain.. no skeeters. :leaving: I'd take some rain and resultant skeeters. :yesnod:

[GS Ragtop]

Here's a big one...

http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/plantsciences_Faculty/Bloom/CAMEL/Art/MosquitoLg.jpg