Summertime is the best time to spend late nights outside enjoying the nice weather, but when mosquitos decide to show up, it ruins the fun. They can be annoying and are known to carry diseases. Here are some ways to repel mosquitos from your home.
Repelling Mosquitos from Inside Your Home
Sometimes mosquitos will end up in your home. Here are a few ways to keep them out.
- To keep mosquitos from entering your house, make sure that all entrances into your home are entirely sealed. Sometimes the screens on your windows can have holes big enough for mosquitos to fly through, and your doors may not seal correctly around the door frame, allowing mosquitos in.
- Lavender candles can help repel mosquitos as well. Lavender naturally repels mosquitos, so the smell from the candles will keep them away.
- Use essential oils to deter mosquitos. Mix a couple of drops of lemon, eucalyptus, or lavender oil with some water in a spray bottle and spray around your home.
- Oscillating fans can also repel mosquitos from your home. Mosquitos have difficulty flying against strong winds, so a fan can drive them away.
- You can also get mosquito traps to keep them out of your home. You can pick up traps at your local grocery store or online or make your own with water, sugar, and yeast.
What About Outside Your Home?
Repelling mosquitos outside of your home can be a little more complicated because they live outdoors. There are multiple ways to repel mosquitos. Find the best approach for your property:
- The easiest way to keep mosquitos away is to eliminate any standing water you may have around your home. If you have a pool or a pond nearby, you can treat it to keep mosquitos away. Female mosquitos lay their eggs in stagnant water and can lay 100 eggs at a time, causing the mosquito population to get out of hand quickly.
- Keep your yard nice and neat. Mosquitos like dark, damp places, so keeping your shrubs cut back, trees trimmed, and the grass cut short will eliminate places for mosquitos to settle.
- Citronella candles are a tried-and-true method to repel mosquitos. You can put citronella oil in tiki torches or buy candles to light whenever you are outside.
- Change the lighting that you use in your outdoor spaces as well. Mosquitos are attracted to white light, so swap your white light bulbs out with yellow lights, and mosquitos will not be attracted to the area.
- Thermacell is also a great way to repel mosquitos. It is a spray-free device that releases a repellent, does not have a scent, and protects up to 15 feet.
- A natural way to repel mosquitos is by planting flowers that act as a deterrent around your home. Lavender, marigolds, lemongrass, pennyroyals, and many herbs can be a natural repellent against mosquitos. You can also use cedar mulch to help repel mosquitos.
- You can put out birdseed to attract some natural predators of mosquitos. Birds, like purple martins, swallows, any kind of waterfowl, and most migratory songbirds enjoy feasting on mosquitos. Bats also like to eat mosquitos, so if you are not against attracting bats to the area, you can always put up a bat house nearby. And if you have a little fishpond in your yard, goldfish and koi fish eat mosquitos that land on top of the water, and so do some turtles.
There are so many ways to repel mosquitos from your home. It may take some time, and if all else fails, you can call a pest control company to come and take care of the problem.
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