How to keep down the insect population?

[Clay in MS]

Lots of mosquitoes here. One thing I know for sure- it's alot easier to kill the larvae than the adult. I collect rainwater for my garden and the mosquito larvae hatch in these collectors. I figure since the mosquitoes are going to lay there eggs somewhere around here anyway, I allow them to hatch in these collectors and then I can kill the larvae and eliminate part of the population. I'm sure it's only a small fraction that I am killing but it makes me feel better anyway. I think bats are the best predator. Purple martins not as much since they generally fly higher than the mosquitoes. At least that's what I have read.

 

[kees]

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What is a county mosquito control district? The swampy area isn't swampy all year long, just during heavy rains. If there is such an organization, can they treat land that doesn't belong to me?

Suzy

 

[kees]

Does anyone know how I can build an inexpensive bat house? This may sound stupid, but how do I know that the bats would come to the house?

Suzy

 

[redhen]

Quote:
good question..

 

[Judy]

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I googled homemade bat house; this is the first site that came up; interesting:

http://www.goodbyecitylife.com/fields/bats.html


We certainly have bats around here. I bought a bat house years ago and hung it. Never occupied.

 

[brandywine]

Flies:

You can kill two birds with one stone by making a maggot bucket -- feeds your birds and shortstops the flies' reproduction. Search this forum for maggot bucket, you'll find lots of instructions.

Mosquitos:

Bat house is great, but may not get occupied.

I'd do belt and suspenders and put up a purple martin house as well.

We have barn swallows -- sadly, no bats -- and almost no mosquitos.

Yellowjackets:

This is very important. I know whereof you speak -- I have also taken an ambulance ride for a wasp sting this year. Without a good rural ALS service, I'd likely be dead.

DO NOT ERADICATE YOUR PREDATORY WASPS. Leave the paper wasps, carpenter bees, solitary wasps, etc. They eat yellowjackets and hornets, and are much less aggressive and prone to sting.

Good biodiversity in your insect population is your best insurance against these aggressive monsters.

If you do have to remove/poison a nest, please get someone else who is not deathly allergic to do it -- and have them do it at night.

I'm told that guineas will stake out a ground-nesting hornet hole and just snack on them as they enter and leave, until there are none. I sure hope so, because those miserable little %$@!'s ought to be good for SOMETHING.

 

[kees]

Would you peek inside the slits of a bat house to see if anything was there?

Suzy

 

[kees]

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I used to have 24 guinea fowl and still found yellowjacket nests in the ground.

I thought that carpenter bees ate wood? Or is that just where they burrow?

I'll look up maggot bucket, but my stomach is becoming unsettled at the thought of one! I remember discarding double-wrapped chicken parts in the garbage. When the sanitation workers finished emptying the pans, there were thousands of crawling white maggots inside and I thought that I was going to faint! Even though I scrubbed the inside of the pail with bleach, they wouldn't die for a good 15 minutes!

Suzy

 

[sewchick]

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We have bat houses on each end of the eves of the house. We never get bats there. Instead they are in our garage. Just lovely.

I run to the car covering my head afraid they will get in my hair. Hornets or wasps or whatever they are but no bats. The birds like to build nests on them....big waste of time for dh to build them

!!!

Too bad ddt was so toxic.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Ducks are the best fly catchers and eaters.
When I raised ducks, sometimes I put a light overnight at a ground level to attract all kind of bugs, mosquitoes etc.

My ducks had so much fun, that in the morning they dragged their crops, having trouble moving around. LOL