Mosquito (and other pesky insect) Rant

[English Chick]

Yikes! glad I am in the UK, we dont have a mosquite problem. but we do have "midges" boy do they love me, they are always attracted to my white hair!! my scalp is a mass of swollen lumps, my legs are covered in bites, and the itch drives me mad! We also have bats which fly around the garden in the evening, I like to sit and watch them, hence the midgey bites. They are protected in the UK and you are not allowed to kill bats of any sort. Luckily we dont have any living in the attic. I Never use repellent as I am not happy about spraying myself with chemicals....hey ho country life.

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

my bats in my attic have eaten through the wires for the bathroom fan so now it stinks bad i nthere and noone has taken a bath in a week yuck

 

[mithious]

I have now learned that dragonflies eat way more mosquitos than bats do. I have mixed feelings about this, as mosquito control was the last strand of goodwill that I was clinging to regarding bats. Last year we had a, how should I describe it? Night of hell is pretty good. We had a colony of bats move into our attic, and while we were trying to rig up a way to "exclude" them from our home, my husband unwittingly changed an outdoor lightbulb. That night we caught over 40 little brown bats from 9pm to 4am, flying around our living room, by hand, ourselves. They were using the loose light socket as a bat door of some sort. And the next day I found out that we had to get rabies shots because they now reccomend them if you are in the VICINITY of bats, not only if you are bitten. Ugh. So, I guess that I am going to have to call the exterminator for the bats that have now moved into my garage

You want to be really careful of bats...they are the second largest carrier of rabies and since going through the rabies series is NO fun, I was bit by a rabid bat, please don't handle them! Exclusion is really the only safe and effective way to get rid of them in a dwelling. What you do is put up a heavy piece of cloth so they can fly out, but not back in and try to cover even small holes, or openings, that they can get into..and like mice, they can get into very small areas!!! I was bit during a snow storm, just before Christmas, as was my dog, as he caught it. I had to keep it alive until the next morning, so the CDC could test it. Once dead, they can't test. They usually kill them less than an hour before the testing, as the only way to test for rabies is to take brain samples and rabies disappears rapidly from tissue one the animal is dead!

We are having a HUGE hatch out right now, so have to delay putting the chicks out to their coop...we have had constant rain, everyday, since April up here in the North Country, and the swarms of mosquitos are getting horrendous!!! Once dusk comes, it's inside or they will drain you dry of blood!!!! Grrrr...nothing so far has worked either since we have standing water on the lawns, and we live on a mountains, but the soil is so saturated, that the rain is not running off. All rivers are running above flood stage...by now, usually they are way down...weird weather this year for sure!!! WE desperately need some sun for a long bit to dry things up or this mosquito problem will just continue to get worse!!!!

Good Luck everyone !!!!