May 30, 2025 • 56 mins
Tired of being a mosquito magnet? In this episode of the Good Growing podcast, horticulture educators Chris Enroth and Ken Johnson bust common mosquito myths and dive into what really works to keep those pesky biters at bay. From citronella candles and bug zappers to the viral “Bucket of Doom,” learn which repellents are backed by science—and which ones are just buzz. Whether you're planning a backyard BBQ or just want to enjoy your garden in peace, this episode is your go-to guide for mosquito control that actually works.
Watch us on YouTube https://youtu.be/dpAHAqJ2WhM
Skip to what you want to know:
00:40 Hey Ken!
03:20 What makes people attractive to being bitten by mosquitoes?
05:55 Mosquito control that doesn't work
07:50 Purple Martins
10:40 Mosquito sonic repellents.
11:59 Bug zapper lights
16:49 A pan of soapy water.
17:49 Using mouthwash
21:38 Stuff that kind of works
21:44 Mosquito-repelling plants
24:46 Citronella candles
26:51 Mosquito control that can work
27:03 Fogging/spraying an area
30:56 Mosquito bucket of doom!
36:30 Habitat modification
41:47 Stay inside
44:03 Wear light colored, loose-fitting clothing
45:44 CO2 Traps
Contact us!
Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu
Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu
Check out the Good Growing Blog: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing
Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowingsubscribe
Any products or companies mentioned during the podcast are in no way a promotion or endorsement of these products or companies.
Barnyard Bash: freesfx.co.uk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:05):
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you fromMacomb , Illinois, and we have
got a great show for you today.I'm starting to itch. I've got
bites all over me. It ismosquito season.
Feels like mosquito season isstarting earlier and earlier
every year and going on laterand later every year. Is that a
(00:27):
coincidence? I don't think so.There are definitely some issues
up that with that. And you knowI'm not doing this by myself.
I'm joined as always everysingle week by horticulture
educator Ken Johnson andJacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken (00:40):
Hello, Chris. I got it. Fortunately, it's been kinda
breezy and cool, so mosquitoesaren't going too crazy or
haven't been Mhmm. But with allthat rain. It's a matter of Yes.
Chris (00:53):
Mean, I I do literally already have mosquito bites. And
we're we're at the May andthat's probably to be expected,
at least for me. I'm a mosquitomagnet. I they are drawn to me.
They just know where I am.
We once as a child, we went onvacation to a a little place off
the coast of Georgia, I believe,Little Saint Simon Island, which
(01:15):
is just literally a swamp offthe coast of Georgia. And I
think we counted. I had over 80mosquito bites, and I was
miserable. But yeah. And that'spretty common for me, though.
If there's if we're in amosquito we place, they're
coming for me.
Ken (01:33):
Alright. So just bring Chris with wherever you go.
He'll be fine.
Chris (01:37):
I'm I must I guess I should add myself to this list
of treatments we're gonna talkabout. Oh, goodness. But, yeah,
I mean, like, I thinkmosquitoes, they are becoming
more and more common in terms ofwhere they're falling earlier
and later in the year. You know,we used to think like, oh, it's
fall. You know, we don't haveworry as much about mosquitoes
(01:59):
or early spring.
We don't have to worry as muchabout mosquitoes, but there's a
few new species. I think I mightget the genus wrong, but I think
it's Aedes japonicus. That isthe Asian tiger mosquito. If I
might have that one wrong.People feel free to correct
Ken (02:16):
me. Albopictus. It's Asian tiger.
Chris (02:18):
Albopictus. Okay. Well, there's a Japonicus one too,
which I know in reading that oneis more cold tolerant than a lot
of our the native ones and someof the other introduced species.
And so they're finding more,there's they're finding
mosquitoes later into those orearlier into these cooler times
(02:40):
of year. And so, you know, itcan just be like our first warm
day of spring and boom, there'sa mosquito.
Ken (02:48):
Yes. Good times. Good times, folks.
Chris (02:52):
Yeah. But think with the show, what we're gonna talk
about, Ken, are treatments.Like, can go online and find
just a litany of things. Justjust lists of do this, do that.
This will keep you safe frommosquito bites.
I see that a lot. Killmosquitoes, keep yourself from
(03:13):
being bitten, all those kind ofthings. So we're going through
the list today.
Ken (03:20):
Let's do it. Start with the things that don't work or maybe
we should talk about so youmentioned, you you get bit by
mosquitoes a lot. Some peoplesay they get bit a lot. Some
people say they never do. Andthere is some some truth to
that.
Some people are more, attractivethan others, to mosquitoes. So
trying to think what is it?People with type o blood, some
(03:43):
studies have suggested type oblood, is more attractive.
People that are pregnant aremore attractive. If you drink
beer or have been drinking beer,you may be more attractive.
It. So Well, we figured that
Chris (03:54):
one out for me. But I was I wasn't drinking as a child, so
I don't know what that wasabout.
Ken (04:01):
So so I guess those are well, yeah, with the beer
drinking, have control over.
Chris (04:06):
Mhmm.
Ken (04:07):
But but there's something like 400 different chemical
compounds that humans kind ofgive off from their their skin
and stuff, that may play a rolein attracting mosquitoes. So
there's there's all kinds ofdifferent chemicals they're
they're getting attracted to,you know, sweat lactic acid,
things like that. You know, it'sbelieved that genetics are one
(04:28):
of the bigger roles inattracting mosquitoes. So if you
are very attractive, blame yourparents. It's their fault.
Chris (04:35):
I will blame my parents. That's a good that's a good one.
And so and and apparently, myparents, they must have had,
some type of recessive gene thatjust became the dominant one in
me because they were alwaysfine, though.
Ken (04:53):
And it could be that they could be getting bit too. Some
people react more to the bitestoo so that they, when
mosquitoes are biting, they'reinjecting saliva, which is going
to prevent the coagulation andkind of suppress the immune
system too so they're notgetting attacked. And some
people are allergic to that ormore allergic. Guess that's why
you get those welts. So somepeople Mhmm.
Maybe getting bit and they justdon't react very much to that,
(05:14):
where others could beparticularly sensitive. So you
could have a double whammy thatyou're more attractive and
particularly sensitive to.
Chris (05:22):
Nice. Hey. Well, in the mosquito dating game, I'm
winning. So the ladies love me.Because it's it's the ladies
that need the blood meal to laytheir eggs.
The males are not biting you.They are they mate. They can
they be pollinators? Can theyvisit flowers?
Ken (05:42):
Being a nectar pollinating. So Mhmm. They're good.
Chris (05:46):
So those ladies, I guess,
Ken (05:48):
have to get you. I'm not gonna touch that
Chris (05:51):
one. Well, then we should probably switch our subject ever
so slightly to the techniquestouted online in you know,
between family members and yourgroups of friends, somebody
overhearing you online at thepharmacy trying to get some itch
(06:14):
relief, you know. So these homeremedies, so to speak, or these
these techniques that that justhave been touted over the
generations of getting rid ofmosquitoes, because the mosquito
is something that has reallyfollowed human beings since time
began, like, since the beginningof of our species, we have been
(06:34):
plagued by mosquitoes andmosquito borne illness. That is
just a constant factor in thehistory of humans. So we got a
lot of weird stuff that we'vecontrived to to come up with
things.
Actually, like, there there wasthis idea that there's no reason
for a human to like an onion orgarlic because most other
animals do not like the taste ofthose things. But it is believed
(06:58):
that early humans started eatingthose because we thought it
warded off mosquitoes and so itbecame parts of our diets. Now
we love it. I love onions. It'salmost in everything.
Same with garlic.
Ken (07:09):
Interesting. I had entered that before.
Chris (07:11):
Yes. Oh, you just wait till I finish my mosquito book
and still on page 80.
Ken (07:18):
But I'm working on it to get there eventually.
Chris (07:20):
Yeah. We'll see. So alright. To the list. Now the
things that we're gonna talkabout first are things that that
you'll you'll hear you'll findthese online.
You'll find people talking aboutthese, But they really have not
been proven to be effective.They're not they don't have a
great track record of workingconsistently or at all
(07:42):
sometimes. So the first one thisis the first one is one that I
have heard, but it's this one isa lot of work, is to attract
purple martins to your yard. Sothat means you've gotta have,
like, a purple martin birdhouse,which that that's a big
investment in and of itself. Yougotta protect it from predators
(08:06):
and all that.
And the idea here is if you havepurple martens, it's gonna keep
mosquitoes away. So can is isthis a a functioning working way
to keep mosquitoes away?
Ken (08:19):
Probably. So they they may eat mosquitoes, but the
mosquitoes aren't very big. Sothey're probably going after
bigger insects to feed on. So ifthey are eating mosquitoes,
they're they're not gonna be amajor part of their diet and
they're not gonna have a asignificant impact, on those, on
those mosquito populations. Andyou can also, throw bats, into
(08:41):
the mix of another one that'salways, you know, have your bat
analysis attract bats to eatmosquitoes.
And again, while they may eatthem, again, they're going to
get more, you know, burrowmoths, beetles, things like
that. There's there's more tothem. That's going be a lot more
attractive to them than thelittle tiny mosquito. Yeah. They
may eat them, but again, they'rethey're eating other things too.
(09:03):
They're not solely eatingmosquitoes. They're probably not
gonna have a a really big factoron on those mosquito populations
in your landscape.
Chris (09:11):
Yeah. That's true. I I would say that, you know, I know
a lot of folks, they try to putup bat houses, and that's
probably its own show, you know,how do you attract a bat to your
yard. There's many differentspecies of bats. They all have
their different habitat of needsand and and wants and then their
(09:34):
life cycles.
So, yeah, I'd say that's a wholeshow in and of itself, drawing
bats into your yard. Just eatmosquitoes. Yeah. Ken said it.
They eat all kinds of if it'sflying in the air, they eat it.
You know, when we're growing up,when we had we had our cow barn,
we would throw rocks in the airand we would watch bats swoop
(09:54):
down and and try to grab therocks. So like, they're just
eating things that are flyingaround in the air.
Ken (10:01):
And I was at University of Florida, they've got two giant
bat houses. And every eveningpeople would come out and watch
them leave the houses and stuffand he'd be constantly getting
bit by mosquitoes. It wasn'tfun.
Chris (10:15):
Where are the bats going?
Ken (10:18):
Was right next to to Lake Alice on campus and yeah. Mhmm.
It's constantly getting buzzedby mosquitoes and bit Yeah.
Right next to the bat houses.
Chris (10:27):
Yep. So purple martins, bats, you know, hey, they would
be great to have in thelandscape. They'd be great to
have in your yard, but notnecessarily going to be a thing
that's going to reduce mosquitopopulation or prevent bites from
occurring in your backyard.
Ken (10:42):
Yes. So another one we hear about, and this goes for a lot
of different animals. But thesake of our show, we're getting
new mosquitoes, the sonicdevices, so they give off
buzzing noise. So withmosquitoes, it's, some of them
are supposedly mimicking themale mosquito, because once
(11:03):
females mate, females will takea blood mate take a blood meal
and lay eggs. Once they'vemated, they're not going to be
supposedly messing with malesanymore.
So that'll keep them away orsupposed to mimic the sound of a
dragonfly's wings. Neither ofthem work. There's been no
studies that ever showed, thatthey work. So if you really
(11:25):
wanted to find out and get one,sit outside with it on, see how
many land on you. Turn it off,see how many land on you.
It's probably going to be thesame amount or close to it.
Chris (11:34):
Probably. Mhmm. We we did that experiment but with mice
and we installed these thesemice sonic repellents throughout
the house and a week later wehad a mouse in the house once
again. So yeah. At least when itcomes to mice, I know not
effective.
So I would the mosquito one, I'mlike, yeah, doesn't it sounds
(11:57):
too gimmicky to be true. Youknow? So I I will say one of
them that it drives me a littlecrazy, and I do know that
there's a few folks that havethem in their backyard, are are
the lights, the bug lights,mosquito lights, the ultraviolet
black light. You know, any formof of light to attract a in this
(12:21):
case, they're hoping to attractmosquitoes, which then gets
zapped, trapped on a piece ofsticky paper, you know you know,
some some way it gets trapped ininto some some way or form or
killed. And those, you know, youhave said this multiple times on
on this Shokin that they arethey're not effective.
They are actually probablykilling more beneficial insects
(12:45):
or more of our nocturnal insectslike moths at night than any
mosquitoes. Know, mosquitoes arenot necessarily drawn to light,
which I guess maybe we'll getinto some of those things that
they're more attractive to alsowhen it comes to like what human
human breath that exhale c otwo, they see that heat
(13:09):
signature that we have. Andthen, of course, our sweat
glands, we do release kind ofthese pheromones that can draw
them in, aromas. And so thatthat does not occur with these
light traps. So we're we'rekilling far more, kind of
beneficial or benign insectsthan than anything else.
(13:30):
And we're taking food away fromthe spiders. You know, I I feel
like the spider is is our friendin this fight because I have we
have a light in our house. It'sit's inside, but there's a
window there and it's a lightthat is on frequently at night.
And we have so many orb weaverspiders outside that window
(13:50):
capturing all manner of ofinsects, mosquitoes, a lot of
flies, midges. We have actually,we have a a yellow jacket wasp
in there right now.
They they captured a yellowjacket. So yeah. I I spiders.
They're they're our friends inthis fight against well, not
(14:11):
really, but everything.Everything.
They eat everything too. They'rejust like the lights.
Ken (14:18):
Yeah. I mean, if you if you have a bug zipper, go in and and
empty that out, then, you know,you can look at what you're
catching. Yeah. Like I said,moths, lacewings. Mhmm.
Probably not a you may get a fewmosquitoes and everything and
not not enough that's reallyjustifying killing, everything
else that you're catching. Andso a lot of times I see them on,
(14:39):
you know, for sale online, youknow, marketplace or always
tempted to buy them just so Ican throw them away, but they'd
get really expensive.
Chris (14:47):
Yes. I there are some times so there we should
probably fact check this one,but I have heard that the color,
like the yellow part of thelight spectrum is not as
attractive to many insects ornocturnal insects. So when we're
say we have something going onat night, maybe we have a
(15:09):
barbecue, maybe a friend's over,maybe the kids are running
around the neighborhood, and wewant to have our outdoor lights
on, well, we have these LEDlights where we can adjust the
color of them. And so I'veadjusted our nighttime lights to
be yellow when we have to havethem on just so we can see what
we're doing outside. I honestlyhave not noticed any difference
(15:32):
in whether we're drawing in moreinsects or not because usually
we're pretty busy running arounddoing activities and things like
that.
But it's something I've heard,so it's something I've done.
Whether it works or not, it'snot really hurting me in any
way. Mhmm. It actually makes theit makes that night, that that
(15:52):
evening atmosphere more pleasantbecause it's not a harsh bright
light. So even in my eyes, Ilike it more.
Ken (16:00):
Yeah. The yeah. Even it's like the red light when you're
going out. A lot of times, likeI've so every year I enter the,
Firefly Lottery in the SmokyMountains and stuff. I've I
still haven't gotten selected.
But with that, know, they say,if you have flashlights, make
them red. So one that's notgonna that won't mess with your
night vision as much. It's notgonna affect, like the
fireflies, lightning bugs,whatever you want to call them.
(16:22):
That flashing pattern, it's notgoing to disrupt it. That would
make sense.
Yeah. That in the yellow redspectrum. Probably not going to
affect insects as much as intothe blue. Yeah. Especially when
I have a of LED bulbs.
Outdoor bulbs are more of thatyellow or that blue, nowadays.
Chris (16:44):
Yeah. So turn your lights off folks if you don't need
them.
Ken (16:48):
Yes. Alright. So another one, you're right. And use a lot
of times for like pestmanagement or monitoring anyway
is, dishwashing detergent, soap,whatever, in a pan of water. And
and you'll use that for likeJapanese beetles and stuff like
that, but we're we're physicallyputting them in there.
(17:09):
A lot of times when people aredoing like pollinator studies,
studying bees and stuff, they'llput out these pans, painted
yellow or blue, put water inthere, some soap so that the
insects are attracted, theydrowned and they can collect
them. Assuming this is kind ofthe same idea with that, put out
the soapy water, mosquitoes areattracted to it, they'll die.
They're not going to be terriblyattracted to it. Again, you may
(17:29):
catch the occasional one,anything that gets in there,
insect wise, is probably goingto be trapped and killed. So
again, not that practical.
They're probably not working allthat well collecting all that
many mosquitoes. Again, that'sgoing to justify killing
everything else that you'recollecting.
Chris (17:48):
Yeah. The other one, and I have heard this one also, is
using, like, brand name calledListerine or any other
mouthwash. You know, some peoplesay, well, I put that on my skin
and I I don't get bitten or ithelps to repel them. So there is
(18:09):
something in a lot of thesemouthwashes, eucalyptol, it's an
aroma compound, which we'll talkabout, I think, more here later
on. But they do see that, youknow, eucalyptol can have an
effect on mosquitoes if sprayedat a 75% concentration, but our
(18:31):
mouthwashes contain less than 1%eucalyptol.
So in terms of thresholds, wegotta you know, you gotta get a
gallon of of Listerine and goswimming in it first or, you
know, submerge your clothes andsaturate them or something. And
even then, you're probably stillnot at that threshold, 75%. So,
yeah, that that is not proven tobe effective. And I guess, you
(18:57):
know, with all of these, some ofthe other ones that are also no
research evidence showing theireffectiveness, vitamin b,
garlic, spraying yourself downwith garlic, pepper spray, which
that sounds terrible. Don't dothat.
Eating certain dietarysupplements, you know, there's
just not any research. There'seither no research showing that
(19:21):
it works or there's researchshowing that they don't work.
You know, that's basically whatwe can say here. And even
people's anecdotal experiences,you know, maybe they did put
Listerine all over their skinand they didn't get bit that
next night. But also maybe thereare no mosquitoes out.
Maybe something shifted in theirown body that was less attracted
to mosquitoes. Like, you know,we're what we're talking about
(19:44):
here is we're we're trying tospeak to effective remedies also
across a general population. Youknow, what happens in a specific
backyard, that's that's out ofour control. You know, we can't
worry about that. But generallyspeaking, across the state of
Illinois, that's, I guess, ourpurview here at Illinois
Extension.
(20:04):
But, yes. Yeah. We we knowthere's a lot of anecdotal stuff
here.
Ken (20:11):
Yeah. So Always, you know, if in doubt, I would, you know,
check to see if there's any,legitimate research backing it
up. Lot of places will say, ohyeah, according to our study as
well. See if, see if somebodyindependent from that company
has actually studied the stuffand it's not just their data.
Because sometimes I get, I'm notsaying for all, but sometimes
(20:33):
that can be, the the informationcan be selected, in ways to make
it look more effective than itreally is.
Chris (20:41):
Yes. Mhmm. Yep. That's true. And and even, a lot of our
artificial intelligence botsquestionnaire for, you know,
forms, they they are scrapingthat information off of the web,
and a lot of that informationthey're scraping is marketing
information, which makes in thebot or, you know, AI sees that
(21:02):
and it says, oh, look, aneffective treatment for this.
Wherein in fact, they're lookingat some type of, like, marketing
piece for that company.
Ken (21:13):
Yeah. Just be careful.
Chris (21:16):
Yep. Do your homework. Do your reading folks.
Ken (21:20):
Alright. I'm sure there's a plethora of more things that
that people say work, I don'treally work. I'm probably only
scratching the surface, but Iguess in the interest of time,
we'll move on. They can probablybe a two part Yes. Episode by
itself.
But some stuff that kind ofworks, maybe works, do some of
(21:43):
those. Mosquito repellingplants, you see these, marketed,
you know, it was at a gardencenter this weekend and mosquito
repelling plants. So there'scitronella. Oh, I'm drawing a
blank. There's there's a wholelist, lists of them out there.
So while these, these plants maycontain, chemicals that that may
(22:06):
repel or be mosquitoes may notbe attracted to or repel them or
in some way keep them frombiting you. Usually that's
again, that's done lab settingand maybe a concentrated form of
that chemical. And in yourplants, your plants aren't
giving off significant amountsof those chemicals, so it's not
(22:27):
really going to work unlessyou're going to pick those
plants, rub them all over yourbody, take a weed whacker to
them. Basically you have torelease those chemicals into the
air or put them on you for themto be effective. So the plants
are just sitting there next toyou.
They're not really doing a wholelot of good when it comes to
replying the skills. I mean, youcould probably, sure if we
(22:48):
looked hard enough or spentenough time, you'd probably find
pictures or find mosquitoessitting on, you know, citronella
plants and mosquito repellingplants. Just because they're not
giving off a whole lot of it. Ifthey are giving enough, it's
just around that plant. It's notspreading out kind of area wide
that's going to protect you ormask you from mosquitoes.
Chris (23:09):
You know, Ken, I do remember when we were at the
Poinsettia trials in Milstadt,and there was one company there
set up that was selling mosquitorepelling plants, you know, for
their season. So if you're therewas a lot of garden centers
managers there, so they wereadvertising some of these plants
(23:30):
that they were growing. Forgarden centers, one of them was
naturally repel mosquitoes. Itlooks like a geranium, but it
just let's see. Yeah.
Or it might be no. It is acitronella. Yeah. It is
citronella. Just looks moregeranium like.
And then on the flip side ofthis thing was a scaredy cat,
(23:51):
bunnies gone, and dog gone. Soit's like that's a company that
is you know, they're kind ofmarketing the that that these
plants planted in your yard isgoing to deter a group, you
know, different types of speciesfrom coming in and and bothering
you. But, again, that's amarketing piece. That is not a
research. There's there's
Ken (24:13):
there's an ounce of truth to it. You know, there is those
chemicals do repel.
Chris (24:18):
Mhmm.
Ken (24:18):
But in practical sense with the plants, it's not gonna work
unless you are somehow releasingthat chemical from the plants,
which is going to lead to the tothe decline of your plants. Yes.
For the most part.
Chris (24:34):
Yeah. Alright. Tear your plants up now and rub them all
over your body.
Ken (24:39):
And that's not to mention, you know, you could be allergic
to them too and
Chris (24:42):
Oh, yeah. That would not be good. Mhmm. Another one which
which we do use in our yardevery so often, but it's more
for the again, I like thecharacter that they bring. I
like a little bit of fire in myin my evening, you know, in the
backyard are citronella.
(25:02):
Candles, sometimes like torches.So we do use those. Again, I'm
more going for the atmosphere,but I'm like, well, hey, you
know, if they do deter somemosquitoes from coming in and
trying to bite me, that would begreat. But the big thing here is
that there has been research onthis, on citronella, on the
(25:24):
product of burning it. And forit to be effective, you have to
be standing in the smoke.
And that really, according tothe studies, is only about 40%
effective. I mean, if I'm gonnahave to stand in smoke and
breathe it in, inhale it, I atleast wanna get over that 50%
mark of of reducing my chancesof being bit by a mosquito.
(25:48):
Smoke just wafting off into youryour backyard, into your
neighbor's yard, wherever. Youknow, if it's not surrounding
you, if it's not all around you,it's not going to deter those
mosquitoes from finding you orfrom being bitten.
Ken (26:03):
So yeah, unless you're standing right next to it or if
you're five, ten feet away andthe wind's going in the opposite
direction, probably probably notdoing you a lot of good. Yeah.
But it does look cool.
Chris (26:16):
I I like them. So I think it's fun. But we do use we do
have some fire elements in ouryard, which fun fact, that's
fire and water number onerequest in landscape design for
homeowners as they wantsomething either fire, like a
fire pit, or they want somewater feature. We love them
(26:36):
natural elements. Combine them.
Yes. I've seen that a few times.
Ken (26:42):
Waterfall coming out of your fire
Chris (26:43):
pit. Yes. Fiery waterfall. Yes. It's not Disney
World, Ken.
We can't we we don't have thatkind of budget. Well, Ken, let's
shift on to things that we knowcan work, can be effective even
if we're talking short term. Andthis first one, I know a lot of
(27:05):
people probably don't wanna hearthis one, and we'll have our own
critiques of this, but foggingand spraying. You know, this is
basically putting out some typeof a chemical. I think some of
them say that they arerepellents.
Some of them say that they arekilling the pest. They're
(27:25):
killing the insect or, in thiscase, the mosquito. But either
way, you are using some type ofseems like a modified the
modified
Ken (27:38):
Like leaf blower.
Chris (27:39):
Leaf blower to disperse some type of chemical into your
yard. This is very often onlytemporary. It's usually used
before, like, a big event mightbe occurring. And it it is
certainly something that is notgoing to be permanent. The
effects definitely wear off overthe course of sometimes a few
(28:00):
hours, maybe half a day, a day,if you're lucky.
I you know, it might depend onweather as well.
Ken (28:09):
Yeah. It's like you mentioned, wears off, it's it's
going be repeated applications.Depending on the products being
used, if it's an insecticide,you know, more of a broad
spectrum, you've got all of thenon target organisms you're
affecting. I mean, you can saypotentially affecting. You're
going to be affecting becauseyou're doing this area wide.
Pollinators, natural enemies,other beneficial insects, even
(28:32):
insects that are just there. Andagain, those are nine that that
we're not classifying asbeneficial. You know, they're
they're coming into contact withthat potentially affecting them.
So it's yeah, again, it's a it'sa temporary solution and you're
just it's only affecting theadults. So you may kill them in
your yard, but next doorneighbor is going have them.
(28:52):
So eventually they're going tofly over. Eventually that
insecticide is going to wear offand they're going to be able to
be, in your landscape. Again, sowe get temporary. And in my
opinion, you know, I don't thinkthe potential side effects
aren't necessarily worth it whenwhen it comes to to managing
(29:16):
them.
Chris (29:17):
Yeah. When and I know, you know, maybe you you and I
are definitely odd. And andmaybe folks, you listening and
watching us, you you have adifferent viewpoint of the world
as well. There are certainlypeople out there though that
want to just nuke their yard,that they just want to totally
eliminate any insect activitygoing on out there, that any bug
(29:37):
is a bad bug, to quote StarshipTroopers. But that the yeah.
That that that you're just goingto encounter that I'm pretty
sure know, I have friends thatthey they're like, oh, there's
bugs out here. We gotta fog thisplace. I'm like, well, you don't
have to, but that's your choiceif you want to. I will try to
tell you that's something thereare other ways you can do this.
(29:59):
But yeah, some people just wannanuke the place and just be done
with it.
Ken (30:03):
Yeah. And obviously we need to because mosquitoes can carry
diseases that can affect humans,what we do there is that
balancing act of we have to dothis vector control to save
protect the population, as awhole. But then, you know,
balancing that with the, Iguess, the more naturalist side
(30:23):
of things where we're trying toconserve these other organisms.
So I mean, there's a there's abalancing act. I don't envy
anybody that has to do that.
I know you've got municipalitiesthat will fog, you know, the
chemicals are going to vary asto how they're doing this. But
there's a reason, they're doingthat too. So it's, you know, I
(30:44):
don't want to try to vilify, youknow, fogging and stuff like
that. But, know, if you're doingit in your backyard, probably
not terribly effective becauseit's, you know, it's temporary.
They'll move back in over time.
Yes. Yeah.
Chris (30:57):
Well, Ken, this next thing is actually the one that
prompted the entire show. Youstumbled across this. You you
turned me on to this this socialmedia thing that's been been
buzzing around. The bucket ofdoom, which when you first
(31:17):
described this, I was a littlesuspicious at first. But but
tell tell everyone what we'retalking about who may not have
seen this online.
The bucket of doom.
Ken (31:25):
Yes. Bucket of doom. So this is, so this one that comes
from Doug Tallamy. So he's ifyou're familiar with the
Homegrown National Park, thiskind of movement of of people
planting native plants, andstuff like that. And this is,
one of the things that they'vebeen promoting.
And this has been going on forfor several years, but saw an
uptick the last week or two. Iknow the algorithm algorithms
(31:47):
thought I needed to see this, sohere we are. But with this, with
this, you're taking a base,you're taking a five gallon
bucket, you're filling it twothirds of the way full of water,
and depending on on where you'relooking at that, the recipe is
different as to what you'readding to that water. Some of
it's straight, straw or hay,some of it's like, just lawn
(32:09):
waste leaves, grass clippings,things like that. Basically,
you're adding some kind of plantmaterial to that.
Meaning you're kind of lettingthat sit, get all nice and
funky, letting the the thebacteria and algae and stuff
grow in that. You're going toadd a mosquito dunk, a quarter
of a mosquito dunk. So theseare, you can find these in
(32:32):
nurseries, garden centers,things like that. It's a
Bacillus thuringiensis,Israeliensis is the strain, so
it's a BT product. TheIsraeliensis strain is specific
to mosquitoes, black flies,other aquatic flies.
So basically you're putting thatin there when the, the, female
mosquitoes, when they've taken ablood mill, they'll start to lay
(32:54):
eggs. So they're going to findyour nice bucket here. They're
going to lay their eggs inthere, eggs will hatch, larvae
will start feeding, they'llingest that BTI, and that BTI
creates a protein crystal, theyingest it, basically cuts up
their gut and they die. It doesnot affect other insects. So
basically you're building atrap, mosquitoes lay their eggs
(33:15):
and that you kill the larvae.
And if you do this, you know,you're eliminating the
subsequent generations ofmosquitoes. And the idea of this
is you put one or two in youryard and if you can get a bunch
of people in your neighborhoodin the area to do that, this is
working on the containerbreeding mosquitoes. So these
need small amounts of water todo that and they don't travel
(33:39):
terribly far. So if you do thisa little more kind of area wide,
it can be effective. There was agroup from Rutgers that did some
did something similar, inMaryland.
And I'm not sure they were usingtraps, I'm not sure if they're
quite the same, but I think inparts of of the city they're
doing this and they found likean 80% reduction in mosquito
(34:02):
populations, or they found areduction in mosquito
populations when they're like80% of the people in the area,
of the yards using this. So ifyou get use some of your
neighbors to do this, it hasbeen shown that this can help
reduce those mosquitopopulations, long term. But
you've got to make sure, I thinkyou've to replace that mosquito
(34:24):
dunk every 30. So if you don't,eventually that kind of runs out
and then you've just created amosquito breeding factory. So
there's a little bit upkeep.
You've to make sure the waterlevel is maintained and stuff.
But that's that's the generalidea. I think with the Homegrown
National Park when they'reputting a stick in there or
whatever, so that if some animalfalls in there, they can climb
(34:47):
out too. So you're not it's abucket of death for mosquitoes,
not everything else.
Chris (34:53):
I see. I see. Well, and and Ken, I was suspicious of
this because the you're treatingone part of the mosquito life
cycle. You are treating thelarva side of it. But there's
still the female still needs tobite you for her blood meal, for
her eggs, for her protein thatto develop those eggs.
So maybe at first, you might notsee that effect of this bucket.
(35:19):
But again, if this is you, ahandful of people surrounding
you, this is a you're you'rebuilding something out here.
It's more of a long term thing.You know, you're eliminating
that source, which can taketime. It's not necessarily an
overnight.
It's gonna be an instant fix foryour barbecue that you're having
in two days. But it is somethingthat can be effective for the
(35:43):
entire summer.
Ken (35:44):
Yeah. Long long term control. Yeah. If we if we do it
right. And even even if you'redoing it yourself, I'd imagine
you'd still could stillpotentially see a little bit of
a decline depending on how bigyour yard is.
If you got a postage stamp lot,you probably need help from your
neighbors. If you've got alarger area, maybe a little more
effective. And I think withthem, they're they're
(36:05):
recommending putting this in ashaded area. So again, it's just
going to dry out a little lessquickly. When mosquitoes are
hanging out during the day, sousually mosquitoes are dusk and
dawn feeding.
There are some day biters aswell. But a lot of times they're
hanging out in shaded areas, alot of vegetation and stuff. So
they're they may be hanging outthere already. Okay.
Chris (36:29):
Yeah. And so let's go into our next one because it
ties right into what you've justsaid, habitat modification. So
so this and you mentioned wehave container breeding
mosquitoes. You know, therethere's mosquitoes that that
breed in in in in lay eggs inall manner of habitats,
environments. I remember when wehad our drought of 2012, there
(36:51):
was a particular species thatseemed to thrive in those drier
conditions.
The you know, there so there'sstill mosquitoes even though
there was no rain going on. ButI think there's a lot of
mosquitoes that that tend totend to plague us humans that
are container breeding, andthat's because we tend to have
lots of containers in our yards,little kiddie pools, buckets
(37:13):
that don't have BTI in them, ora lot of times the unseen gutter
that needs to be cleaned out.Those can be just, you know,
they're above our head, out ofsight, out of mind, but they can
be an incredible reservoir formosquitoes and breeding if you
(37:33):
have a clogged gutter. Becausethere was one time I, you know,
we were you know, cleaning outgutters. I do that regularly,
but it had been maybe at least aweek and a half, maybe two weeks
since the last rain.
And I go up there and I see ourgutters full of water. I say,
well, what in the heck? What isgoing on here? Well, it turns
out a baseball got lodged in thedownspout and was preventing any
(37:55):
water from draining out ofthere. And it just sat and sat
for almost I would say almosttwo weeks.
It didn't dry out. And, yeah,there were plenty of larval
mosquitoes in there. And then sothe you know, you've let the
water out, you've fixed theproblem. But we have all of
these areas where they canbreed. So habitat modification,
cleaning up the yard, cleaningthe gutters, having good
(38:17):
airflow, you know, becausemosquitoes aren't the strongest
flyers.
And so if you have good airflowthrough your yard, you could
even have fans installed in abackyard area or just bring out
a fan. I did one time put a fannext to a citronella torch,
which that was a bad idea. Don'tdo that because the fan turned
(38:39):
just black with smoke, and itjust sort of smoked out
everybody that was sittingaround there. So that didn't
work very well, but it it didhelp keep some of those weaker
flying mosquitoes and alsobuffalo gnats as a side. That's
a that's a whole other thing,though, from from bothering us
at night.
But, yeah, change your habitat.Make it less hospitable to
(39:02):
mosquito breeding and for theirjust being there.
Ken (39:07):
And even though the the plant saucers on your pots,
those and we dump them thisstuff at least once a week.
Just, you know, pick a day ofthe week, man, that's going to
be your day. You dump the theplant saucers, empty out the
kiddie pool. Yeah. Old tires.
When we bought our house, itcame with a bunch of old tires.
(39:29):
I don't know why. But we went inand drilled holes in all of them
so that the water will drainout. And so so basically just
anywhere that water iscollecting that you are capable
of then dumping it out, makesure you're doing that. If
you've got a small pond, youknow, backyard pond, something
like that, putting the mosquitodunks, or something in there,
(39:51):
having minnows, something likethat, and eat the mosquitoes.
And there's a variety ofdifferent things you can do in
that situation to help managethose populations. You
mentioned, you know, with theairflow, you know, they like the
really dense foliage and stuffin shaded areas, you know, it's
nice and damp, which is wherethey like to hang out during the
day. Again, you know, that'salso attractive a lot of other
(40:13):
organisms. So again, it's thatbalancing act of, you know, how
much, how much cleanup do youwant to do. They like, you know,
underneath decks, something thatis nice, Usually pretty damp and
cooler area.
They'll hang out there duringthe day. So there's a lot of
areas that that we're creatingfor them too that they like.
Chris (40:33):
Yeah. And usually underneath those those decks,
there's a layer of plastic oftenthat the builder has put down,
which, you know, is supposed tobe pulled tight and hopefully
sloped a little bit to allow thewater to drain off. But very
often, there's ridges andripples that that hold water.
And so it's just perfect spotfor mosquito breeding. And then,
(40:53):
of course, you're on top of thatthat deck there, and their blood
meal's right there.
So that's it's everything theyneed, so why why leave? The
other thing also when I knowI've encountered this a few
times with extension. If youhave somewhere in the
neighborhood, maybe it's anabandoned house, the person is
(41:14):
gone for several months, theyhave an unmanaged pool that's
full of water, check your localhealth department because our
local health department will dosomething about that. We've
already mentioned this.Mosquitoes are human health
concerns.
So a lot of times, our localhealth department, if there is
that reported, like a stagnantpool or unmanaged pool, they'll
(41:36):
go in and they'll at least treatit with BTI. And and but that
varies based upon the town thatyou're in. So check your local
health department if they dothat.
Ken (41:47):
So another one, we can do to avoid mosquitoes is just stay
inside. Don't go outside.
Chris (41:54):
That that sounds easy. That's too easy, Ken.
Ken (41:58):
Assuming your screens and stuff are in working order and
don't have holes in them. ButMhmm. I think, you know, joke
about it. Anyway, if we we avoidthe times that they're most
frequently out, dusk and dawn,we can do goes a pretty long way
in avoiding bites. Know in ourbackyard, it's it's pretty
shaded.
We've got a lot of vegetativegrowth back there. That's also
(42:19):
where we put the kids swing set.Probably was the best planning
on our part, but you know, whenwhen kids don't use it too much
anymore, when they were younger,maybe go out swinging in the
evenings and once the mosquitoesstarted biting, real bad it was
time to go in. So we just wewould just go inside and come
back out the next day.
Chris (42:39):
Yep. Yep. No. That's true. That's the season went and
we have definitely had themosquito buzzing around our ears
while we're trying to sleep.
And fixing our window screens,replacing those, cut down on the
amount of mosquitoes, flies,brown marmorated stink bugs,
Asian lady beetle. Like, it itcut down so much on the amount
(43:01):
of insects that were able to getinto our house. So good screens,
you know, caulk and sealingthose cracks and crevices around
windows and doors, That is avery important way to keep
insects like mosquitoes out ofyour house. And also, the double
door system, which if you'veever gone into, like, a
restaurant, you have to gothrough two sets of doors. Do
(43:22):
you know why?
It's to keep the bugs out. Thatthat is a an an effective
deterrent to insects. If you'veever gone through doors and you
feel a strong gust of wind onthe top of your head, that is an
insect deterrent to keep themout of that structure. And for
restaurants, mainly flies. But,yes, that's why you have to have
(43:43):
two doors if you are servingfood to people in at least in
this part of the world.
Ken (43:50):
Yes. I mean, I never get to know every lot of that. Makes
sense. But if you go to abutterfly house, it's the same
thing. Mhmm.
Chris (43:55):
Yep. Know, two sets of doors.
Ken (43:56):
They have mirrors too. But yes.
Chris (44:02):
Well, the the next one that can be an effective
deterrent is wearing lightcolored clothing because it you
know, some research does showthat they're they tend to be
attracted to darker coloredobjects, but also loose fitting
clothing. Because I'vedefinitely been wearing, like,
maybe a tighter shirt orsomething, and I have witnessed
(44:24):
the mosquito land on my arm.And, you know, she's drilling
around looking for that vein,looking for that blood meal. And
they will they'll bite you acouple times as they're looking
for that. And I've seen hermultiple times going through my
shirt into my skin on, like, a athin or tight piece of clothing.
(44:45):
So, loose fitting clothing canhelp to prevent some of that
type of biting from occurring.
Ken (44:52):
Yeah. And mosquitoes have these the the long needle like
mouth parts, so they can it'snot something like, you know, we
had the garden bite a couple ofweeks ago on buffalo gnats. So
they've got small bitingmouthparts. They're not going to
get through that. But thoselonger mouthparts, yeah, they
can get through that clothing.
So and the light coloredclothing will help with the
buffalo gnats, ticks Mhmm. Aswell. They're they're looking
(45:14):
for those those dark objects. So
Chris (45:16):
Yep. That's why I got my beard trimmed and my haircut so
I can see those ticks better.And when we're cutting my kids'
hair, guess what we found? Atick. Yeah.
So short hair, light coloredclothing. It is summer in
Illinois, and that's what wegotta do.
Ken (45:34):
Maybe losing my hair isn't a bad thing.
Chris (45:36):
There you go. That's sad. That's you see anything on my
bald spot Sides of sunburn?Uh-huh. Well, Ken, one thing
that this was something thatI've I was first exposed to when
I lived over in Manhattan,Kansas.
We were doing landscaping andour our foreman, the the the
crew that I was on, he startedusing c o two traps. And I'm
(45:59):
like, what the heck is that? Andand he he he remarked that they
seemed to be effective, seemedto work. It seemed to reduce the
amount of of biting that thatthey experienced. He also had
told his neighbors about it.
They're all like, what is thatcontraption in your yard? And I
think a lot of them had startedputting them up in their yards.
(46:20):
He said it's really made adifference, but it's a CO2 trap.
And these have gotten prettysophisticated, I think, lately.
So what they do is they use a co two cartridge, and it emits c
o two in, like, a plume, kind oflike how our our breath exhaling
would look to a mosquito tryingto zero in on us for a blood
meal.
Some of them even containoctanol, which is a pheromone in
(46:44):
our sweat. Some of them do havea little bit of a heat signature
to them as well. So all of thosethings help to draw in a female
mosquito. And so but but a c otwo trap, and and it lures them
into either sticky card or somevessel that they can't escape
from. And what we looked at, wewe did find a little bit of, you
(47:11):
know, a little bit of studies onthis, is that it does appear to
be effective.
But unlike the bucket of doom,it is not addressing the larval
stage of the mosquitoes. Soyou're not, you know, you're
you're not stabbing the hydra inthe heart. You're just cutting
off one of the hydra's heads, soto speak. Like, you're just
(47:32):
killing the adults, and you arenot addressing the reproduction
that could be occurring here andthe egg laying that could be
occurring. So maybe incombination with the bucket of
death, you know, you would beaddressing both life stages.
It could considerably reduce theamount of mosquitoes biting
happening in your yard. It it isprobably, again, one of those
(47:54):
more longer term solutions thatwould be more expensive. Because
I remember one once upon a time,I tried to get into things like
paintball and all that, and c otwo is expensive. Those
cartridges cost money. And, youknow, they cost energy and
everything and to to keep goingunlike the bucket of doom, which
is sort of a passive device thatthat the only management is just
(48:17):
making sure you're putting thatBTI dunk in every, you know,
days.
But yeah, c o two traps. There'sthere's a lot of different ones
on the market out there.
Ken (48:25):
I think some of them run off propane too, don't they?
Chris (48:28):
Yes. Yes.
Ken (48:29):
Propane tanks set up and Yep.
Chris (48:31):
Yeah. They're burning off propane. So they're burning
natural gas, combustible fuelsource. So environmentally
friendly, maybe not as much as,say, like, yeah, the bucket of
death.
Ken (48:47):
Something to try, maybe.
Chris (48:48):
Some something to something to try. I think yeah.
One of the the pages said that,you know, on a island off the
coast of Florida, they did seethat there was an effective
control of mosquitoes when theyhad one c o two trap per acre.
But again, we're on an islandwhere a very isolated situation
there. Probably more controlledenvironment than the middle of
(49:11):
landlocked Illinois.
Ken (49:13):
Probably industrial sized ones too, not a backyard
version.
Chris (49:17):
I bet that's what they were using. Yes. They're
probably trying to keep themosquitoes off the tourists.
Ken (49:25):
So then I guess the last one we have on our list and,
probably the easiest one to dobesides staying inside, which
isn't that enjoyable, dependingon who you are, is repellents.
So we're using those insectrepellents, to, depending on
their felony, they're maskingthem, they're blocking the
(49:46):
olfactory, there's the sensorson the antenna that they're
using to find us. And I thinkwith DEET, there's some research
that comes out that it tastesbad to them, they, when they
land on you, they're tasting itwith their feet. And that DEET
is an attractive event. Also,some of the blocking the sensors
on the antenna too.
But, there's there's a bunch ofof repellents that the CDC lists
(50:08):
on their website, that areeffective for mosquito,
repelling mosquitoes. They'reconsidered safe for pregnant
women, women that are nursing aswell. They they point that on
the website. So it's DEET, whichis probably the one that's
that's most widely used. It'sbeen around since so discovered
in in the forties.
(50:29):
So it's been around for a while.Picaridin is another one. Think
we believe that's been found tobe, as effective, as DEET.
IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus,which is a plant derived one, if
that is of interest. Paramethanediol or PMD.
(50:49):
And two, ondecanone, which isanother plant derived one. I'll
say the ones I see when I'mlooking for repellents, again,
majority are DEET, seepiccaridin now and then, and
oil, lemon, eucalyptus. Usuallythe three I see most often, at
least where I'm shopping for forrepellents. Yes.
Chris (51:13):
I the the main ones that I see that tend to pop up in,
like, the pharmacy aisle in capare the RD, very common. Oil of
lemon, the eucalyptus, also verycommon. So I think, yeah, it's
one of those a person they'rechoosing whether they want to
use something like deep or ifit's that synthetic choice or
(51:33):
they wanna use that nonsynthetic choice, that oil of
lemon, eucalyptus. I think itwas, again, retired extension
entomologist Phil Nixon. He wasreally excited when Consumer
Reports put out a study that oilof lemon eucalyptus was shown to
be, you know, almost just aseffective at repelling
(51:55):
mosquitoes as as DEET was.
And so, yeah, as you said, Ken,they're just they're mixing up
those signals for the for themosquitoes.
Ken (52:05):
And with the DEET, I'm trying to remember now. It's
usually was, like, 50% less.It's usually it's gonna last
longer than, like, the % DEET,because there's other, you know,
oils and stuff in there thatmake that last longer. The %
DEET kind of dissipates prettyquickly. So think usually you're
looking for like a 30 percentagerange, to get you know, they
(52:27):
have good repellency and, it'sgoing to last longer than the %
DEET.
And DEET can be kind of harsh oncertain clothing and stuff. So
like like everything else, makesure you're reading the label
and applying it properly andbeing careful about applying it
to certain types of clothingtoo, especially as you start
getting to those higherpercentages.
Chris (52:48):
Mhmm. Yeah. I think also, you know, if you're not aware I
wasn't always aware of this. Itis good manners to, like, step
away from people when you'reapplying this, especially if
they're eating. If you ever, youknow, like a backyard barbecue
and you just start beating upall around the the hamburgers
and hot dogs, probably a goodidea.
Step away. You don't you don'twant that on your food. You
(53:10):
don't want that in, like, openwounds. You know? You'd you
know, it it's supposed to be onthe outside of you.
Ken (53:16):
It doesn't taste good. It doesn't taste good
Chris (53:19):
at all. What is wrong with your hamburgers? I thought
those were supposed to be thefamous Ken Johnson hamburgers.
This is this is not what I wasexpecting. So yeah.
And and also, oil of lemoneucalyptus, here here you go.
You could use this as opposedto, like, mouthwash and get an
effective concentration of thateucalyptol compound that would
(53:43):
be more repellent to a mosquitothan dousing yourself with
Listerine.
Ken (53:49):
Yeah. And another chemically is is permethrin. So
that's a repellent and will alsokill mosquitoes, it's something
you're applying to clothing. Youare not applying this to your
skin. So you can buy clothingthat is already treated with
this.
You know, lot of our our moreoutdoor retailers, probably
something that they're going tocarry. And it will last for so
many washings. I think some ofthe stuff I've got, this was
(54:13):
thirteen, fourteen years ago, Iwent to Africa. I think it
lasted for twenty, thirtywashings. You can also buy, the
the permethrin to treatyourself.
I think I need to make sureyou're following, the label and
that'll last, you know, maybe itdoesn't. When the stuff I
bought, I think it lasts five,ten washings, so you you had to
reapply it. But that's on yourclothing, it'll repel and the
(54:34):
mosquitoes land on it. It'llit'll kill them too. So that's
another option.
I'd say if you're going andprobably not for everyday use,
but if you're going be going toan area where you know there's
going be a lot of mosquitoes,like say, you take a vacation in
August down at the Evergladesand decide to go outside, that
may come in handy.
Chris (54:53):
And then get carried away
Ken (54:54):
by the insects.
Chris (54:58):
We never saw Ken again after that. Oh, no. No. That
would be me. We would never seeChris again after that.
I would I would I wouldliterally get flown off the
ground by the amount ofmosquitoes on me.
Ken (55:10):
Next time I go to the Everglades in August, I'm
bringing you with.
Chris (55:12):
There you go. Just stick me out in front of the tent.
I'll keep them off you. Oh. Oh.
Well, that was a lot of greatinformation about mosquito
repellents, trying to avoid thebite, what works, what doesn't
work. Well, the good growingpodcast, a production of
University of IllinoisExtension, edited this week by
(55:34):
me, Chris Enroth. And a specialthank you to Ken. Thank you for
hanging out, going over the listof things that people say does
affect us getting bitten bymosquitoes and digging through
some of the the reading here toto see what works and what
doesn't. Thank you, Ken.
Ken (55:53):
Yes. Thank you. And just remember everybody, do your
homework. If it sounds too goodto be true, a lot of times it
is. Mhmm.
Yeah. And let's do this againnext week.
Chris (56:06):
Oh, we shall do this again next week. We have a
special guest coming on theshow, doctor Elizabeth Wally, to
talk about grapes. Growinggrapes in the backyard, that
sounds like fun. She's gonnatalk all about it and and cover
the ins, outs, the ups, thedowns, the the goods and the
bads, the highs and the lows,because there's quite a few with
grapes. There's grapes.
(56:27):
Oh, I've seen lots of problemswith grapes. But we will get to
that next week. So listeners,thank you for doing what you do
best, that is listening, or ifyou're watching us on YouTube
watching. And as always, keep ongrowing.
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you fromMacomb , Illinois, and we have
got a great show for you today.I'm starting to itch. I've got
bites all over me. It ismosquito season.
Feels like mosquito season isstarting earlier and earlier
every year and going on laterand later every year. Is that a
(00:27):
coincidence? I don't think so.There are definitely some issues
up that with that. And you knowI'm not doing this by myself.
I'm joined as always everysingle week by horticulture
educator Ken Johnson andJacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken (00:40):
Hello, Chris. I got it. Fortunately, it's been kinda
breezy and cool, so mosquitoesaren't going too crazy or
haven't been Mhmm. But with allthat rain. It's a matter of Yes.
Chris (00:53):
Mean, I I do literally already have mosquito bites. And
we're we're at the May andthat's probably to be expected,
at least for me. I'm a mosquitomagnet. I they are drawn to me.
They just know where I am.
We once as a child, we went onvacation to a a little place off
the coast of Georgia, I believe,Little Saint Simon Island, which
(01:15):
is just literally a swamp offthe coast of Georgia. And I
think we counted. I had over 80mosquito bites, and I was
miserable. But yeah. And that'spretty common for me, though.
If there's if we're in amosquito we place, they're
coming for me.
Ken (01:33):
Alright. So just bring Chris with wherever you go.
He'll be fine.
Chris (01:37):
I'm I must I guess I should add myself to this list
of treatments we're gonna talkabout. Oh, goodness. But, yeah,
I mean, like, I thinkmosquitoes, they are becoming
more and more common in terms ofwhere they're falling earlier
and later in the year. You know,we used to think like, oh, it's
fall. You know, we don't haveworry as much about mosquitoes
(01:59):
or early spring.
We don't have to worry as muchabout mosquitoes, but there's a
few new species. I think I mightget the genus wrong, but I think
it's Aedes japonicus. That isthe Asian tiger mosquito. If I
might have that one wrong.People feel free to correct
Ken (02:16):
me. Albopictus. It's Asian tiger.
Chris (02:18):
Albopictus. Okay. Well, there's a Japonicus one too,
which I know in reading that oneis more cold tolerant than a lot
of our the native ones and someof the other introduced species.
And so they're finding more,there's they're finding
mosquitoes later into those orearlier into these cooler times
(02:40):
of year. And so, you know, itcan just be like our first warm
day of spring and boom, there'sa mosquito.
Ken (02:48):
Yes. Good times. Good times, folks.
Chris (02:52):
Yeah. But think with the show, what we're gonna talk
about, Ken, are treatments.Like, can go online and find
just a litany of things. Justjust lists of do this, do that.
This will keep you safe frommosquito bites.
I see that a lot. Killmosquitoes, keep yourself from
(03:13):
being bitten, all those kind ofthings. So we're going through
the list today.
Ken (03:20):
Let's do it. Start with the things that don't work or maybe
we should talk about so youmentioned, you you get bit by
mosquitoes a lot. Some peoplesay they get bit a lot. Some
people say they never do. Andthere is some some truth to
that.
Some people are more, attractivethan others, to mosquitoes. So
trying to think what is it?People with type o blood, some
(03:43):
studies have suggested type oblood, is more attractive.
People that are pregnant aremore attractive. If you drink
beer or have been drinking beer,you may be more attractive.
It. So Well, we figured that
Chris (03:54):
one out for me. But I was I wasn't drinking as a child, so
I don't know what that wasabout.
Ken (04:01):
So so I guess those are well, yeah, with the beer
drinking, have control over.
Chris (04:06):
Mhmm.
Ken (04:07):
But but there's something like 400 different chemical
compounds that humans kind ofgive off from their their skin
and stuff, that may play a rolein attracting mosquitoes. So
there's there's all kinds ofdifferent chemicals they're
they're getting attracted to,you know, sweat lactic acid,
things like that. You know, it'sbelieved that genetics are one
(04:28):
of the bigger roles inattracting mosquitoes. So if you
are very attractive, blame yourparents. It's their fault.
Chris (04:35):
I will blame my parents. That's a good that's a good one.
And so and and apparently, myparents, they must have had,
some type of recessive gene thatjust became the dominant one in
me because they were alwaysfine, though.
Ken (04:53):
And it could be that they could be getting bit too. Some
people react more to the bitestoo so that they, when
mosquitoes are biting, they'reinjecting saliva, which is going
to prevent the coagulation andkind of suppress the immune
system too so they're notgetting attacked. And some
people are allergic to that ormore allergic. Guess that's why
you get those welts. So somepeople Mhmm.
Maybe getting bit and they justdon't react very much to that,
(05:14):
where others could beparticularly sensitive. So you
could have a double whammy thatyou're more attractive and
particularly sensitive to.
Chris (05:22):
Nice. Hey. Well, in the mosquito dating game, I'm
winning. So the ladies love me.Because it's it's the ladies
that need the blood meal to laytheir eggs.
The males are not biting you.They are they mate. They can
they be pollinators? Can theyvisit flowers?
Ken (05:42):
Being a nectar pollinating. So Mhmm. They're good.
Chris (05:46):
So those ladies, I guess,
Ken (05:48):
have to get you. I'm not gonna touch that
Chris (05:51):
one. Well, then we should probably switch our subject ever
so slightly to the techniquestouted online in you know,
between family members and yourgroups of friends, somebody
overhearing you online at thepharmacy trying to get some itch
(06:14):
relief, you know. So these homeremedies, so to speak, or these
these techniques that that justhave been touted over the
generations of getting rid ofmosquitoes, because the mosquito
is something that has reallyfollowed human beings since time
began, like, since the beginningof of our species, we have been
(06:34):
plagued by mosquitoes andmosquito borne illness. That is
just a constant factor in thehistory of humans. So we got a
lot of weird stuff that we'vecontrived to to come up with
things.
Actually, like, there there wasthis idea that there's no reason
for a human to like an onion orgarlic because most other
animals do not like the taste ofthose things. But it is believed
(06:58):
that early humans started eatingthose because we thought it
warded off mosquitoes and so itbecame parts of our diets. Now
we love it. I love onions. It'salmost in everything.
Same with garlic.
Ken (07:09):
Interesting. I had entered that before.
Chris (07:11):
Yes. Oh, you just wait till I finish my mosquito book
and still on page 80.
Ken (07:18):
But I'm working on it to get there eventually.
Chris (07:20):
Yeah. We'll see. So alright. To the list. Now the
things that we're gonna talkabout first are things that that
you'll you'll hear you'll findthese online.
You'll find people talking aboutthese, But they really have not
been proven to be effective.They're not they don't have a
great track record of workingconsistently or at all
(07:42):
sometimes. So the first one thisis the first one is one that I
have heard, but it's this one isa lot of work, is to attract
purple martins to your yard. Sothat means you've gotta have,
like, a purple martin birdhouse,which that that's a big
investment in and of itself. Yougotta protect it from predators
(08:06):
and all that.
And the idea here is if you havepurple martens, it's gonna keep
mosquitoes away. So can is isthis a a functioning working way
to keep mosquitoes away?
Ken (08:19):
Probably. So they they may eat mosquitoes, but the
mosquitoes aren't very big. Sothey're probably going after
bigger insects to feed on. So ifthey are eating mosquitoes,
they're they're not gonna be amajor part of their diet and
they're not gonna have a asignificant impact, on those, on
those mosquito populations. Andyou can also, throw bats, into
(08:41):
the mix of another one that'salways, you know, have your bat
analysis attract bats to eatmosquitoes.
And again, while they may eatthem, again, they're going to
get more, you know, burrowmoths, beetles, things like
that. There's there's more tothem. That's going be a lot more
attractive to them than thelittle tiny mosquito. Yeah. They
may eat them, but again, they'rethey're eating other things too.
(09:03):
They're not solely eatingmosquitoes. They're probably not
gonna have a a really big factoron on those mosquito populations
in your landscape.
Chris (09:11):
Yeah. That's true. I I would say that, you know, I know
a lot of folks, they try to putup bat houses, and that's
probably its own show, you know,how do you attract a bat to your
yard. There's many differentspecies of bats. They all have
their different habitat of needsand and and wants and then their
(09:34):
life cycles.
So, yeah, I'd say that's a wholeshow in and of itself, drawing
bats into your yard. Just eatmosquitoes. Yeah. Ken said it.
They eat all kinds of if it'sflying in the air, they eat it.
You know, when we're growing up,when we had we had our cow barn,
we would throw rocks in the airand we would watch bats swoop
(09:54):
down and and try to grab therocks. So like, they're just
eating things that are flyingaround in the air.
Ken (10:01):
And I was at University of Florida, they've got two giant
bat houses. And every eveningpeople would come out and watch
them leave the houses and stuffand he'd be constantly getting
bit by mosquitoes. It wasn'tfun.
Chris (10:15):
Where are the bats going?
Ken (10:18):
Was right next to to Lake Alice on campus and yeah. Mhmm.
It's constantly getting buzzedby mosquitoes and bit Yeah.
Right next to the bat houses.
Chris (10:27):
Yep. So purple martins, bats, you know, hey, they would
be great to have in thelandscape. They'd be great to
have in your yard, but notnecessarily going to be a thing
that's going to reduce mosquitopopulation or prevent bites from
occurring in your backyard.
Ken (10:42):
Yes. So another one we hear about, and this goes for a lot
of different animals. But thesake of our show, we're getting
new mosquitoes, the sonicdevices, so they give off
buzzing noise. So withmosquitoes, it's, some of them
are supposedly mimicking themale mosquito, because once
(11:03):
females mate, females will takea blood mate take a blood meal
and lay eggs. Once they'vemated, they're not going to be
supposedly messing with malesanymore.
So that'll keep them away orsupposed to mimic the sound of a
dragonfly's wings. Neither ofthem work. There's been no
studies that ever showed, thatthey work. So if you really
(11:25):
wanted to find out and get one,sit outside with it on, see how
many land on you. Turn it off,see how many land on you.
It's probably going to be thesame amount or close to it.
Chris (11:34):
Probably. Mhmm. We we did that experiment but with mice
and we installed these thesemice sonic repellents throughout
the house and a week later wehad a mouse in the house once
again. So yeah. At least when itcomes to mice, I know not
effective.
So I would the mosquito one, I'mlike, yeah, doesn't it sounds
(11:57):
too gimmicky to be true. Youknow? So I I will say one of
them that it drives me a littlecrazy, and I do know that
there's a few folks that havethem in their backyard, are are
the lights, the bug lights,mosquito lights, the ultraviolet
black light. You know, any formof of light to attract a in this
(12:21):
case, they're hoping to attractmosquitoes, which then gets
zapped, trapped on a piece ofsticky paper, you know you know,
some some way it gets trapped ininto some some way or form or
killed. And those, you know, youhave said this multiple times on
on this Shokin that they arethey're not effective.
They are actually probablykilling more beneficial insects
(12:45):
or more of our nocturnal insectslike moths at night than any
mosquitoes. Know, mosquitoes arenot necessarily drawn to light,
which I guess maybe we'll getinto some of those things that
they're more attractive to alsowhen it comes to like what human
human breath that exhale c otwo, they see that heat
(13:09):
signature that we have. Andthen, of course, our sweat
glands, we do release kind ofthese pheromones that can draw
them in, aromas. And so thatthat does not occur with these
light traps. So we're we'rekilling far more, kind of
beneficial or benign insectsthan than anything else.
(13:30):
And we're taking food away fromthe spiders. You know, I I feel
like the spider is is our friendin this fight because I have we
have a light in our house. It'sit's inside, but there's a
window there and it's a lightthat is on frequently at night.
And we have so many orb weaverspiders outside that window
(13:50):
capturing all manner of ofinsects, mosquitoes, a lot of
flies, midges. We have actually,we have a a yellow jacket wasp
in there right now.
They they captured a yellowjacket. So yeah. I I spiders.
They're they're our friends inthis fight against well, not
(14:11):
really, but everything.Everything.
They eat everything too. They'rejust like the lights.
Ken (14:18):
Yeah. I mean, if you if you have a bug zipper, go in and and
empty that out, then, you know,you can look at what you're
catching. Yeah. Like I said,moths, lacewings. Mhmm.
Probably not a you may get a fewmosquitoes and everything and
not not enough that's reallyjustifying killing, everything
else that you're catching. Andso a lot of times I see them on,
(14:39):
you know, for sale online, youknow, marketplace or always
tempted to buy them just so Ican throw them away, but they'd
get really expensive.
Chris (14:47):
Yes. I there are some times so there we should
probably fact check this one,but I have heard that the color,
like the yellow part of thelight spectrum is not as
attractive to many insects ornocturnal insects. So when we're
say we have something going onat night, maybe we have a
(15:09):
barbecue, maybe a friend's over,maybe the kids are running
around the neighborhood, and wewant to have our outdoor lights
on, well, we have these LEDlights where we can adjust the
color of them. And so I'veadjusted our nighttime lights to
be yellow when we have to havethem on just so we can see what
we're doing outside. I honestlyhave not noticed any difference
(15:32):
in whether we're drawing in moreinsects or not because usually
we're pretty busy running arounddoing activities and things like
that.
But it's something I've heard,so it's something I've done.
Whether it works or not, it'snot really hurting me in any
way. Mhmm. It actually makes theit makes that night, that that
(15:52):
evening atmosphere more pleasantbecause it's not a harsh bright
light. So even in my eyes, Ilike it more.
Ken (16:00):
Yeah. The yeah. Even it's like the red light when you're
going out. A lot of times, likeI've so every year I enter the,
Firefly Lottery in the SmokyMountains and stuff. I've I
still haven't gotten selected.
But with that, know, they say,if you have flashlights, make
them red. So one that's notgonna that won't mess with your
night vision as much. It's notgonna affect, like the
fireflies, lightning bugs,whatever you want to call them.
(16:22):
That flashing pattern, it's notgoing to disrupt it. That would
make sense.
Yeah. That in the yellow redspectrum. Probably not going to
affect insects as much as intothe blue. Yeah. Especially when
I have a of LED bulbs.
Outdoor bulbs are more of thatyellow or that blue, nowadays.
Chris (16:44):
Yeah. So turn your lights off folks if you don't need
them.
Ken (16:48):
Yes. Alright. So another one, you're right. And use a lot
of times for like pestmanagement or monitoring anyway
is, dishwashing detergent, soap,whatever, in a pan of water. And
and you'll use that for likeJapanese beetles and stuff like
that, but we're we're physicallyputting them in there.
(17:09):
A lot of times when people aredoing like pollinator studies,
studying bees and stuff, they'llput out these pans, painted
yellow or blue, put water inthere, some soap so that the
insects are attracted, theydrowned and they can collect
them. Assuming this is kind ofthe same idea with that, put out
the soapy water, mosquitoes areattracted to it, they'll die.
They're not going to be terriblyattracted to it. Again, you may
(17:29):
catch the occasional one,anything that gets in there,
insect wise, is probably goingto be trapped and killed. So
again, not that practical.
They're probably not working allthat well collecting all that
many mosquitoes. Again, that'sgoing to justify killing
everything else that you'recollecting.
Chris (17:48):
Yeah. The other one, and I have heard this one also, is
using, like, brand name calledListerine or any other
mouthwash. You know, some peoplesay, well, I put that on my skin
and I I don't get bitten or ithelps to repel them. So there is
(18:09):
something in a lot of thesemouthwashes, eucalyptol, it's an
aroma compound, which we'll talkabout, I think, more here later
on. But they do see that, youknow, eucalyptol can have an
effect on mosquitoes if sprayedat a 75% concentration, but our
(18:31):
mouthwashes contain less than 1%eucalyptol.
So in terms of thresholds, wegotta you know, you gotta get a
gallon of of Listerine and goswimming in it first or, you
know, submerge your clothes andsaturate them or something. And
even then, you're probably stillnot at that threshold, 75%. So,
yeah, that that is not proven tobe effective. And I guess, you
(18:57):
know, with all of these, some ofthe other ones that are also no
research evidence showing theireffectiveness, vitamin b,
garlic, spraying yourself downwith garlic, pepper spray, which
that sounds terrible. Don't dothat.
Eating certain dietarysupplements, you know, there's
just not any research. There'seither no research showing that
(19:21):
it works or there's researchshowing that they don't work.
You know, that's basically whatwe can say here. And even
people's anecdotal experiences,you know, maybe they did put
Listerine all over their skinand they didn't get bit that
next night. But also maybe thereare no mosquitoes out.
Maybe something shifted in theirown body that was less attracted
to mosquitoes. Like, you know,we're what we're talking about
(19:44):
here is we're we're trying tospeak to effective remedies also
across a general population. Youknow, what happens in a specific
backyard, that's that's out ofour control. You know, we can't
worry about that. But generallyspeaking, across the state of
Illinois, that's, I guess, ourpurview here at Illinois
Extension.
(20:04):
But, yes. Yeah. We we knowthere's a lot of anecdotal stuff
here.
Ken (20:11):
Yeah. So Always, you know, if in doubt, I would, you know,
check to see if there's any,legitimate research backing it
up. Lot of places will say, ohyeah, according to our study as
well. See if, see if somebodyindependent from that company
has actually studied the stuffand it's not just their data.
Because sometimes I get, I'm notsaying for all, but sometimes
(20:33):
that can be, the the informationcan be selected, in ways to make
it look more effective than itreally is.
Chris (20:41):
Yes. Mhmm. Yep. That's true. And and even, a lot of our
artificial intelligence botsquestionnaire for, you know,
forms, they they are scrapingthat information off of the web,
and a lot of that informationthey're scraping is marketing
information, which makes in thebot or, you know, AI sees that
(21:02):
and it says, oh, look, aneffective treatment for this.
Wherein in fact, they're lookingat some type of, like, marketing
piece for that company.
Ken (21:13):
Yeah. Just be careful.
Chris (21:16):
Yep. Do your homework. Do your reading folks.
Ken (21:20):
Alright. I'm sure there's a plethora of more things that
that people say work, I don'treally work. I'm probably only
scratching the surface, but Iguess in the interest of time,
we'll move on. They can probablybe a two part Yes. Episode by
itself.
But some stuff that kind ofworks, maybe works, do some of
(21:43):
those. Mosquito repellingplants, you see these, marketed,
you know, it was at a gardencenter this weekend and mosquito
repelling plants. So there'scitronella. Oh, I'm drawing a
blank. There's there's a wholelist, lists of them out there.
So while these, these plants maycontain, chemicals that that may
(22:06):
repel or be mosquitoes may notbe attracted to or repel them or
in some way keep them frombiting you. Usually that's
again, that's done lab settingand maybe a concentrated form of
that chemical. And in yourplants, your plants aren't
giving off significant amountsof those chemicals, so it's not
(22:27):
really going to work unlessyou're going to pick those
plants, rub them all over yourbody, take a weed whacker to
them. Basically you have torelease those chemicals into the
air or put them on you for themto be effective. So the plants
are just sitting there next toyou.
They're not really doing a wholelot of good when it comes to
replying the skills. I mean, youcould probably, sure if we
(22:48):
looked hard enough or spentenough time, you'd probably find
pictures or find mosquitoessitting on, you know, citronella
plants and mosquito repellingplants. Just because they're not
giving off a whole lot of it. Ifthey are giving enough, it's
just around that plant. It's notspreading out kind of area wide
that's going to protect you ormask you from mosquitoes.
Chris (23:09):
You know, Ken, I do remember when we were at the
Poinsettia trials in Milstadt,and there was one company there
set up that was selling mosquitorepelling plants, you know, for
their season. So if you're therewas a lot of garden centers
managers there, so they wereadvertising some of these plants
(23:30):
that they were growing. Forgarden centers, one of them was
naturally repel mosquitoes. Itlooks like a geranium, but it
just let's see. Yeah.
Or it might be no. It is acitronella. Yeah. It is
citronella. Just looks moregeranium like.
And then on the flip side ofthis thing was a scaredy cat,
(23:51):
bunnies gone, and dog gone. Soit's like that's a company that
is you know, they're kind ofmarketing the that that these
plants planted in your yard isgoing to deter a group, you
know, different types of speciesfrom coming in and and bothering
you. But, again, that's amarketing piece. That is not a
research. There's there's
Ken (24:13):
there's an ounce of truth to it. You know, there is those
chemicals do repel.
Chris (24:18):
Mhmm.
Ken (24:18):
But in practical sense with the plants, it's not gonna work
unless you are somehow releasingthat chemical from the plants,
which is going to lead to the tothe decline of your plants. Yes.
For the most part.
Chris (24:34):
Yeah. Alright. Tear your plants up now and rub them all
over your body.
Ken (24:39):
And that's not to mention, you know, you could be allergic
to them too and
Chris (24:42):
Oh, yeah. That would not be good. Mhmm. Another one which
which we do use in our yardevery so often, but it's more
for the again, I like thecharacter that they bring. I
like a little bit of fire in myin my evening, you know, in the
backyard are citronella.
(25:02):
Candles, sometimes like torches.So we do use those. Again, I'm
more going for the atmosphere,but I'm like, well, hey, you
know, if they do deter somemosquitoes from coming in and
trying to bite me, that would begreat. But the big thing here is
that there has been research onthis, on citronella, on the
(25:24):
product of burning it. And forit to be effective, you have to
be standing in the smoke.
And that really, according tothe studies, is only about 40%
effective. I mean, if I'm gonnahave to stand in smoke and
breathe it in, inhale it, I atleast wanna get over that 50%
mark of of reducing my chancesof being bit by a mosquito.
(25:48):
Smoke just wafting off into youryour backyard, into your
neighbor's yard, wherever. Youknow, if it's not surrounding
you, if it's not all around you,it's not going to deter those
mosquitoes from finding you orfrom being bitten.
Ken (26:03):
So yeah, unless you're standing right next to it or if
you're five, ten feet away andthe wind's going in the opposite
direction, probably probably notdoing you a lot of good. Yeah.
But it does look cool.
Chris (26:16):
I I like them. So I think it's fun. But we do use we do
have some fire elements in ouryard, which fun fact, that's
fire and water number onerequest in landscape design for
homeowners as they wantsomething either fire, like a
fire pit, or they want somewater feature. We love them
(26:36):
natural elements. Combine them.
Yes. I've seen that a few times.
Ken (26:42):
Waterfall coming out of your fire
Chris (26:43):
pit. Yes. Fiery waterfall. Yes. It's not Disney
World, Ken.
We can't we we don't have thatkind of budget. Well, Ken, let's
shift on to things that we knowcan work, can be effective even
if we're talking short term. Andthis first one, I know a lot of
(27:05):
people probably don't wanna hearthis one, and we'll have our own
critiques of this, but foggingand spraying. You know, this is
basically putting out some typeof a chemical. I think some of
them say that they arerepellents.
Some of them say that they arekilling the pest. They're
(27:25):
killing the insect or, in thiscase, the mosquito. But either
way, you are using some type ofseems like a modified the
modified
Ken (27:38):
Like leaf blower.
Chris (27:39):
Leaf blower to disperse some type of chemical into your
yard. This is very often onlytemporary. It's usually used
before, like, a big event mightbe occurring. And it it is
certainly something that is notgoing to be permanent. The
effects definitely wear off overthe course of sometimes a few
(28:00):
hours, maybe half a day, a day,if you're lucky.
I you know, it might depend onweather as well.
Ken (28:09):
Yeah. It's like you mentioned, wears off, it's it's
going be repeated applications.Depending on the products being
used, if it's an insecticide,you know, more of a broad
spectrum, you've got all of thenon target organisms you're
affecting. I mean, you can saypotentially affecting. You're
going to be affecting becauseyou're doing this area wide.
Pollinators, natural enemies,other beneficial insects, even
(28:32):
insects that are just there. Andagain, those are nine that that
we're not classifying asbeneficial. You know, they're
they're coming into contact withthat potentially affecting them.
So it's yeah, again, it's a it'sa temporary solution and you're
just it's only affecting theadults. So you may kill them in
your yard, but next doorneighbor is going have them.
(28:52):
So eventually they're going tofly over. Eventually that
insecticide is going to wear offand they're going to be able to
be, in your landscape. Again, sowe get temporary. And in my
opinion, you know, I don't thinkthe potential side effects
aren't necessarily worth it whenwhen it comes to to managing
(29:16):
them.
Chris (29:17):
Yeah. When and I know, you know, maybe you you and I
are definitely odd. And andmaybe folks, you listening and
watching us, you you have adifferent viewpoint of the world
as well. There are certainlypeople out there though that
want to just nuke their yard,that they just want to totally
eliminate any insect activitygoing on out there, that any bug
(29:37):
is a bad bug, to quote StarshipTroopers. But that the yeah.
That that that you're just goingto encounter that I'm pretty
sure know, I have friends thatthey they're like, oh, there's
bugs out here. We gotta fog thisplace. I'm like, well, you don't
have to, but that's your choiceif you want to. I will try to
tell you that's something thereare other ways you can do this.
(29:59):
But yeah, some people just wannanuke the place and just be done
with it.
Ken (30:03):
Yeah. And obviously we need to because mosquitoes can carry
diseases that can affect humans,what we do there is that
balancing act of we have to dothis vector control to save
protect the population, as awhole. But then, you know,
balancing that with the, Iguess, the more naturalist side
(30:23):
of things where we're trying toconserve these other organisms.
So I mean, there's a there's abalancing act. I don't envy
anybody that has to do that.
I know you've got municipalitiesthat will fog, you know, the
chemicals are going to vary asto how they're doing this. But
there's a reason, they're doingthat too. So it's, you know, I
(30:44):
don't want to try to vilify, youknow, fogging and stuff like
that. But, know, if you're doingit in your backyard, probably
not terribly effective becauseit's, you know, it's temporary.
They'll move back in over time.
Yes. Yeah.
Chris (30:57):
Well, Ken, this next thing is actually the one that
prompted the entire show. Youstumbled across this. You you
turned me on to this this socialmedia thing that's been been
buzzing around. The bucket ofdoom, which when you first
(31:17):
described this, I was a littlesuspicious at first. But but
tell tell everyone what we'retalking about who may not have
seen this online.
The bucket of doom.
Ken (31:25):
Yes. Bucket of doom. So this is, so this one that comes
from Doug Tallamy. So he's ifyou're familiar with the
Homegrown National Park, thiskind of movement of of people
planting native plants, andstuff like that. And this is,
one of the things that they'vebeen promoting.
And this has been going on forfor several years, but saw an
uptick the last week or two. Iknow the algorithm algorithms
(31:47):
thought I needed to see this, sohere we are. But with this, with
this, you're taking a base,you're taking a five gallon
bucket, you're filling it twothirds of the way full of water,
and depending on on where you'relooking at that, the recipe is
different as to what you'readding to that water. Some of
it's straight, straw or hay,some of it's like, just lawn
(32:09):
waste leaves, grass clippings,things like that. Basically,
you're adding some kind of plantmaterial to that.
Meaning you're kind of lettingthat sit, get all nice and
funky, letting the the thebacteria and algae and stuff
grow in that. You're going toadd a mosquito dunk, a quarter
of a mosquito dunk. So theseare, you can find these in
(32:32):
nurseries, garden centers,things like that. It's a
Bacillus thuringiensis,Israeliensis is the strain, so
it's a BT product. TheIsraeliensis strain is specific
to mosquitoes, black flies,other aquatic flies.
So basically you're putting thatin there when the, the, female
mosquitoes, when they've taken ablood mill, they'll start to lay
(32:54):
eggs. So they're going to findyour nice bucket here. They're
going to lay their eggs inthere, eggs will hatch, larvae
will start feeding, they'llingest that BTI, and that BTI
creates a protein crystal, theyingest it, basically cuts up
their gut and they die. It doesnot affect other insects. So
basically you're building atrap, mosquitoes lay their eggs
(33:15):
and that you kill the larvae.
And if you do this, you know,you're eliminating the
subsequent generations ofmosquitoes. And the idea of this
is you put one or two in youryard and if you can get a bunch
of people in your neighborhoodin the area to do that, this is
working on the containerbreeding mosquitoes. So these
need small amounts of water todo that and they don't travel
(33:39):
terribly far. So if you do thisa little more kind of area wide,
it can be effective. There was agroup from Rutgers that did some
did something similar, inMaryland.
And I'm not sure they were usingtraps, I'm not sure if they're
quite the same, but I think inparts of of the city they're
doing this and they found likean 80% reduction in mosquito
(34:02):
populations, or they found areduction in mosquito
populations when they're like80% of the people in the area,
of the yards using this. So ifyou get use some of your
neighbors to do this, it hasbeen shown that this can help
reduce those mosquitopopulations, long term. But
you've got to make sure, I thinkyou've to replace that mosquito
(34:24):
dunk every 30. So if you don't,eventually that kind of runs out
and then you've just created amosquito breeding factory. So
there's a little bit upkeep.
You've to make sure the waterlevel is maintained and stuff.
But that's that's the generalidea. I think with the Homegrown
National Park when they'reputting a stick in there or
whatever, so that if some animalfalls in there, they can climb
(34:47):
out too. So you're not it's abucket of death for mosquitoes,
not everything else.
Chris (34:53):
I see. I see. Well, and and Ken, I was suspicious of
this because the you're treatingone part of the mosquito life
cycle. You are treating thelarva side of it. But there's
still the female still needs tobite you for her blood meal, for
her eggs, for her protein thatto develop those eggs.
So maybe at first, you might notsee that effect of this bucket.
(35:19):
But again, if this is you, ahandful of people surrounding
you, this is a you're you'rebuilding something out here.
It's more of a long term thing.You know, you're eliminating
that source, which can taketime. It's not necessarily an
overnight.
It's gonna be an instant fix foryour barbecue that you're having
in two days. But it is somethingthat can be effective for the
(35:43):
entire summer.
Ken (35:44):
Yeah. Long long term control. Yeah. If we if we do it
right. And even even if you'redoing it yourself, I'd imagine
you'd still could stillpotentially see a little bit of
a decline depending on how bigyour yard is.
If you got a postage stamp lot,you probably need help from your
neighbors. If you've got alarger area, maybe a little more
effective. And I think withthem, they're they're
(36:05):
recommending putting this in ashaded area. So again, it's just
going to dry out a little lessquickly. When mosquitoes are
hanging out during the day, sousually mosquitoes are dusk and
dawn feeding.
There are some day biters aswell. But a lot of times they're
hanging out in shaded areas, alot of vegetation and stuff. So
they're they may be hanging outthere already. Okay.
Chris (36:29):
Yeah. And so let's go into our next one because it
ties right into what you've justsaid, habitat modification. So
so this and you mentioned wehave container breeding
mosquitoes. You know, therethere's mosquitoes that that
breed in in in in lay eggs inall manner of habitats,
environments. I remember when wehad our drought of 2012, there
(36:51):
was a particular species thatseemed to thrive in those drier
conditions.
The you know, there so there'sstill mosquitoes even though
there was no rain going on. ButI think there's a lot of
mosquitoes that that tend totend to plague us humans that
are container breeding, andthat's because we tend to have
lots of containers in our yards,little kiddie pools, buckets
(37:13):
that don't have BTI in them, ora lot of times the unseen gutter
that needs to be cleaned out.Those can be just, you know,
they're above our head, out ofsight, out of mind, but they can
be an incredible reservoir formosquitoes and breeding if you
(37:33):
have a clogged gutter. Becausethere was one time I, you know,
we were you know, cleaning outgutters. I do that regularly,
but it had been maybe at least aweek and a half, maybe two weeks
since the last rain.
And I go up there and I see ourgutters full of water. I say,
well, what in the heck? What isgoing on here? Well, it turns
out a baseball got lodged in thedownspout and was preventing any
(37:55):
water from draining out ofthere. And it just sat and sat
for almost I would say almosttwo weeks.
It didn't dry out. And, yeah,there were plenty of larval
mosquitoes in there. And then sothe you know, you've let the
water out, you've fixed theproblem. But we have all of
these areas where they canbreed. So habitat modification,
cleaning up the yard, cleaningthe gutters, having good
(38:17):
airflow, you know, becausemosquitoes aren't the strongest
flyers.
And so if you have good airflowthrough your yard, you could
even have fans installed in abackyard area or just bring out
a fan. I did one time put a fannext to a citronella torch,
which that was a bad idea. Don'tdo that because the fan turned
(38:39):
just black with smoke, and itjust sort of smoked out
everybody that was sittingaround there. So that didn't
work very well, but it it didhelp keep some of those weaker
flying mosquitoes and alsobuffalo gnats as a side. That's
a that's a whole other thing,though, from from bothering us
at night.
But, yeah, change your habitat.Make it less hospitable to
(39:02):
mosquito breeding and for theirjust being there.
Ken (39:07):
And even though the the plant saucers on your pots,
those and we dump them thisstuff at least once a week.
Just, you know, pick a day ofthe week, man, that's going to
be your day. You dump the theplant saucers, empty out the
kiddie pool. Yeah. Old tires.
When we bought our house, itcame with a bunch of old tires.
(39:29):
I don't know why. But we went inand drilled holes in all of them
so that the water will drainout. And so so basically just
anywhere that water iscollecting that you are capable
of then dumping it out, makesure you're doing that. If
you've got a small pond, youknow, backyard pond, something
like that, putting the mosquitodunks, or something in there,
(39:51):
having minnows, something likethat, and eat the mosquitoes.
And there's a variety ofdifferent things you can do in
that situation to help managethose populations. You
mentioned, you know, with theairflow, you know, they like the
really dense foliage and stuffin shaded areas, you know, it's
nice and damp, which is wherethey like to hang out during the
day. Again, you know, that'salso attractive a lot of other
(40:13):
organisms. So again, it's thatbalancing act of, you know, how
much, how much cleanup do youwant to do. They like, you know,
underneath decks, something thatis nice, Usually pretty damp and
cooler area.
They'll hang out there duringthe day. So there's a lot of
areas that that we're creatingfor them too that they like.
Chris (40:33):
Yeah. And usually underneath those those decks,
there's a layer of plastic oftenthat the builder has put down,
which, you know, is supposed tobe pulled tight and hopefully
sloped a little bit to allow thewater to drain off. But very
often, there's ridges andripples that that hold water.
And so it's just perfect spotfor mosquito breeding. And then,
(40:53):
of course, you're on top of thatthat deck there, and their blood
meal's right there.
So that's it's everything theyneed, so why why leave? The
other thing also when I knowI've encountered this a few
times with extension. If youhave somewhere in the
neighborhood, maybe it's anabandoned house, the person is
(41:14):
gone for several months, theyhave an unmanaged pool that's
full of water, check your localhealth department because our
local health department will dosomething about that. We've
already mentioned this.Mosquitoes are human health
concerns.
So a lot of times, our localhealth department, if there is
that reported, like a stagnantpool or unmanaged pool, they'll
(41:36):
go in and they'll at least treatit with BTI. And and but that
varies based upon the town thatyou're in. So check your local
health department if they dothat.
Ken (41:47):
So another one, we can do to avoid mosquitoes is just stay
inside. Don't go outside.
Chris (41:54):
That that sounds easy. That's too easy, Ken.
Ken (41:58):
Assuming your screens and stuff are in working order and
don't have holes in them. ButMhmm. I think, you know, joke
about it. Anyway, if we we avoidthe times that they're most
frequently out, dusk and dawn,we can do goes a pretty long way
in avoiding bites. Know in ourbackyard, it's it's pretty
shaded.
We've got a lot of vegetativegrowth back there. That's also
(42:19):
where we put the kids swing set.Probably was the best planning
on our part, but you know, whenwhen kids don't use it too much
anymore, when they were younger,maybe go out swinging in the
evenings and once the mosquitoesstarted biting, real bad it was
time to go in. So we just wewould just go inside and come
back out the next day.
Chris (42:39):
Yep. Yep. No. That's true. That's the season went and
we have definitely had themosquito buzzing around our ears
while we're trying to sleep.
And fixing our window screens,replacing those, cut down on the
amount of mosquitoes, flies,brown marmorated stink bugs,
Asian lady beetle. Like, it itcut down so much on the amount
(43:01):
of insects that were able to getinto our house. So good screens,
you know, caulk and sealingthose cracks and crevices around
windows and doors, That is avery important way to keep
insects like mosquitoes out ofyour house. And also, the double
door system, which if you'veever gone into, like, a
restaurant, you have to gothrough two sets of doors. Do
(43:22):
you know why?
It's to keep the bugs out. Thatthat is a an an effective
deterrent to insects. If you'veever gone through doors and you
feel a strong gust of wind onthe top of your head, that is an
insect deterrent to keep themout of that structure. And for
restaurants, mainly flies. But,yes, that's why you have to have
(43:43):
two doors if you are servingfood to people in at least in
this part of the world.
Ken (43:50):
Yes. I mean, I never get to know every lot of that. Makes
sense. But if you go to abutterfly house, it's the same
thing. Mhmm.
Chris (43:55):
Yep. Know, two sets of doors.
Ken (43:56):
They have mirrors too. But yes.
Chris (44:02):
Well, the the next one that can be an effective
deterrent is wearing lightcolored clothing because it you
know, some research does showthat they're they tend to be
attracted to darker coloredobjects, but also loose fitting
clothing. Because I'vedefinitely been wearing, like,
maybe a tighter shirt orsomething, and I have witnessed
(44:24):
the mosquito land on my arm.And, you know, she's drilling
around looking for that vein,looking for that blood meal. And
they will they'll bite you acouple times as they're looking
for that. And I've seen hermultiple times going through my
shirt into my skin on, like, a athin or tight piece of clothing.
(44:45):
So, loose fitting clothing canhelp to prevent some of that
type of biting from occurring.
Ken (44:52):
Yeah. And mosquitoes have these the the long needle like
mouth parts, so they can it'snot something like, you know, we
had the garden bite a couple ofweeks ago on buffalo gnats. So
they've got small bitingmouthparts. They're not going to
get through that. But thoselonger mouthparts, yeah, they
can get through that clothing.
So and the light coloredclothing will help with the
buffalo gnats, ticks Mhmm. Aswell. They're they're looking
(45:14):
for those those dark objects. So
Chris (45:16):
Yep. That's why I got my beard trimmed and my haircut so
I can see those ticks better.And when we're cutting my kids'
hair, guess what we found? Atick. Yeah.
So short hair, light coloredclothing. It is summer in
Illinois, and that's what wegotta do.
Ken (45:34):
Maybe losing my hair isn't a bad thing.
Chris (45:36):
There you go. That's sad. That's you see anything on my
bald spot Sides of sunburn?Uh-huh. Well, Ken, one thing
that this was something thatI've I was first exposed to when
I lived over in Manhattan,Kansas.
We were doing landscaping andour our foreman, the the the
crew that I was on, he startedusing c o two traps. And I'm
(45:59):
like, what the heck is that? Andand he he he remarked that they
seemed to be effective, seemedto work. It seemed to reduce the
amount of of biting that thatthey experienced. He also had
told his neighbors about it.
They're all like, what is thatcontraption in your yard? And I
think a lot of them had startedputting them up in their yards.
(46:20):
He said it's really made adifference, but it's a CO2 trap.
And these have gotten prettysophisticated, I think, lately.
So what they do is they use a co two cartridge, and it emits c
o two in, like, a plume, kind oflike how our our breath exhaling
would look to a mosquito tryingto zero in on us for a blood
meal.
Some of them even containoctanol, which is a pheromone in
(46:44):
our sweat. Some of them do havea little bit of a heat signature
to them as well. So all of thosethings help to draw in a female
mosquito. And so but but a c otwo trap, and and it lures them
into either sticky card or somevessel that they can't escape
from. And what we looked at, wewe did find a little bit of, you
(47:11):
know, a little bit of studies onthis, is that it does appear to
be effective.
But unlike the bucket of doom,it is not addressing the larval
stage of the mosquitoes. Soyou're not, you know, you're
you're not stabbing the hydra inthe heart. You're just cutting
off one of the hydra's heads, soto speak. Like, you're just
(47:32):
killing the adults, and you arenot addressing the reproduction
that could be occurring here andthe egg laying that could be
occurring. So maybe incombination with the bucket of
death, you know, you would beaddressing both life stages.
It could considerably reduce theamount of mosquitoes biting
happening in your yard. It it isprobably, again, one of those
(47:54):
more longer term solutions thatwould be more expensive. Because
I remember one once upon a time,I tried to get into things like
paintball and all that, and c otwo is expensive. Those
cartridges cost money. And, youknow, they cost energy and
everything and to to keep goingunlike the bucket of doom, which
is sort of a passive device thatthat the only management is just
(48:17):
making sure you're putting thatBTI dunk in every, you know,
days.
But yeah, c o two traps. There'sthere's a lot of different ones
on the market out there.
Ken (48:25):
I think some of them run off propane too, don't they?
Chris (48:28):
Yes. Yes.
Ken (48:29):
Propane tanks set up and Yep.
Chris (48:31):
Yeah. They're burning off propane. So they're burning
natural gas, combustible fuelsource. So environmentally
friendly, maybe not as much as,say, like, yeah, the bucket of
death.
Ken (48:47):
Something to try, maybe.
Chris (48:48):
Some something to something to try. I think yeah.
One of the the pages said that,you know, on a island off the
coast of Florida, they did seethat there was an effective
control of mosquitoes when theyhad one c o two trap per acre.
But again, we're on an islandwhere a very isolated situation
there. Probably more controlledenvironment than the middle of
(49:11):
landlocked Illinois.
Ken (49:13):
Probably industrial sized ones too, not a backyard
version.
Chris (49:17):
I bet that's what they were using. Yes. They're
probably trying to keep themosquitoes off the tourists.
Ken (49:25):
So then I guess the last one we have on our list and,
probably the easiest one to dobesides staying inside, which
isn't that enjoyable, dependingon who you are, is repellents.
So we're using those insectrepellents, to, depending on
their felony, they're maskingthem, they're blocking the
(49:46):
olfactory, there's the sensorson the antenna that they're
using to find us. And I thinkwith DEET, there's some research
that comes out that it tastesbad to them, they, when they
land on you, they're tasting itwith their feet. And that DEET
is an attractive event. Also,some of the blocking the sensors
on the antenna too.
But, there's there's a bunch ofof repellents that the CDC lists
(50:08):
on their website, that areeffective for mosquito,
repelling mosquitoes. They'reconsidered safe for pregnant
women, women that are nursing aswell. They they point that on
the website. So it's DEET, whichis probably the one that's
that's most widely used. It'sbeen around since so discovered
in in the forties.
(50:29):
So it's been around for a while.Picaridin is another one. Think
we believe that's been found tobe, as effective, as DEET.
IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus,which is a plant derived one, if
that is of interest. Paramethanediol or PMD.
(50:49):
And two, ondecanone, which isanother plant derived one. I'll
say the ones I see when I'mlooking for repellents, again,
majority are DEET, seepiccaridin now and then, and
oil, lemon, eucalyptus. Usuallythe three I see most often, at
least where I'm shopping for forrepellents. Yes.
Chris (51:13):
I the the main ones that I see that tend to pop up in,
like, the pharmacy aisle in capare the RD, very common. Oil of
lemon, the eucalyptus, also verycommon. So I think, yeah, it's
one of those a person they'rechoosing whether they want to
use something like deep or ifit's that synthetic choice or
(51:33):
they wanna use that nonsynthetic choice, that oil of
lemon, eucalyptus. I think itwas, again, retired extension
entomologist Phil Nixon. He wasreally excited when Consumer
Reports put out a study that oilof lemon eucalyptus was shown to
be, you know, almost just aseffective at repelling
(51:55):
mosquitoes as as DEET was.
And so, yeah, as you said, Ken,they're just they're mixing up
those signals for the for themosquitoes.
Ken (52:05):
And with the DEET, I'm trying to remember now. It's
usually was, like, 50% less.It's usually it's gonna last
longer than, like, the % DEET,because there's other, you know,
oils and stuff in there thatmake that last longer. The %
DEET kind of dissipates prettyquickly. So think usually you're
looking for like a 30 percentagerange, to get you know, they
(52:27):
have good repellency and, it'sgoing to last longer than the %
DEET.
And DEET can be kind of harsh oncertain clothing and stuff. So
like like everything else, makesure you're reading the label
and applying it properly andbeing careful about applying it
to certain types of clothingtoo, especially as you start
getting to those higherpercentages.
Chris (52:48):
Mhmm. Yeah. I think also, you know, if you're not aware I
wasn't always aware of this. Itis good manners to, like, step
away from people when you'reapplying this, especially if
they're eating. If you ever, youknow, like a backyard barbecue
and you just start beating upall around the the hamburgers
and hot dogs, probably a goodidea.
Step away. You don't you don'twant that on your food. You
(53:10):
don't want that in, like, openwounds. You know? You'd you
know, it it's supposed to be onthe outside of you.
Ken (53:16):
It doesn't taste good. It doesn't taste good
Chris (53:19):
at all. What is wrong with your hamburgers? I thought
those were supposed to be thefamous Ken Johnson hamburgers.
This is this is not what I wasexpecting. So yeah.
And and also, oil of lemoneucalyptus, here here you go.
You could use this as opposedto, like, mouthwash and get an
effective concentration of thateucalyptol compound that would
(53:43):
be more repellent to a mosquitothan dousing yourself with
Listerine.
Ken (53:49):
Yeah. And another chemically is is permethrin. So
that's a repellent and will alsokill mosquitoes, it's something
you're applying to clothing. Youare not applying this to your
skin. So you can buy clothingthat is already treated with
this.
You know, lot of our our moreoutdoor retailers, probably
something that they're going tocarry. And it will last for so
many washings. I think some ofthe stuff I've got, this was
(54:13):
thirteen, fourteen years ago, Iwent to Africa. I think it
lasted for twenty, thirtywashings. You can also buy, the
the permethrin to treatyourself.
I think I need to make sureyou're following, the label and
that'll last, you know, maybe itdoesn't. When the stuff I
bought, I think it lasts five,ten washings, so you you had to
reapply it. But that's on yourclothing, it'll repel and the
(54:34):
mosquitoes land on it. It'llit'll kill them too. So that's
another option.
I'd say if you're going andprobably not for everyday use,
but if you're going be going toan area where you know there's
going be a lot of mosquitoes,like say, you take a vacation in
August down at the Evergladesand decide to go outside, that
may come in handy.
Chris (54:53):
And then get carried away
Ken (54:54):
by the insects.
Chris (54:58):
We never saw Ken again after that. Oh, no. No. That
would be me. We would never seeChris again after that.
I would I would I wouldliterally get flown off the
ground by the amount ofmosquitoes on me.
Ken (55:10):
Next time I go to the Everglades in August, I'm
bringing you with.
Chris (55:12):
There you go. Just stick me out in front of the tent.
I'll keep them off you. Oh. Oh.
Well, that was a lot of greatinformation about mosquito
repellents, trying to avoid thebite, what works, what doesn't
work. Well, the good growingpodcast, a production of
University of IllinoisExtension, edited this week by
(55:34):
me, Chris Enroth. And a specialthank you to Ken. Thank you for
hanging out, going over the listof things that people say does
affect us getting bitten bymosquitoes and digging through
some of the the reading here toto see what works and what
doesn't. Thank you, Ken.
Ken (55:53):
Yes. Thank you. And just remember everybody, do your
homework. If it sounds too goodto be true, a lot of times it
is. Mhmm.
Yeah. And let's do this againnext week.
Chris (56:06):
Oh, we shall do this again next week. We have a
special guest coming on theshow, doctor Elizabeth Wally, to
talk about grapes. Growinggrapes in the backyard, that
sounds like fun. She's gonnatalk all about it and and cover
the ins, outs, the ups, thedowns, the the goods and the
bads, the highs and the lows,because there's quite a few with
grapes. There's grapes.
(56:27):
Oh, I've seen lots of problemswith grapes. But we will get to
that next week. So listeners,thank you for doing what you do
best, that is listening, or ifyou're watching us on YouTube
watching. And as always, keep ongrowing.
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