Posted: 6/17/2009 9:32:39 AM EDT
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Mother of God.
We sent 12 employees to our other location to work today while it was still somewhat cool. At 9am, I got a call telling me they needed more bottled water and more mosquito repellent. I sent them down there with 2 full cans of Off, how could they have used it all? So I went and bought two more cans of the strongest repellent I could find, and a hose-on bottle of that Cutter backyard spray. They were outside taking their mid morning break when I got there. They said the mosquitoes were so bad, after 30 minutes, the Off didn't work. I kinda shrugged it off and gave them the new stuff. Then I pulled out the bottle of Cutter, put in on a water hose and proceeded to spray the boundry areas around where they were working. OMG! I got to the back and the mosquitoes were swarming around me. Literally, I could not get them off me. Even spraying the Cutter in the air directly in front of me, made absolutely no difference. I got the hell out of there and went back out front to get some repellent. I proceeded to spray the boundary areas as best I could, without actually spraying where they were working. I then went over to an area where we had some tall grass and proceeded to spray all of that. They started swarming on me again. It sounded like a friggin swarm of bumble bees, but it was mosquitoes! Nasty, and this was after I put on the repellent. I literally just had to quickly back out of the grass while spraying to keep from gettin eatin alive. I sprayed as much as I could with the little jug I had. One of my guys is gonna mow down the grass tonight and tomorrow is payback. We're bringing out the spray rig and we're gonna spray the entire 5 acres with something. I dunno what yet. I have to dig through the chemical room and see what we have. I know I've still got some dursban, lots of other stuff too, I just gotta dig. Maybe our resident pest control guy can chime in on what works best? (I need a magic bullet!) |
| I am having the same problem at my house. Weird b/c it hasn't rained in a month, is dry as hell, and the mosquitos are not going away. everytime I open the door, 10 of em are waiting at the back door to fly in the house. Son got bit in his sleep by some last night. |
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My best recommendation is a complete mosquito system, but the price can get up there. I tell my customers that the propane fogger
from Lowe's/Home Depot works very well, but you have to do it every day and twice a day in some cases. I have done some power sprays in some lawns and gotten some damn good control. Let me know if I can help By the way, I own a small pest control company. |
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Quoted:
My best recommendation is a complete mosquito system, but the price can get up there. I tell my customers that the propane fogger from Lowe's/Home Depot works very well, but you have to do it every day and twice a day in some cases. I have done some power sprays in some lawns and gotten some damn good control. Let me know if I can help By the way, I own a small pest control company. Does the propane fogger work on flies too? The flies have really come out this year. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
My best recommendation is a complete mosquito system, but the price can get up there. I tell my customers that the propane fogger from Lowe's/Home Depot works very well, but you have to do it every day and twice a day in some cases. I have done some power sprays in some lawns and gotten some damn good control. Let me know if I can help By the way, I own a small pest control company. Does the propane fogger work on flies too? The flies have really come out this year. Funny you should say that, they have been horrible this year. I am not sure, never tried the fogger on flies, but there is some great fly bait out there called "Fly Spot Bait" You can get at Solutions. |
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You have cleaned up any standing water around you haven't you? If there is any standing water near you- old tires, cans, etc. that's where they are breeding. Mosquitos will travel for a few miles when active. Just spraying the immediate area won't keep them out.
Jim |
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You have cleaned up any standing water around you haven't you? If there is any standing water near you- old tires, cans, etc. that's where they are breeding. Mosquitos will travel for a few miles when active. Just spraying the immediate area won't keep them out. Jim There's always some water around, and there's always some mosquitoes around, it's just the nature of the nursery business. We've just never seen it this bad. They were "roosting" in the plants in hordes. Most of the chemicals we normally use don't target mosquitoes. Malathion would probably work, but doesn't look like there's much residual. Probably going to stick with a pyrethroid. |
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You have cleaned up any standing water around you haven't you? If there is any standing water near you- old tires, cans, etc. that's where they are breeding. Mosquitos will travel for a few miles when active. Just spraying the immediate area won't keep them out. Jim There's always some water around, and there's always some mosquitoes around, it's just the nature of the nursery business. We've just never seen it this bad. They were "roosting" in the plants in hordes. Most of the chemicals we normally use don't target mosquitoes. Malathion would probably work, but doesn't look like there's much residual. Probably going to stick with a pyrethroid. I didn't know you were in the nursery business. Water would be a normal thing. I meant stagnant standing water where they breed. Is there any way for you to determine if they are coming in to your location or if they are breeding on your property? There are different chemicals for aggs, pupal,larval and adult mosquitos. Some attack all life stages but are better suited for one or another. One targets floodwater mosquitos. Sevin 80 WSP Carbaryl Insecticide is rated for adult mosquitos and is approved for orchards and flowering plants. I don't know if it is approved for nurserys. This site is very useful. Do a search by pest and then sort through all the pesticides to find one that is best for your needs. If all else fails call your ag extension agent. Jim |
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There is some standing water where all of the runoff from the greenhouse collects. I hit those with the Cutter spray this morning. So those breeding areas are taken care of, but with the amount of mosquitoes present, most came from the river about a mile away. So I'm looking to target the adults or at least discourage them for a while. It is unbearable to work there if they start swarming.
I was just hoping there was some magic bullet out there that was recommended. Pesticides change all the time, the bugs don't, but the pesticides do. When I took entomology in the 90's, we were using photocopies of a book from the 1960's. Oddly enough, it was the same book my father used when he took entomology in the late 60's. |
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Who is responsible for the river? Is it on private or public land? If it's a city that has responsibility keep on them to do something about it before the skeeters start spreading disease. The small city I work for uses mosquito tablets. I believe they lower the surface tension of the water so they can't lay eggs.
This is a really off the wall idea, but could you put up bat houses anywhere near the river? Those little pests eat their body weight of mosquitos every night if I remember the Discovery Channel show from a few years ago correctly. I have a pesticide license but am not an entomologist. Unless it's a problem I see fairly often my info comes from the CEU courses we take every year from the SPCB or soem A&M courses. There is one product, Sciariprene, that is rated for adult floodwater mosquitos. If you have access to the river that might be a solution. I have no experience with it and you would have to decide if it would be appropriate. It's on that website and has a lot of info with it including the label. Do you have a pest license? Did Deep Woods Off not work? I figured anything with DEET would keep them off of you and your workers. Every softball field we play on is near a creek and that keeps them from feasting on us- until we sweat it off. Jim |
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Skeeters ARE flies. They are not houseflies, or horseflies, but they are flies.
You can look that up. 
ETA: diptera-I remember this from high school. |
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We found a bottle of Scimitar CS, Active Ingredient: 9.7% Lambda-cyhalothrin*, 24 HR REI. Sprayed out 80 gallons. Hopefully that will keep them at bay for a while. We'll go back tomorrow after 24 hrs and take a look.
I haven't heard of Sciariprene, looks like a growth regular. We use Azatin for growth regulation. Supposedly it screws up the molting process on bugs and kills them, but it's not labeled for mosquitoes. |
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Check this page from A&M. It sounds like you are having a problem with floodwater mosquitoes. About half-way down that page they detail them. They appear about a week after heavy rains and are a nuisance for only about a week or 2 due to a short life span. They also travel a long way to feed so I wouldn't go to a huge, expensive time-consuming effort to get rid of them.
Jim |
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Those greenhouses were due for a spray rotation anyway. And hitting all the whiteflies, thrips, aphids, fungus gnats, and mealy bugs with something completely outside of our normal spray rotation really cuts down on resistance. We probably haven't sprayed a broad spectrum insecticide like that for at last 3 or 4 years. Should also insure the fireants, fleas, and ticks all stay out of the area for a while.
Thanks for the info Jim. I just struggle trying to figure out what we need to spray if we encounter something out of the ordinary. |