There are 45 species of
Mosquitoes in the NH seacoast and southern York County ME
. Only 18 of them actually bite humans. Mosquitoes need shallow pools of water, fresh or salt, for them to complete their life cycles. Different species emerge at different times of the summer. For home owners the salt water species of mosquitoes emerging from June until September are most problematic. These are the mosquitoes that make it very hard to enjoy outdoor activities through the day and then impossible, by early evening. These mosquitoes wait out on your lawn or along shady tree lines around your property, resting and waiting for sun to go down so they can become active and fly without dehydrating. Mosquitoes can become even more of a concern towards the end of the summer because of the diseases they acquire and build up among their population, thus creating a greater chance for people to contract those diseases after being bitten.
When treating for mosquitoes the first concern is environmental, and we use botanic based insecticides, based on Chrysanthemum extract, that are non residual (meaning they break down). These treatments break down into natural elements with time, after they are applied. Where we spray is just as important as what we use. We only spray those areas that you spend time in, and the mosquitoes rest when not active. When first applied the treatment kills the mosquitoes in those target areas. As time goes by the treatment will break down into natural elements, and becomes more of a repellent to the mosquitoes that try to rest on the treated foliage. This will keep them away from treated areas for the life time of the treatment which is weather dependent, but approximately 2-3 weeks. This treatment only works on the mosquitoes having rested in your yard in areas that were sprayed. After the sun goes down mosquitoes will fly in from neighboring areas and the service will not stop flying mosquitoes, (you can still be bitten), but it will prevent them from resting on treated areas. Homeowners find great relief in daylight and early evening hours. Even an added bonus to mosquito service is that the treatment affects ticks as well.
Here are some simple, yet important things customers need to do to help treatments last longer and enables us to get the job done efficiently. We try to do all services Monday thru Wednesday so we are not in competition with the lawn mowers.
- Cut the lawn before we service.
- Sprinkler systems can affect the length of time a treatment lasts. Also they need to be off at the time of service.
- Please have water faucet and hose available. The closer to the driveway the better. It is easier for us to reload the sprayer at the truck.
- Please leave payment for us. We do not do billing to help keep our prices down. If you forget to leave the payment we will leave the bill which needs to be paid before the next service.
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM), FOR THE HOMEOWNER
The single most important thing a home owner can do is to prevent potential breeding sites for fresh water mosquitoes on their property is to remove the site. Any item that can hold rain water for more than 5 days is a potential breeding sight. Some examples are pots, bird baths, discarded tires, unused pools, etc. These types of containers can produce hundreds to thousands of new adults every few weeks. By eliminating breeding sights it reduces the potential for mosquitoes to exist and breed on your property. If you have wetland areas on your property most towns have mosquito programs that can inspect those areas for you and if need be, have special permits available to treat the area. No wetland or water surface can be treated without a special permit from the state, regardless of its location.
Here is a picture of mosquito larva. If the water they are living in is disturbed they will swim to the bottom of the container in a wiggling movement. If you find a container with them in it you only need to empty the water out. No insecticide is needed.
