Mosquito.buzz Blog

Rejoice, cottage-goers! July is here, which means that cottage season has officially been on for a few great months now. Time to grease up the barbecue, polish the boat, and stock up on some cold drinks for the weekend. Let's stay outside!

If you're heading up to the cottage this weekend and want to stem the rise of pesky mosquitoes,  you'd be wise to follow these easy-to-execute tips for keeping your property pest-free. They're simple, cheap and highly effective; and shouldn't take longer than an hour or so to complete. What's not to love?

Here are our tips for keeping mosquitoes away from your cottage property. 

Trim That Grass

Trim the grass and the rest will follow! Trees, shrubs, and tall grasses are the most common places for mosquitoes to linger before flying over to their target; plus, it gives them something other than your skin to nibble on for a quick snack.

Keeping grass mowed and vegetation trimmed will help reduce mosquito populations around the cottage, as you'll be giving them less foliage to hide in.

You can also prevent puddles in the lawn by filling in low levels with extra soil and seed, or having the lawn aerated. An aeration will relieve soil compaction, which will help stop puddles from forming after a heavy bout of rain, giving mosquitoes one less place to breed.

Get Rid Of Standing Water

Just like us, mosquitoes love the look of a nice body of water on a summers day. As you'll recall, mosquitoes breed in standing water; so if your cottage has lots of standing water around, you're going to have lots of mosquitoes, too. This includes pet bowls, fountains, rain barrels - literally anything that can hold more than an inch of water at a time. That's all it takes for a female mosquito to lay a bunch of eggs and create hundreds more mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes tend not to travel far from water, so regularly drain any types of water-filled containers to help prevent mosquito populations from getting out of control.

Clean The Cottage

Make sure that your property is spick and span before you head in for dinner and dancing after a long day on the lake (you'll thank us for it later). Go for a walk around the cottage and get rid of anything that doesn't need to be there; kids toys, flower pots, tarps, helmets... whatever could give mosquitoes a place to congregate and plot out their next attack.

Items like tires are notorious for breeding thousands of mosquitoes, since they not only carry standing water but also provide some insulation for larvae. These things should all be removed from your property and stored in a place where mosquitoes can't get to them.

Use An Electric Fan

Here's an interesting tip; mosquitoes are pretty weak at flying compared to other bugs such as black flies (just as annoying, we know). 

So setting up an electric fan where you and your peeps are sitting is an easy way to reduce the amount of mosquito bites to your bare skin, as it'll hinder their ability to reach you with the breeze knocking them around.

On a sultry day, the cool breeze will be godsend, that's for sure! 

Talk to our team of mosquito and tick control gurus for more information on barrier protection for your cottage.

Plus, follow us on Facebook for weekly prevention tips and tricks!