Mosquito Control: Next Summer's Mosquitoes Are Already in Your Yard

It's the middle of October, the evenings are cooling off, and most people across the New River Valley have stopped thinking about mosquitoes. The mosquitoes haven't stopped thinking about next year.

Some of the mosquitoes that will bite you on your back porch next June are already here. They're sitting in your yard right now as eggs.

The Asian tiger mosquito, the small black-and-white striped one that bites during the day, is one of the most common mosquitoes in Virginia. The females lay their eggs just above the waterline on the inside walls of anything holding water. When the water dries up, the eggs don't. They can sit through a dry spell or an entire winter, then hatch as soon as spring rain fills the container back up.

It doesn't take much. A bottle cap of water is enough. Around most homes that means:

• Flower pot saucers
• Clogged gutters and downspout extensions
• Birdbaths
• Buckets, wheelbarrows and kids' toys left outside
• Tarps over firewood, grills or boats
• Old tires

In warm weather a mosquito can go from egg to biting adult in about a week to ten days. That's why a yard can seem fine one week and be miserable the next.

Other species handle winter differently. Some adult female mosquitoes hunker down for the cold months in sheltered spots like sheds, crawl spaces and basements, then come back out when it warms up.

What you can do this fall

The best time to cut down on next year's mosquitoes is before those containers fill back up in the spring. Empty and flip anything that holds water. Scrub out flower pot saucers and birdbaths, since the eggs stick to the sides and survive a simple dumping. Clean out your gutters once the leaves are down. Store buckets and toys under cover or upside down.

Mosquitoes also spend the hottest part of the day resting in shady, dense shrubs and tall grass. Keeping things trimmed back around your patio and porch gives them fewer places to wait for you.

They don't travel far, either. The tiger mosquito usually stays close to where it hatched, so the ones biting you on the porch most likely grew up in your yard or the one next door.

Cleanup helps a lot, but it rarely gets every source, especially when your neighbors' yards are part of the picture. If mosquitoes kept you inside this summer, New River Pest Control LLC offers mosquito control for homes throughout Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford and the rest of the NRV. Give us a call before the first warm stretch of spring and we'll get you taken care of.