Control Mosquitoes at Home

Though mosquito season is typically associated with summer, due to the warm Septembers and Octobers of recent years, the need to take precautions against mosquito bites persists into fall. And while wearing protective clothing and repellent is a piece of the puzzle to avoid mosquito-borne diseases, there are also a number of proactive measures to take at home to reduce the mosquito population in your midst.

Though avoiding itchy mosquito bites is enough of a reason to give some attention to mosquito control at home, mosquitoes are also vectors for diseases that can cause severe illness or even death, particularly among people age 50 and older.

Last month, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services found West Nile virus on the South Fork in mosquitoes that were collected in East Hampton and Bridgehampton and in a crow collected in Hampton Bays, and farther up the island, in Oakdale, the New York State Department of Health found a mosquito sample with eastern equine encephalitis, also known as “sleeping sickness.” Seven people in Suffolk County have been diagnosed with West Nile virus this year, and all recovered or are recovering.

Though mosquitoes can strike wherever people are out and about, homeowners and tenants alike can greatly reduce their chances of getting mosquito bites and the diseases that can come with them by making changes to the environment where they live.

JP McHale Pest Management President and CEO Jim McHale said during an interview last week that treatment for mosquitoes starts with habitat modification prior to applying mosquito control treatments. “Treatments are part of a holistic, integrated pest management program,” he said.

McHale, a Cornell-trained entomologist, noted that the major species of mosquitoes on eastern Long Island are Culex pipiens, the northern house mosquito, which can transmit West Nile virus; Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, which can transmit the Zika virus; and Aedes sollicitans, the eastern salt marsh mosquito, which can carry eastern equine encephalitis.

All mosquitoes are aquatic by nature, living in water in their egg, larva and pupa stages, he said, and can reproduce very, very quickly in standing water. To prevent mosquito pressure on a property, address standing water sites such as old tires, bird baths, gutters, kiddie pools, covers on boats, and low spots in a lawn, he advised.

For homes with decorative ponds, he recommends getting an agitator to keep the water moving to discourage mosquitoes from laying their eggs in it. In the fall, he said to put netting over ponds to prevent leaves from falling in because leaves increase the nitrogen content in the water, which is more habitable for mosquito development. He added that ponds can also be stocked with Gambusia, also known as mosquitofish, which eat mosquito larvae.

Ponds and other water sources can also be treated with Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria that works as a biological control of mosquito larvae. Consumer-grade products containing Bacillus thuringiensis include Mosquito Dunks and Mosquito Bits. “There’s a professional version that we use as well, and it complements or enhances our treatment strategies,” McHale said.

Switching from conventional outdoor bulbs to yellow bulbs will also make a yard less attractive to mosquitoes, McHale said, and he also recommends using citronella candles and an oscillating fan to repel mosquitoes outdoors.

He said the next step is to complement habitat modification by treating the ecotone — the transitional area between a managed lawn and where the brush is thicker — and planting beds. He does not advise treating a whole lawn but rather focusing on where mosquitoes “harbor.”

Applications are done early morning, before pollinators are out, and his company uses products that break down in sunlight. He said a lot of the risk to nontarget insects is during application, but once it dries, the treatment is not toxic to nontarget insects.

“We use an environmentally sustainable product, permethrin-based, and that’ll kill the adults when they emerge,” McHale said. “But again, if you can focus on the egg, larva, pupa, you can reduce pest population levels significantly.”

Permethrin should not be applied in ponds or where it can drift into water sources because it can lead to fish kills, he noted.

East End Tick & Mosquito Control general manager Robin Heaney said a common recommendation her company shares to reduce mosquitoes at home is to use irrigation systems less frequently.

“We tell them less is more,” she said. “The moisture is attracting the mosquitoes and the ticks.”

A product that is new this year to East End Tick & Mosquito Control is Thermacell LIV, which disperses metofluthrin, a chemical that humans can’t smell or otherwise detect but is irritating to mosquitoes. Wearable metofluthrin products are also available for on-the-go.

Thermacell LIV repellers can be set to timers, controlled by an app and turned on and off manually. While they won’t kill mosquitoes, they can achieve the goal of having a mosquito-free yard and will work for much longer than a spray treatment, which is only effective for three to five days.

East End Tick & Mosquito Control uses EcoVia MT, a botanical insecticide, for spraying. It is also approved for fogging near water.

Mosquitoes will die during the first frost of fall, McHale noted. Mosquitoes that overwinter in their aquatic stages will then emerge beginning in April.

When it comes to personal protection at home or out, he said permethrin-based products can be used on clothes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends repellents containing DEET, which can be applied to skin. Picaridin products likewise can go on skin.

Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott recently issued an advisory concerning West Nile virus: “We urge people, especially those who are older or have chronic illness, to seek medical attention as soon as they experience symptoms that may indicate West Nile virus and remind medical providers to consider West Nile virus as a diagnosis in patients who report symptoms such as fever, headache and body aches after recent mosquito bites.”

Dead birds may indicate the presence of West Nile virus in the area, according to the Department of Health Services. To report dead birds, take a photograph of any bird in question and call the Bureau of Public Health Protection at 631-852-5999 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Residents can report mosquito problems or stagnant pools of water to the Department of Public Works’ Vector Control Division at 631-852-4270.