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Re: ORGANIC MOSQUITO CONTROL
Applestar, I told my fiance about you planting lemon balm near your swing set, and we agreed that that was a great idea! The house we bought has a few healthy clumps in the front flower bed. We decided we could dig a few up and put them out back near our deck. His idea is to hit them with the mower or weed sacked if we plan to spend long periods of time out there. I hope that works! Thanks for the idea!-FGT
- applestar
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I was watching recorded this week's episode of Elementary, and Holms who in this incarnation is an avid bee hobbyist was telling Watson that the assassin had established an Africanized bee colony on a jogging route of his severely allergic target to be attacked and stung to death, probably by using lemongrass oil as lure.
...so I had to look it up:
...so I had to look it up:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beekeeping ... ntial_OilsLemon Grass
Lemongrass works conveniently as well as the pheromone created by the honeybee's nasonov gland, also known as attractant pheromone. Because of this lemon grass oil can be used as a lure when trapping swarms or attempting to draw the attention of hived bees. Be warned, however, that lemon grass oil can cause a robbing behavior if it is used within or on a weak hive.
- rainbowgardener
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Interesting! But lemon grass is more intensely lemony than lemon balm. And lemon grass oil is the concentrated essence of the lemon grass. So rest assured, your lemon balm will not lure in swarms of bees - I have tons of the stuff. Bees do like their flowers, but they don't come in swarms, just the occasional one or two.
- ElizabethB
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- mark>ricca
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I won't claim this as organic but I was directed to use 1 cup of lemon scented ammonia and 1 cup lemon scented dish liquid into a hose end sprayer and dilute over 20 gallons of water. (about 4 tsp per gallon)
The recommendation called for an application of 3 times a week over the entire lawn to drive the mosquitoes away.
I haven't done it consistently enough to judge it's effectiveness.
I really do need to find something though because we have Asian Tiger Mosquitoes and they are horrible.
Has anyone been able to successfully bring Dragonflies or Damesflies into their environment?
The recommendation called for an application of 3 times a week over the entire lawn to drive the mosquitoes away.
I haven't done it consistently enough to judge it's effectiveness.
I really do need to find something though because we have Asian Tiger Mosquitoes and they are horrible.
Has anyone been able to successfully bring Dragonflies or Damesflies into their environment?
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- Green Thumb
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Yes, you have to catch the dragonflies (big ones go nicely into butterfly nets!) and put in big jars with 'skeeters and some common garden weeds. If you put in enough plants you don't have to poke holes in the lid. Then just wait. Once they get around to breeding you release half of them into the yard, and let the other half breed again. Eventually let them all out. If you have enough skeeters they will stay near your home.
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