ORGANIC MOSQUITO CONTROL

[FriedGreenTomatoes]

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]

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:

Lemon 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.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beekeeping ... ntial_Oils

[rainbowgardener]

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.

[applestar]

Oh yes. I should have said I haven't had any problems.

[ElizabethB]

Just a comment. Commercially produced citronella oil and citronella candles are not technically organic. In addition to the inert ingredients the essential oil is a synthetic produced in a lab and not extracted from plants.

[mark>ricca]

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?

[A Happy Seedling]

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.

[applestar]

Have you actually done this? How big a "jar"? How long did it take?

[A Happy Seedling]

Took several months to get rid of al the mosquitoes in the area (a few houses adjacent to mine were also mosquito-free!) but it was worth it; you can use as big a (GLASS!) jar as you will catch dragonflies: less dragonflies-->less breeding-->less offspring-->less space taken.

[applestar]

So you've done it? How long did you need to keep the dragonflies in the jar? What kind of jars did you use?

Please describe the process step by step. I would try it if I could understand the whole process.

[pepperhead212]

So where is the water in which the dragonflies breed? Dragonflies go through a "nymph" stage (sort of the larvae and pupae in one) in the water, and feed on things like mosquito larvae, and other aquatic life.

[A Happy Seedling]

I didn't use water. They got used to it and laid eggs on the leaves of the weeds in the jar, and the nymphs stayed in the shade underneath some leaves (on the soft, cool, shaded moss in the corner) until they grew up. Simple! As I said it took several months.