pests that carry me away

[speedster7926]

I have so many mosquitoes and yellow flies and sand gnats (no-seeums) and they are horrible the mosquitoes are the size of quarters and bite through any clothing I have to cake on bullfrog repellent or I have to run for the hills once the buzzing starts what can I do

[dremmle]

I have heard that citronella plants are supposed to repel mosquitoes.

I have not used it myself so maybe someone can chime in and let us know the validity of this plant actually repelling the insects.

[rainbowgardener]

Citronella oil is a good mosquito repellant as is geranium oil. There is really no plant that does a very good job of repelling mosquitos just by sitting there. The leaves have to be crushed to release the scent, and it is much more concentrated in the oils. I do grow the mosquito shoo geranium (higher concentration of geraniol). If I crush the leaves and rub them all along the deck railing, it does a pretty good job of keeping mosquitos off the deck for awhile. Over time, it also lifts the paint!


They make little devices that have a disc of solidified geranium oil and a teeny little fan blowing across it. It works pretty well to keep a deck sized area clear of mosquitos (but you have to turn it on first and let it run for a little while to build up a concentration, before you come out).

[Toil]

where is the standing water?

[speedster7926]

lol everywhere I have a pond behind our house very poor draining ditches all over the place we live in the country in Florida and there are misc pots and buckets all over that my dad keeps around his storage room. these mosquitoes are huge its like mosquitoes on crack or something I killed one today that was fully intact and covered a quarter they hurt so bad when they bite