One Man’s Poison…

mosquito - morguefile…kills another man’s mosquitoes. Or mine, anyway.

The arrival of spring means an end to icy roads, windchills, and the need to pack away winter things like favorite fleece blankets and fuzzy socks. It also ushers in, for those of us in Michigan anyway, “mosquito season.” I’ve blogged about this subject before (here and here), but now I have a new reason to post about them.

In the past, mosquitoes were mostly just annoying pests, but that’s not the case anymore. Not only do there seem to be millions more than there used to be, but more and more diseases are spread by the little bloodsuckers. Every year, it seems.

I’m not sure what it is about me that mosquitoes like, but I’ve always attracted them – no matter what I do to try and keep them away. I can soak my clothes (literally, until they’re damp) with Deet containing sprays … and they still swarm me. Fabric softener sheets? Nope. They don’t work at all. A popular lotion reported to work? Yeah right. Not for me. It’s so bad I’ve had people stare at me, awed by the fact that I’ve just used half a can of chemicals, and all it seems to do is attract more mosquitoes.

Never happy to be Mother Nature’s blood buffet, I’m always desperate to try anything that might help. So when I saw an old article from the New York Times titled, Brewing Up Double-Edged Delicacies for Mosquitoes, I was willing to put a little more stock in that than most remedies I’d read about.

Based on the information in the article, along with some research I’d done, I came up with the following ‘recipe.’

For a 20 oz water bottle, I use about a cup of apple juice, 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar, and about a quarter of a cup of 20 Mule Team Borax. Shake the bottle well, take the cap off, tie some sort of string/yarn around the top, then tie it in a tree or bush (hopefully, where it can’t be seen from the road because as a yard decoration, it leaves something to be desired). A couple should be all you need. Change it every 3-4 weeks over the summer. I also toss Borax, in a sprinkling kind of way, into any standing water (think ditches and runoff from the neighbor’s property). I don’t do the wick/sock thing, but it works well anyway. I might try to figure out how to do it this year though.

I’ve set the bottles out two out of the last three summers (the middle one, the bugs weren’t bad) and can tell you from experience that in a week or so, the mosquito population around your house will decrease – dramatically. It works so well, I nag tell everyone I know about it.

Honestly? I can’t say enough good about ‘poisoned nectar.’ If you decide to give it a shot, let me know if your results were as impressive as mine.

Photo credit: Morguefile.com

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2 Responses to One Man’s Poison…

  1. I have the same problem with mosquitos. Sometimes I hold onto my husband because it’s the only way they leave me alone. For some reason, they hate him and won’t come within arm’s length of him.

    I’m going to try your remedy and see what happens. 🙂

    • Kristy K. James says:

      Jeez, can I borrow YOUR husband so I can actually go see fireworks this year? LOL. I love watching them but decided it just wasn’t worth it anymore. I spend most of the time slapping mosquitoes – and then scratching the bites for days afterward. Yeah, I’ll just stay in the house. 😀 😀 😀

      At least the poisoned nectar means I can go out in my yard. It doesn’t get rid of all of them but when you’re killing 50+ in your house every day – thank to two dogs who require several trips in and out every day – knocking them down to maybe a dozen that zip n the door (or sneak in on the Jack and Blondie) is totally worth it. I wouldn’t even care if people could see the bottles hanging in trees and plants from the road. 😀

      Hope it helps you guys as much as it does here. It’s getting a little scary when the news is filled with all sorts of disease spread by the nasty bloodsuckers.

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