Category Archives: Tips and Fun Facts

At Mosquito Joe, we believe that the key to controlling a pest is understanding it. The more we understand their habits, behaviors, and needs, the better we can be at controlling the population and managing them. When it comes to mosquitoes, understanding mosquito eggs is vital. It’s the one thing that no laboratory has managed to kill. So, knowing what an egg needs to survive allows us to reduce the numbers in a yard, and hence the mosquito population as a whole.

A mosquito’s life cycle involves 4 stages, beginning with the egg and ending with the emergence of the adult mosquito. The first three stages occur in water so that is the preferred location for eggs to be laid. But a mosquito will lay eggs elsewhere if there is no water available. Where the female lays her eggs is driven by the species.

In general, mosquito eggs fall into 3 groups. The first are eggs that are laid as single units on water. The second are eggs laid in rafts which float on the water’s surface. The third are laid singly outside the water – on the side of rocks or holes or artificial containers. When the water rises in these areas, the eggs contact the water and hatch.

While managing water is the key to preventing the larvae from hatching, it’s not enough to control them. The fact is, if you have a female mosquito in your yard who wants to lay eggs, she will find a place. And if there is no water, then she will find a location where the soil is moist and opt for that. If you water regularly chances are that the soil is damp enough for her to lay eggs there.

If you have a culvert by the street, while it may not hold water when she visits, she will opt for it as a good spot. If you have plant pots, a wheelbarrow, or any number of containers in your yard, even if dry, she will lay eggs there knowing that the rain will come, and the container will fill.

So how long will that egg survive if we don’t get rain? The answer is the key to why mosquitoes are so hard to control. A mosquito egg can lay dormant for up to 15 years. They can be frozen in ice and hatch when the ice melts. You may read that Dawn dish soap can suffocate eggs, but this is not true. No one has worked out how to kill a mosquito egg and we are limited to killing the larvae and pupae (as well as the adults).

The best way to control the mosquitoes in your yard is to limit the water, as well as areas where water can accumulate after rain. As soon as water touches an egg it can hatch, and ONE TEASPOON of water will provide enough for 300 eggs. A good checklist is as follows:

1. Keep your gutters flowing and free of debris.
2. Turn all containers upside down and store them out of the elements (plant pots, wheelbarrows, saucers under plant pots, gutter drains, etc.).
3. Even your yard if you have low spots can accumulate water. Customers with the worst mosquito issues are usually those who have dogs that dig holes in their yard.
4. Minimize the use of tarps – one tarp can create multiple pockets of standing water.
5. If you have poor drainage in your yard, fixing it can resolve a lot of issues. Direct water away from your property and be careful not to lay a French drain without a steep angle – poorly designed drains are hidden under the ground, but not from mosquitoes.
6. Keep your yard tidy and your ground clear of as much leaf and pine needle debris as possible. The more ground cover you have, the wetter the soil beneath.
7. Bring kids’ toys inside before rains. One small plastic toy can fill with water and breed a lot of mosquitoes. The same goes for plastic kid playhouses.
8. Refresh your birdbaths often, it is not enough to tip out the water – mosquito eggs can cling to the sides. Scrub the bath before refilling so you are not just refreshing the water for those eggs!
9. Finally, after a weather event spend a few minutes tipping and tossing the water. An egg cannot hatch without water, so don’t give them that option!

Our mosquito service involves more than laying down products. Our technicians will tip and toss as they treat, so if you want to have us manage these issues just give us a call to find out more at 979-859-5998.

We thought it would be fun to gather a group of interesting facts about mosquitoes, that you may not know, into one list. There is far more to the mosquito than meets the eye, and each year we continue to learn more and observe more about their behavior. So here are 29 facts you may not know:

• There are over 3,000 species of mosquitoes in the world. Only about 200 bites.
• Texas has the highest number of mosquito species at 85, while West Virginia has the fewest at 26.
• Male mosquitoes do not bite. It is only the female one that sucks your blood and gets the protein from it. This protein helps the mosquitoes to develop their eggs.
• Mosquitoes feed mainly on plant nectar.
• Mosquitoes cannot regulate their body temperature, so they will shade from the sun during the day.
• A female mosquito can drink 3 times her body weight in blood.
• Mosquitoes prefer the blood of horses or birds or cattle to humans.
• Mosquitoes have been around since the Jurassic period. They have been on Earth for over 210 million years!
• Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on the planet, far more so than sharks.
• Mosquitoes can spread several life-threatening diseases including West Nile, Dengue, and Malaria.
• Many mosquitoes don’t die from a freeze. Instead, they hibernate and reawaken once temperatures climb over 50 degrees.
• A mosquito egg can lay dormant for up to 10 years, and hatch once water touches it.
• All mosquitoes need water to breed.
• A mosquito spends the first 7-10 days of its life in water.
• Mosquitoes live up to 6 months (the majority live 2-3 weeks).
• When mosquitoes hatch out of the pupae they first breed before the female searches for a blood meal. She then lays her eggs and only then will settle to feed from nectar.
• The female mosquito lays her eggs in stagnant water, 300 at a time. Only a teaspoon will do.
• Mosquitoes beat their wings 500-600 times per minute. When mating they will synchronize their wings.
• Mosquitoes only fly 1.5 miles per hour.
• Mosquitoes mostly keep to 6-8 feet above ground. They can fly up to 25’ high but they are not strong fliers and cannot manage the breeze well.
• Mosquitoes generally fly 2-3 miles at best (some saltmarsh mosquitoes can fly 100 miles, however).
• Mosquitoes use several methods to locate a blood meal. They first detect CO2 plumes, which they can do from 75’ away.
• Once a mosquito gets closer it turns to smell to home in on a victim. Sweat, beer, and a host of other odors can make us more attractive.
• Movement also attracts mosquitoes.
• When they are close mosquitoes turn to heat sensing to find us to bite.
• Mosquito traps don’t work well as they do not emit heat. They attract mosquitoes into your yard but, if you are outside, they will find you first.
• Bug zappers don’t kill mosquitoes. The light attracts them in, but they won’t fly into it. The same is true for outside lights you turn on at night.
• When the female bites she inserts her proboscis into our skin. Her saliva helps the multiple tubes inside this to slide through our skin. It also has a mild pain-killing property, to help her go undetected, and has anti-coagulant properties.
• The bumps and itch that result from a bite are the result of a common allergy to saliva. Some lucky people don’t have a reaction.

We make outside fun again by keeping mosquitoes and other outdoor pests away! Give us a call today at 979-859-5998 for a free quote!

March is the month that Mosquito Joe of S Brazos Valley suggests that those customers, who opted to pause service in the cooler months, start back with service. Depending on the winter we may already be seeing mosquitoes – wet and milder winters set us up for a serious mosquito population in the spring. The temperatures will now begin to rapidly climb, and it won’t be long until mosquitoes are a huge issue.

So how do you stop mosquitoes from taking over this year? Obviously calling us is your solution, but even then, we always ask our customers to work with us to prevent their yards from being a sanctuary for mosquitoes.

Here are some tried, routed in science, methods to employ this month to help stop mosquitoes in your yard:

1. Spring-clean your yard: The leaves have stopped falling and the weather is warming, so it’s time for a landscape cleanup. Rake up and remove all the remaining fallen leaves and pine needles from this winter. Pick up broken limbs and twigs from the ground. The less ground cover you have the drier your soil, and that means mosquitoes have less places to lay their eggs.
   
2. Clean your gutters and not just a grab overhead of debris either. All that silt and compost-like material that is breaking down in the gutters play a big role as well. So, once you have the leaves and twigs, etc., cleaned out, take your hose, and flush the gutters clean. Make sure the water flows out of the gutter and that the gutter has not sagged and is holding water. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in that decomposing matter and it’s one of the places that is hardest for us to reach when we treat.
   
3. Tarps, pots and containers must be removed from your yard. Did you know that it only takes 1 teaspoon of water to breed 300 mosquitoes every few days? Sometimes it’s hard to even recognize an issue when you see it every day. Your best rule of thumb is to remove all those items and get them inside – after you drain them all so you don’t bring the mosquitoes with you! We’ve found mosquitoes breeding in the bottom of watering cans inside a shed that had a tiny opening in its door.
   
4. Septic systems: these are one of the worst offenders for our customers. Water you don’t see you just don’t consider, and there is a lot down there. Over time septic tank lids can crack and come loose. Sometimes your septic company may visit and forget to seal down the openings after their checks. So, check out your lids – an easy check is to open one. If mosquitoes come flying out, you know they are getting in – it doesn’t take much of an opening to get inside.
5. Yard grading, French drains, and more: When it comes to mosquitoes your source, and thus number one priority, is water. Once you’ve dealt with all the areas in your yard that catch water you need to turn your attention to any areas that hold water after rain or weather. French drains are tricky as they always hold water under the ground that we don’t see, and so don’t consider them. Making sure that those drains are clear of debris and free flowing will help immensely. The same is true for your gutter downspouts – they can fill up with debris over time and hold vast amounts of water in them. Make sure when you flush your gutters that the downspouts are free flowing. Finally, check out your yard drainage. With all the construction in our area, things change frequently. If you can, lay down some dirt over areas that act like containers after rain, and try and encourage the movement of water away from your yard.
   
6. Remove mosquito traps and bug lights: these do nothing more than encourage mosquitoes to come to visit your yard and once there, you are a much tastier meal than the traps. If you want to use a mosquito trap place it at the edge of your property. And bug zappers just don’t do anything except kill insects you should want around.
7. Call Mosquito Joe: When we treat a yard we tip and toss, provide advice to our customers, check your septic, treat your gutters where we can reach, and treat any standing water and places that may be dry but will hold water later. We treat flowering plants with garlic, to push mosquitoes to other areas without impacting the pollinators, all the green leaves on both sides, and all fence lines to kill any mosquitoes that land to feed. We work to prevent larvae from hatching into adult mosquitoes as well as killing the adult mosquitoes in your yard. The aim is to break the lifecycle in your garden and reduce your population by over 95%. If anyone tells you they can get rid of every single one, well they are not being honest. Mosquitoes have been around since before the dinosaurs for good reason.
   

Finally, as silly as it sounds when you are walking around your yard try and think like a mosquito. Imagine that the smallest amount of water is your life source, and you must find it to lay eggs. The simple curve on a dry leaf makes a happy spot, as does a birdbath and a pot, or a discarded beer can full of rainwater. There are so many places’ mosquitoes will use. The tidier you can keep your yard the better off you will be. And if you don’t want to think like a mosquito, give us a call. It’s pretty much what we do – 979-859-5998.

It seems like we all have people in our lives who are hard to buy for. Some have everything they need and want for nothing; others can never think of any ideas when asked. It’s an annual struggle to come up with ideas for family and loved ones that they will enjoy and that they won’t receive duplicates of.

Pest control is never at the top of someone’s mind when they are trying to think of a gift idea, but we are here to tell you that our gift certificates are a huge success. It’s the gift that keeps on giving all year – your loved ones can enjoy their outside spaces all summer long and reclaim their backyard. Trust us, what may seem like an unusual idea will have your loved one thanking you all year long.

Mosquito Joe offers several gift ideas for you.  Your first option is a barrier service for a fixed period of time – 10 services (completed once every 3 weeks) will provide a bite-free yard for the summer, or you can opt for more – 17 being a full year, it is entirely up to you. We provide a festive gift certificate for you wrap up and stay in contact with your giftee letting them know when the services you purchased are completed. You also save 10% on the cost if you purchase 10, and 15% if you opt for 13 or more.

For those who have a smaller space they enjoy and want to spend time in – like a patio area, or a party/outdoor kitchen, we can offer a LIV+ system. This system connects to WiFi and turns on via your phone or by a simple push of a button on the provided hub. Your gift will be installed according to the specific space, and your loved one just turns the system on when they are outside. Mosquitoes, biting midges, and even some flies beat a hasty retreat. Mosquito Joe monitors the system and lets the owner know when a refill is needed – a unit will run for 180 hours before a refill is needed (if you forget to turn it off it will turn itself off, so you don’t waste your fill). We also offer one year, same as cash, financing for these systems and they start at $535.

While these are the two most popular options we have, perhaps you have a loved one who constantly struggles with fleas in their yard and wants to try and control them for their pet. Or if you have a family member who is really allergic to fire ant bites we can help there too.

To get started and learn more about costs and options, just call or email us with the address of the property and we can get you a quote.  If you move forward, we set up the account, take the payment and create your gift certificate for you along with your personalized message.

If you want to learn more just call us at 979-859-5998 or email us at nwhoustonbrazos@mosquitojoe.com. We wish you all a very happy holiday season!

Did you know that October is notoriously voted the favorite month of the year? With fall weather cooling us down (ever so slightly here in Texas), people tend to spend more time outdoors enjoying the month with pumpkins, coffee, and Halloween festivities. It also means moving our celebrations and family gatherings from inside to outside, decorating our patios, and having our meals under string lights. However, with increased outdoor lighting comes an increase in mosquitoes – but why?

Mosquitoes are attracted to many aspects of fall weather – less direct sunlight, cooler days, and even cooler nights. While many other pests are attracted to light, mosquitoes rely on it to help them find a blood source once they have spotted your CO2 plumes from a distance. As a result, mosquito issues may increase around porch lights and bright areas around homes. Their bites usually occur in the evening and at night when many mosquito species are active. The increase in landscape and fairy lights in your yard can not only draw more bugs into your yard, but help mosquitoes find you. This goes for patio and porch lights too! While many people like to keep these lights on through the night, they act as neon signs for mosquitoes, midges, gnats, june bugs, and other unwelcome insects. You can save yourself a lot of trouble and bugs by turning these lights off when you aren’t outside.

So, what can you do instead to help prevent sharing your yard with mosquitoes and other bugs? As far as lighting, security/motion detection lights are the way to go. Having lights that do not remain on for extended periods of time reduces the chance of attracting insects to string lights and regular patio/porch lights. Of course, you can’t have dinner or family gatherings under the on-again-off-again glow of a security light. Instead, simply limit the amount of time you have these string, patio, and landscaping lights on before spending time outdoors.

As we increase the time we spend outdoors we often find an increase in the use of mosquito traps. These typically include glowing electric lamps, citronella candles, and torches. Many of these do not help and some will make matters worse. Much like outdoor or patio lights, these sources of light draw pests toward them. From a distance, mosquitoes rely on their sense of smell, specifically hunting down CO2 plumes that we or other animals emit. Once closer, they can use visual cues to assess a blood source. While they are still seeking a source of CO2, light aids their poor visibility and makes for an easier search. From very close proximity, typically within 1-3 feet, mosquitoes then rely on thermal sensory input to locate heat and moisture sources. This prevents them from wasting time on objects such as rocks, vegetation, and mosquito repellent products. This means that mosquito traps do a great job of leading pests to you rather than truly repelling them; you can learn more about the true effectiveness of mosquito repellent products here! Instead, get more bang for your buck by investing in mosquito control services and simply limiting light and water sources in your yard.

A new option Mosquito Joe offers is the Thermacell LIV system, which you turn on when you are outside remotely with your phone. This device emits a pesticide in the form of an odor which keeps mosquitoes and biting midges out of your patio area. You can combine this with a barrier service (which removes 95% of the mosquitoes in your yard) for complete protection in the evenings. Give us a call/text for a free quote so you can enjoy your lights and the weather without the worry at 979-859-5998.