Arriving home after a hard day’s work you get yourself a cold one, flip on the TV, put your feet up and settle down to relax. Suddenly you feel a tickling by your neck, and then the buzzing starts right by your left ear. Yup, it’s mozzie season again. While keeping these annoying pests out of your home may not be the easiest especially in summer, we’ve got some ways you can be as mozzie free as possible.
Start With The Outside
Wondering why you’re always plagued by mosquitoes during summer? Your property may be offering the perfect environment for mosquitoes to thrive, so check around outside for the following:
- Water in plant pots or saucers, birdbaths and old tyres
- Stagnant fish pond
- Uncovered rainwater tanks
- Leaking gutters
- Pets water bowls
- Water collecting under air conditioning units
These can all provide places for mosquitoes to lay eggs, so you’ll need to empty out any standing water, clean ponds and birdbaths, check gutters for leaks and cover rainwater tanks.
There are many plants that you can also add to your garden or in pots on your deck that help to deter mosquitoes naturally from coming into your home, including: citronella, lemon balm, rosemary, marigolds, basil and lavender.
Inside the House
You may already have fly screens on all your windows and doors. If not, this is a good way to ensure mosquitoes can’t get inside your home. The wire mesh holes are usually too small for mosquitoes to get through, so they’re left buzzing around outside. However, to work effectively they need to be checked regularly for holes and the screws tightened so they completely cover windows and doors without leaving any gaps. If there is even a small hole you can bet that a mosquito will find it. Remembering to keep bedroom doors and windows closed will act as a double deterrent.
If you can’t bear the thought of shutting your windows in the weekend, then leave them open during the day and close them at dusk. This is when mozzies are most active and looking for a human to feed on. Lighting a few citronella candles and placing them on your deck at dusk will help to ward them off too.
Extra Mozzie Tips
Even if you’ve been extra vigilant, there are always occasions where a mozzie has breached the barriers and is making a pest of itself in your bedroom just before you’re about to go to sleep. You have a couple of options. Try and squash it with a fly swat or spray the room with an insect spray and close the door so it can deal with it before you go to bed (a natural alternative is to use tea tree oil or lavender oil in a vaporiser).