You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
My friend has a 100-year-old house with a big backyard and tall established trees. She's done some work on the inside of the house and hopes to get a new roof in the fall. The problem with her yard is that the mosquitoes are completely out of control. I can step outside for just a few minutes (I'm one of those people that mosquitoes loooove) and get bit at least four or five times. We've looked through her yard and there are no containers of standing water for mosquitos to breed in, so it isn't a matter of clearing the yard of that sort of stuff . . .
She's offered to let me plant my vegetable garden in her yard next spring and I'd like to help her with flowers and stuff like that in exchange. Is there anything I can do from a gardening standpoint to perhaps attract mosquito predators or somehow repel the bugs or . . . ? Can we attract certain birds that will eat them or something? Or will only bats eat them?
It's a wonderful, historic neighborhood with lots of big trees. But is it possible that with trees that large, maybe the mosquitoes are breeding in water that gathers somewhere high in the branches and that efforts on the ground won't help? Sorry if that sounds silly - I don't know much about mosquito control.
Another silly question - could there be any plants in her yard that might be contributing to the problem? The edges of her yard are overgrown with all kinds of stuff we're trying to identify - some of it perennials that must've been planted there long ago, some of it overgrown weeds and tree seedlings. Should she clear out as much of that as she can unless we know what it is? They found blackberries back there a few days ago, but some of that stuff, I have no idea what it is.
The gutters are growing cute little miscellanious sprouts, which I'm sure isn't helping. So when she gets the new roof and cleans the gutters, that should make a difference. But the rest of it . . . any ideas?
Click the image for an enlarged view.
This thread has 15 replies. This forum is accessible only to subscribing members of Dave's Garden. There are many free features here, and about half of our forums are completely open to all members. Take a tour of our site and learn more about Dave's Garden, and explore the benefits of becoming a subscribing member.
