Mosquitoes are more than a menace in your home. The bites are annoying, sure, but mosquitoes are actively dangerous bugs that can wreak havoc on your health.
They’re responsible for over 700,000 deaths annually because they carry two terrible diseases – malaria and the Zika virus.
You need to know how to get rid of mosquitoes in your home and create mosquito traps to keep you and your family safe from these diseases (as well as irritating bites).
What Kills Mosquitoes and Keeps Them Away?
There are all sorts of methods you can use to keep mosquitoes at bay. Large fan boxes that suck air in, rather than expelling it, are one of the more novel solutions.
They literally pull mosquitoes out of the sky, mashing them up with their fan blades and getting rid of any that stray nearby.
There are also plenty of sprays that do a number on the mosquito population near your home.
But these killing solutions, as effective as they may be, don’t keep mosquitoes away from your home.
They just get rid of a portion of them. That’s why you need these 11 mosquito killer methods that take the battle to the dangerous bugs so you don’t have to worry about them transmitting diseases anymore.
Method 1 – Install Screen Doors and Screen Windows
It may seem like the most obvious idea in the world, but it’s one that’s extremely effective at keeping mosquitoes at bay – install screens that they can’t break through.
Think of screen doors and windows as filters for your home. They let fresh air through, ensuring you don’t have to go without cool air in the humid climates in which mosquitoes thrive.
Their holes are small enough to prevent the bugs from getting through, keeping your home’s interior free of mosquitoes.
But they’re not perfect solutions.
Screen doors and windows keep your house clear, sure, but they don’t do anything about mosquitoes congregating in your garden.
Plus, every time you open a screen door or window, you’re creating an invitation for a mosquito to get in, even if you only open them for a few seconds.
Still, as basic protection, screens will keep most of the mosquitoes around your home at bay.
Method 2 – Install Mosquito Lamps (Best Mosquito Trap)
Where the previously mentioned fan boxes actively suck mosquitoes into their blades, bug zappers take a different approach.
They emit a bright light, often accompanied by a small hum, that draws bugs in before the “bzzzzzt,” electrocuting them via a filament inside the zapper.
It’s an effective way to kill mosquitoes, with the “bzzzzzt” sound also being a useful indicator that you’ve killed a mosquito.
However, they attract practically all flying bugs and they’re only useful in small areas. A mosquito lamp isn’t going to attract a mosquito from your sitting room to your kitchen to fry it, for instance.
Use zappers if you need to get rid of a few stray mosquitoes, but don’t rely on them to completely fix the problem.
Method 3 – Get Rid of Breeding Grounds
Any small pool of water is breeding territory for mosquitoes, especially if you live in a humid climate that can lead to the water taking on the stagnant quality that attracts the insects.
Here are a few examples of potential breeding grounds for the bugs:
- Ponds and pools, especially those with stagnant water that hasn’t been refreshed for a few months.
- The water that pools underneath your air conditioning system.
- Ditches in your garden that collect rainwater.
Solutions to these problems vary.
For pools and ponds, refreshing or replacing the water regularly is your best bet – easier with a pool than it is for a pond.
Other than that, consistent maintenance is the key.
Fill up ditches and divots so rainwater has fewer places to pool, and clean up under your outdoor air conditioning units every few days. Outdoor mosquito control is very important if you want to have a mosquito free garden.
Hint – it’s also a good idea to cover and clean your drains regularly. After all, water constantly collects in those areas, too.
Method 4 – Unleash the Power of Citronella
Citronella is a natural chemical that several types of grasses produce. And mosquitoes hate it.
The grassy, almost floral, aroma that citronella produces seems to have an effect, but it’s the presence of citronellal and geraniol that is the real mosquito-repellant in this chemical.
Your challenge is simple – find a way to introduce citronella into your home.
Some choose citronella-infused candles for this purpose.
Sadly, those candles aren’t the most effective because they don’t offer a pure blast of the chemical.
Mosquitoes may avoid the candles, but they’ll congregate elsewhere.
Oil diffusers are another option – you buy citronella oil and use diffusers to spread it around the house.
That’s more effective than candles because the diffuser releases blasts of citronella constantly.
But you may not want a permanent grassy aroma in your home, which is what you get with diffusers.
Finally, there are sprays, like Tougher Than Tom’s Mosquito Eliminator Spray.
Rather than filling your home with citronella, these sprays allow you to coat yourself in a mosquito-repelling formula that keeps the bugs at bay and kills any that chance at taking a bite out of you.
Method 5 – Use Insecticides in Dark Areas
Mosquitoes may love to breed in standing water, but they tend to rest away from water.
The bugs favor dark areas that are a little humid, with some examples being underneath patio furniture (especially furniture near a pond) or inside your garage.
Attack those areas.
Using insecticide, spray any dark areas where mosquitoes may rest to instantly kill any that are there.
Look for the tucked-away spaces that you’d never normally think to check.
Mosquitoes love these spots because they keep them out of sunlight so they’re ready to start flying around when dusk descends.
Method 6 – Change Water in Pet Bowls Weekly (At Least)
There’s a long-standing rumor that dogs who drink water that contains mosquito eggs are at risk of developing heartworms.
Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Heartworms can only be passed to your pets through mosquito bites because they need to mosquito to be in its full adult form to develop.
However, that doesn’t mean you can be lax with your pet’s water for the same reason that you can’t leave standing water in your garden – mosquitoes use stagnant water for breeding.
The remedy is simple.
Change the water in your pet’s bowl at least once a week (ideally once per day) to keep it as fresh as possible.
The same goes for other animal-related bodies of water in your garden, such as bird baths. Keep the water fresh and you’ll keep the mosquitoes at bay.
Method 7 – Install Oscillating Fans
You’ve already read about fan boxes that can pull mosquitoes in and shred the bugs with their blades.
That’s a great idea, as long as you’re happy to keep cleaning the fans to get rid of bug carcasses.
If that doesn’t sound appealing, go down the opposite route – use oscillating fans that blow outward.
The trick here comes down to how mosquitoes fly – they struggle to control their path in gusts of wind.
An oscillating fan rotates and blows, creating small wind currents that prevent the mosquito from flying along its intended path.
Often, the mosquito will move away from the wind (and away from whoever is near the fan) to seek easier prey.
This isn’t a perfect method – oscillating fans don’t blow air out in a 360-degree circumference, so the mosquito might circumvent the air currents.
But it’s a useful idea if you’ve seen a mosquito and want to guide it out of your house.
Method 8 – Maintain Mosquito-Repellant Plants in Your Garden
You know about citronella already (remember – it repels mosquitoes thanks to the compounds the plant emits), but that’s far from the only plant you can use to keep the bugs away.
Mint, lemongrass, tulsi, and marigolds are also great choices, and they come with the benefit of being small plans you can keep in the garden or pot and place around your home.
Why do these plants work as mosquito repellants and mosquito traps?
In some cases, such as with lemongrass, it’s because the plant contains the citronellal that keeps mosquitoes at bay.
But in many cases, it comes down to scents – all of these plants contain compounds that mask the scents of lactic acid and carbon dioxide.
These are both chemicals that all animals produce, the latter simply through breathing, and they’re like siren’s calls to mosquitoes.
Use plants to cover up (or even get rid of) the presence of lactic acid and carbon dioxide and you won’t have to worry about mosquitoes being drawn to you.
Method 9 – Lower In-Home Humidity Levels
The less air flowing throughout your house, the more likely it is that a mosquito will wander in and find that they’re in the perfect environment.
But that creates a problem – you need to open windows to keep air flowing, which makes it easier for the bugs to get inside.
While screen doors and window covers can help, they also restrict air flow, creating the possibility of humid areas developing in your home.
A combination of machinery and creating paths for air to flow is the solution.
Assuming you have an air conditioning unit, use it to create a constant flow of cool air throughout your home.
Leave interior doors open, ensuring air doesn’t get trapped in one room, leaving other rooms to become more humid.
And if you have any areas in your home for which humidity is a regular problem, install a dehumidifier to remove moisture from the air and make it less palatable for mosquitoes.
Method 10 – Patch Up Holes
Any gap, crack, or small hole is an invite to mosquitoes, just as it is to small rodents and other pests.
For instance, you may have a broken seal around one of your windows.
That broken seal creates a gap through which a mosquito can squeeze, meaning you suddenly have a big problem.
The solution is simple – look around your home for any small faults that allow sunlight to seep through. If you can see the light from outside, a mosquito can use that gap to get inside.
Seal the gap any way you can (such as using door strips to cover up broken seals around doors) and you create one less point of ingress for the insects.
Method 11 – Bubble and Soap to Kill Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are attracted to bodies of water.
That means almost any body of water.
While they prefer stagnant water, and will gravitate to it if they find it, they’ll fly toward any other large water source in your home to check if it’s suitable for breeding.
That’s how you can catch them.
Grab a large bowl or dish and fill it with clean and soapy water.
Add enough soap to ensure bubbles form on the water’s surface. If there are any mosquitoes in your house (and there are no other bodies of stagnant water for them to breed in), they’ll fly toward the dish of soapy water to check it out.
The bubbles in the water trap them, leading to the bugs suffocating, and you have a natural mosquito-killing solution that doesn’t require you to use insect sprays.
Kill and Repel – The Two Solutions to the Mosquito Dilemma
Mosquitoes aren’t the sorts of pests that’ll damage your home or tear up your garden. They’re much more dangerous than that.
Rather than targeting your property, they target you, your children, and your pets – literally any animal that has blood for them to suck.
But like the vampires of myth, they can be repelled, and even killed, with the right tactics.
You’re now armed with 11 of those tactics, ranging from using traditional bug zappers, mosquito tnt and insect sprays to kill stray mosquitoes to taking advantage of natural mosquito repellent for yard (such as citronella) to send mosquitoes buzzing away.
Use them and you’ll turn your home into a mosquito-free zone.
And if you need protection from mosquitoes when you’re away from your home, Tougher Than Tom’s Mosquito Eliminator Spray is the answer.
All natural, safe for kids and pets, and shippable anywhere in the USA, the spray coats you in a protective shield that keeps mosquitoes at bay.