Backyard Mosquito Fogging – do we really need to do it?

Yes, backyard mosquitoes are unwanted pests. However, commercial mosquito fogging companies and other do-it-yourself fogging measures can be costly, surprisingly ineffective and certainly environmentally harmful.

Doug Tallamy, Professor, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, says “Mosquito fogging doesn’t work. Studies show that mosquito fogging kills only about 10% of mosquitoes in the adult state, which is why they keep coming back and back. In order to control mosquitoes in the adult stage you have to control them in the larvae stage (before the eggs hatch)."  

And, it can be expensive. Commercial fogging services generally perform treatments on a 3-week, recurring cycle at a cost of $50 to $100 per visit, from mid-April to mid-October, making for a seasonal cost of $550 - $950.

And, it’s environmentally harmful. Fogging also kills other insects, including bees and butterflies. Mosquito sprays are highly toxic to native pollinators such as bees and butterflies, fish and other aquatic organisms. Ironically, fogging can actually make the mosquito problem worse as fogging is more harmful to mosquito predators than to mosquitoes. Predators are farther up the food chain so they take in higher amounts of pesticide. By decreasing mosquito predator populations, fogging can actually lead to increases in mosquito populations.

Here’s how to rid your yard of mosquitoes quickly and extremely inexpensively.

Early next spring, be sure to rid your yard of standing water in these typical mosquito egg laying containers – like pool covers, empty flower pots, clogged gutters, bird baths, etc. Then, watch Professor Tallamy’s 1-minute video on how you can cheaply and easily rid your yard of mosquitoes.

Here are his how-to directions in print: Get a bucket, fill it with water, put in some straw or hay and let it just sit in your backyard and ferment for 1-2 days. (What’s happening here is that the algae that the mosquito larvae like to eat are blossoming in that bucket.) The female mosquitoes will lay their eggs there.

Then buy a cheap (perhaps a couple of dollars for several) “Mosquito Dunk” at the hardware store and drop it in the bucket. It’s a natural bacterium that kills aquatic diptera. The only aquatic dipteron in your bucket is the mosquito, so it’s very targeted and doesn’t kill any other insects. But, you are killing the larvae that become the adult mosquitoes.