Mosquitos

[philippeqc]

The itch....

Put some vinaiger on it. Or some Windex (but I'm not sure about the last one).

-ph

[Phytotron]

Actually, it is the blood sucking. (Most of the following ripped from HowStuffWorks.)

Only female mosquitoes bite. They are attracted by several things, including heat (infrared light), light, perspiration, body odor, lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The female lands on your skin and sticks her proboscis into you (the proboscis is very sharp and thin, so you may not feel it going in). Her saliva contains proteins (anticoagulants) that prevent your blood from clotting. She sucks your blood into her abdomen (about 5 microliters per serving for an Aedes aegypti mosquito).

After she has bitten you, some saliva remains in the wound. The proteins from the saliva evoke an immune response from your body. The area swells (the bump around the bite area is called a wheal), and you itch, a response provoked by the saliva. Eventually, the swelling goes away, but the itch remains until your immune cells break down the saliva proteins.

To treat mosquito bites, you should wash them with mild soap and water. Try to avoid scratching the bite area, even though it itches. Some anti-itch medicines such as Calamine lotion or over-the-counter cortisone creams may relieve the itching.

You can do a few things to reduce the number of mosquito bites that you get while enjoying the outdoors. First, wear clothing that covers most of your body, if temperatures permit. Second, use a mosquito repellant that contains NN-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) at a concentration of 7.5 percent to 100 percent. Lower concentrations are sufficient for most outdoor protection, and a 15-percent concentration is recommended for children. Avon's Skin-So-Soft is a weak, short-lasting (less than 20 minutes) mosquito repellant. Permethrin, an effective pesticide, is for use on clothing only (Never apply it to your skin, it is a neurotoxin!). To learn more about mosquito repellents, see the EPA's How to Use Insect Repellents Safely.

Beyond mosquito repellents and clothing, you can try to control the mosquito population. Mosquitos need water to breed and will use any source of standing water.

So, to reduce the mosquito population, eliminate sources of standing water in your yard. Empty watering cans, remove old tires and cover rain barrels.

If you have a lily pond in your garden, stock it with some fish that will eat the mosquito larvae. Some petroleum oils can be added to water to form a thin surface layer that suffocates the mosquito eggs; however, many of these oils will also suffocate any fish living in the water.

To prevent mosquitoes from entering your home, make sure that all of your window screens are intact.

Finally, there are many commercial pesticides available to kill mosquito larvae and mosquito adults. Many communities conduct large-scale spraying of pesticides containing mallothione to control mosquito populations during the spring and summer, especially in attempts to reduce the spread of West Nile encephalitis.


MYTHS
Several natural or man-made products have been touted as mosquito repellents or effective in mosquito control. Citronella oil, which is a product of several types of plants that can be made into candles or burned directly, is an effective mosquito repellant in high concentrations, but individual citronella-producing plants do not make enough oil to effectively repel mosquitoes. Ultraviolet lights (as used in bug zappers) and ultrasonic devices are not effective. Also, mosquitoes are not a significant portion of the diets of Purple Martin Birds or bats.


Vinegar sounds like an old wives' tale to me. And Windex just sounds downright unsafe.

[Sabarai]

Or some Windex

What's Windex????

[dlh]

Or some Windex

What's Windex????

Glass cleaner (!!!!)

[DrJoeTr0n]

The best way to rid yourself of mosquitos is the sure way.


Kill yourself. Mosquitos dont like dead people.

[Lucifer]

THat wouldn't solve my fly problem, though.

[DrJoeTr0n]

Yeah it will, You'll be dead, wont need to care.

Just worry about scientists taking your brain and putting it into one of those soccer playing robots.

[Lucifer]

I wouldn't worry about that. My brain is so attuned to arena-style play right now that the robot would probably be a pretty good soccer player.

[Sabarai]

By the time I'm dead I won't have a brain left: all the cells will be burned by alcohol

[Jonathan]

The best way to rid yourself of mosquitos is the sure way.

Kill yourself. Mosquitos dont like dead people.

Another reason to do what n54 says.

[n54]

I don't really want to have to resort to using a fly swatter. I don't want to kill the little buggers, just get them out of the house.

Anyway, I don't know any non-violent way to get rid of mosquitos...

Hehe well I use this tactic called Shock And Awe (I dig Rumsfeld so I just named it that right now for fun, sorry but I can be that childish ).

I use this on all flies that are unlucky enough to enter my domain and even though I myself kill them in a bloodchilling fashion afterwards you don't need to do that (I don't usually kill anything I can catch but flies, daddy longlegs, and mosquitos are just too tedious to save unless I'm feeling extremely holy and in addition have enough time to realize I'm feeling that holy (i.e. almost never)). On daddy longlegs: if you are gentle enough you can simply catch them by a leg and gently drop them outside (but I &%¤%#¤% hate them so I don't do this) you need to be very gentle though.

Recepy for saving (or alternatively crushing) flies:
1. get a somewhat lightweight booklet or a part of last weeks news-paper etc. Not heavy stuff but not really lightweight stuff either, about a magazine-size of typical mass.

<important edit>
Don't roll up the magazine or similar, keep it flat (it's not baseball but cricket! )
</important edit>

2. DO NOT hit them while resting at a wall etc. DO "swap" them in flight and take notice of what direction you are swapping them because:
3. Go hunting for the stunned fly, it's lying on it's back suffering a mild concussion somewhere in the general direction of your swap. This is the Shock part of Shock And Awe. Tip: remember your swing might disperse the fly in a wide radius.
4. equipped with a sheet of writing paper or two, nudge the shocked fly onto one of them, open door/window and throw the fly out.
5. the Awe part of Shock And Awe is obviously when the flie wakes up again (they almost always do) and realizes it's still alive. (Alternatively the Awe part is when you scare other sentinent beings by your bloodthirsty actions muahahahah j/k)

(note: if you swap too hard with too much mass you'll still kill them so go for low mass + speed instead)

tip: don't throw your arm out of your socket
tip: flies will often set up a pattern of flight in rooms (especially small rooms)
tip: a fly has a "DANGER-fly-away-fly-away-mechanism" so you need to be swift
tip: "meet the fly" with the swap
tip: a landed fly will start flying by jumping backward and upwards so this technique might work if you swat the air above a landed fly if the swat-direction is parallel to the fly's front-to-back axis and moving front-to-back (the fly has to see the swatting motion so it can jump into the air you're swatting).

For bigger critters a beer-glass (like half a litre) and some thin cardboard does the trick. I use this on moths and spiders. Some moths can even be caught in flight (otherwise I just wait until they're taking a break). Oh and this works really well with beetles of all kinds up here (never had cockroaches but if anybody has they need to call the big guns out - exterminators). Not sure what I would do about really big (palm-sized) beetles and moths, maybe find a tupperware box or similar.

For stinging things use telepathy (bees, bumblebees etc) although I have trapped and released bumblebees without damage but it's not recommended unless to avoid really precarious situations (and if you do make sure that 1. it can't sting you through whatever (i.e. hard thick or solid "entrapment stuff" - I used rolled up relatively thick bus route booklets because I was at a bus) and 2. release it by opening a way out while throwing hard away and up into nature - it'll go like a rocket and be furious!)). If telepathy doesn't work there's usually no mercy (remember that bumblebees are usually extremely nonagressive and just need time to find their way out again - open a window or two if they're not already open). Bees and wasps are tricky

Oh and about the eating tip I wasn't trying to promote voluntary starvation

Once in a land far away from where I am now I met a small asian grandpa in the early morning at a ricefield. We didn't speak any language both knew but he took off his strawhat and showed me the dragonflies he had tucked beneath the inner band of the strawhat and the chopsticks he had used to catch them. Impressive.

(p.s. the dragon-flies were dead but I think that was mainly because he might intend them for roasted snack later on)

[Lucifer]

I was sitting outside playing the drums once (long story) and there was this bee terrorizing everybody. So I waited until just the right moment, and then whacked him in thin air with my drumstick.

Nobody believes I did that on purpose, but it's a feat I've repeated numerous times. (The same group called it luck when I swatted a bee with a wash rag. When they saw me get three they realized I had practiced. The things you do in a brake shop to get rid of bees....)

[Jonathan]

Congratulations n54, you made mosquitos popular!

Btw, I am pretty good at hitting flies and mosquitos with my hands, but splatting them that way doesn't feel like a good idea...

[n54]

Congratulations n54, you made mosquitos popular!

Lol I don't visit much anymore but it would appear I take my work for The Bugs Anti-Defamation League very seriously indeed

http://guru3.sytes.net/viewtopic.php?t=1519&start=0

anyway i think the bugs part is definetly something that should be used to further the cause of The Bugs Anti-Defamation League Wink Mr. Green (the critters can be quite creative)

edit: syntax
edit 2: ditto

[Tank Program]

We have flies living in our attack, and everyone now and then one makes it down stairs. For the next while it's waiting time by the fly swatter until it takes a break... Then WACK. Dead fly. They just drive me nuts they do...