With spring comes green grass, flowers and mosquitos. These pesky, whining, biting and disease carrying insects occur all over the world. Scientists have identified 3,500 different strains of mosquito, but have come up short on safe, effective ways to control them.

Mosquitos: the Deadliest Animal on Earth

There are 3,500 different strains of mosquito. Fortunately, only about 200 of them like human blood. The other 3,300 feed on other warm-blooded creatures. What is even more interesting, it is only the female mosquito who buzzes around and bites you – she needs a meal of warm blood in order to lay her eggs. Mama Mosquito secretes an anti-coagulant in her saliva to help her get a good drink before she is knocked off your skin. That is what causes the itchy bump – it is an allergic reaction to her saliva. If that were all, mosquitos would make us miserable, but would not pose a great danger. However, mosquitos also spread diseases such as malaria, West Nile Virus, zika virus, Chikungunya virus, and dengue. Disease spread by mosquitos can cause results ranging from a short-term illness to death.

Controlling Mosquitos

Controlling mosquitos is a big problem. If you happen to be in the southern part of Louisiana, you might hear the drone of a small airplane flying low over cities, especially on foggy mornings. That is the sound of a “crop duster” spraying insecticide in an effort to control the mosquito population. By midafternoon, it is a good idea to wear a long-sleeved shirt if you are going outside. Louisiana has a lot of swampy areas. It is just one of many areas in the world that have mosquito problems.

Spraying chemicals, however, has come under scrutiny by many environmental agencies. They might seem affective at first, but in the long run these chemicals can have devastating effects on birds, fish, and people. Some of them also encourage the mosquitos to breed new strains that are resistant to the chemicals. Worse yet, sometimes the chemicals destroy beneficial bugs, birds and bats that feed on mosquitos.

Proactive Prevention

Mosquitos don’t need a swamp in order to breed. They like any sort of standing water, or even moist clumps of vegetation. One of the best ways to help prevent mosquitos is to eliminate their breeding grounds. That means filtering bird waterers or outdoor pet waterers, covering any water storage containers, and emptying any pan, old tire or similar item that can hold liquid. Keep grass trimmed short, and prune ornamental bushes to allow light and air to penetrate the foliage. That will help, but it isn’t likely to be enough.

Biological Mosquito Control

While insectivorous bats, insectivorous birds, frogs and turtles do eat their share mosquitos and mosquito larva, they aren’t likely to clear your neighborhood of those buzzing, biting mosquitos. A review of the creatures popularly believed to help control these insects reveals that the most effective of all of these was to introduce snapping turtles to ponds of standing water. The turtles happily ate the mosquito larva, and could be fed during seasons when no mosquitos were available.

Bug Zappers

Bug zappers are a sort of instant electrocution for flying insects. The downside is that bug zappers use a light to attract insects, which could attract more insects to your yard than might ordinarily show up, and they won’t necessarily attract mosquitos. Mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide, which is exhaled by all oxygen breathers. Even if they do kill mosquitos, they won’t get all of them – especially outdoors.

The other problem with bug zappers is that they are indiscriminate. They will just as happily zap ladybugs, praying mantises, fireflies and honeybees as wasps, gnats, or mosquitos.

There is a wide range of products available on the market today, and below I have reviewed 5 of the very best options.

**Below, you will find more detailed reviews, but you can also click the links above to see current prices and read customer reviews on Amazon.

Some Possible Solutions

Be proactive. Get rid of the standing water in your yard or near your house. Keep hedges and bushes trimmed to admit light and air. If you have outdoor pets or a bird waterer, add a filter to it to destroy any mosquito larva.

If you are comfortable with the idea and have the space, you might put up Purple Martin houses or provide bat houses. While these creatures won’t completely clear the mosquitos, the ones they have for dinner won’t be dining on you.

Wear protective clothing, especially if going hiking or camping. Tuck long pants into the tops of your socks, and throw on a loose, button-down shirt that you can tuck in at the waist. Treat the openings in your clothing – ankles, waistband, wrists, and so on with an insect repellant. Wear loose clothing – you will feel cooler, and the mosquitos will have a harder time biting through it. They tend to drill right through tight clothing. Avoid sweet-smelling aftershave, perfume or deodorant as these can attract insects.

For relaxing outdoors, set up a large fan to blow the insects away, and use citronella based candles or outdoor torches for lighting at nighttime events. Place aromatic wood in your fire pit, brazier or chimenea.

Screen your bug zapper to keep out larger insects, but admit mosquitos, gnats and no see ‘ems; or hang your bug zapper indoors where your window screens or screened porch can limit the number and type of insects and it will have a chance to make a difference. UV lights are not a universal bug attractant – as noted, mosquitos are attracted to heat and to Co2, and they like dark places. You could try adding an Octonel Fragrance Strip to your bug zapper to lure those mosquitos on in.

Product Reviews – The Best Bug Zappers

Choosing the Best Bug Zappers to Help Control Mosquitos both Indoors and Outdoors

The sad truth is that no one has found a universal mosquito control. My personal feeling is that for your family’s health and safety that you will want to use a variety of approaches, including an indoor bug zapper. Why indoor? Because bugs are unwanted inside your home – even beneficial ones. Outside bug zappers will zap the useful and pretty bugs as well as the bad, biting bugs. My selection of the indoor bug zappers would be the Upgraded Aspectek, simply because it has been on the market long enough to get all the “bugs” worked out of it. My second choice would be the Pest Soldier, which is a newer – but very similar – unit.