10 Tips To Keep You Mosquito-Free This Summer

Understanding mosquitoes’ breeding habits and behaviours can help you prepare your family for this pest in the warmer summer months in Geelong. Mosquitoes are a nuisance, and bites can become itchy and swollen. But mosquito-borne diseases are possible after a bite, so it’s best to repel mosquitoes and avoid bites this summer and in the warmer months. 

Australia has more than 300 species of mosquito, and some carry serious diseases such as the following:

• Barmah Forest virus
• Dengue fever
• Murray Valley encephalitis
• Ross River virus

See medical advice if you develop flu-like symptoms like headaches, fever, chills, joint and muscle soreness or stiffness, depression, fatigue and a rash after you’ve suffered mosquito bites.  For more tips on how to keep mosquitoes away in summer and the warm seasons, read on: 

Tip 1. Dusk & Dawn Are Risk Periods

While these tiny insect vampires will bite you and suck your blood at any time of the day or night in summer and warm seasons, they’re more active around early morning when the sun comes up and later as the sun goes down. 

It’s wise to be extra careful at dawn and dusk in warm months, so this is the time to wear long pants and long sleeves to cover up and splash on the insect repellent to keep mosquitoes away. 

Tip 2. Choose the Best Mosquito Repellent

The best and most long-lasting topical mosquito repellents contain ingredients such as oil of lemon eucalyptus or chemical compounds like Picaridin and DEET (diethyltoluamide, which has been used since 1957). 

Repellents made using tea tree oil and citronella plant extracts should be applied much more often for them to work.  When applying mosquito repellent, just squirting a bit on your arms or legs does nothing to prevent bites. You need a thin covering on your skin on all exposed areas in summer and warmer months.

Tip 3. Mosquitoes Breed in Water

Mosquitoes lay their eggs on damp soil or in water, with some species laying 200 or more eggs in a batch and some laying them separately in spring and summer. 

The larvae or “wrigglers” live in moisture, whether it’s stagnant water, brackish, salt or fresh water. Plant pots, kids’ toys and any containers left in the backyard that can fill up on rainy days are perfect places for mosquitoes to lay their eggs, which usually hatch in 48 hours. 

Tides flooding wetlands in coastal regions can trigger mosquito eggs to hatch, and periods of heavy rain can have the same effect. Once they’ve hatched, the wrigglers take about 10 days to emerge and start biting. 

Tip 4. Dark Colours Can Attract Mosquitoes

Research (1) shows mosquitoes can track odours and find hosts and mates by sight, and they are strongly attracted to the CO2 (carbon dioxide) we exhale. Still, little is known about how darker hues attract mosquitoes or how odour affects their visual search behaviours.  

It’s thought the attraction to darker shades is connected to the spectral band we know as blue or cyan, red and orange. This band is related to the colour spectrum of human skin. And since mosquitos tend to like dark hues, you should consider wearing pale colours when in mosquito territory to repel mozzies.  

Tip 5.  Lights Don’t Work on Mosquitoes

Since mosquitoes aren’t as interested in light as moths and other insects are, they won’t be turned on by blue light insect electrocution. These traps don’t repel mosquitoes or kill enough of them, so save your money unless you have a problem with pests drawn to a flame. While they are smelly, citronella candles and mosquito coils may help deter backyard mosquitoes and other biting insects.