Operation Bloodhawk Down

[strantor]

We are surrounded by rice farms so mosquitoes have always been an issue. And these aren't your average mosquitoes. Half of them are Shaggy Legged Gallinippers; prehistoric pestilence dredged up from deep within the earth and rehydrated to claim their spot at the top of the food chain - massive, twice the size of normal mosquitoes, aggressive, relentless, with serrated bayonettes on their faces that hurt like a fire ant bite. We have been getting rain every day for the past week so there is standing water everywhere and the Bloodhawk situation has gotten absolutely out of hand.

I've never sprayed anything because:
1. I don't like chemicals. If I can get away with a natural solution I will. (*)
2. I thought it would be exceptionally expensive. You know, basing my estimates on a can of Raid and how much area it covers.
3. I don't have a sprayer and can't afford one.
4. I'm paranoid about doing harm to the bee population (even though I rarely see any bees on my property - only wasps and dirt daubers)
5. I'm too busy (or lazy). I often triage problems until they become so severe that I have to address them - which is where we're at now.

(*)We have tried planting citronella, marigolds, lemongrass, lavender, etc. all around the house with zero noticeable effect. Sitting among these plants on the porch with half a dozen citronella candles in a ring around me, I have watched them fly one after another directly through a plume of citronella smoke to get to me. I also fog the front door area with Cutter 1-2 times daily, and it works temporarily but they always come back. And the bug zappers at the front & back doors seem to do nothing.

This morning at 7am I had a cloud (no exaggeration) of mosquitoes at my front door; the worst I've ever seen. Slipped out the back (where there's less of them) and as I walked through the grass, little "poofs" of mosquitoes rose up from every footstep. I sat down on the porch and when I went to take a sip of coffee I inhaled two mosquitoes. They congregate under the cars in the driveway and at the doors of the house, so any time you try to go anywhere or do anything, there is a 100% guarantee of letting vampires into the people tank. I've nearly crashed the truck a couple of times, distracted by swatting at the tail end of the swarm that got sucked into the cab as I opened the door to get in. I can't effectively do my job (I work in the barn trying to build stuff as I spray/swat/cuss mosquitoes), so these mosquitoes are now costing me money and putting the health and sanity of my family and myself at risk. This is a plague. Desperate measures are called for. I made it my mission to spray today.

As I said I don't have a sprayer, but I do have a pressure washer, a 55gal drum, and a tractor. I went to Tractor Supply and bought a jug of Bifen concentrate and a water saver turbo nozzle for the pressure washer. Strapped the barrel to the headache rack of the pallet fork attachment so that it would be elevated above the pressure washer, and then strapped the pressure washer to the forks. The instructions for the Bifen were a bit over my head; there were several options for dilution and I wasn't sure so I just picked an option in the middle. Mixed the solution in the barrel and then connected to the pressure washer inlet with a section garden hose.

NOTE: I did NOT use the soap feed feature and the water supply was not connected. The pressure washer is pulling 100% from the drum only, which is the diluted mixture.

I drove it all over my 2.5ac property spraying it all over the house and porch and yard, everywhere. Especially the doors and under the eaves. Into the trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass, everywhere except the ditches (which drain to the bayou, and this stuff is downright catastrophic to aquatic life). It would maybe have been prudent to wait a while until the yard dried up but I didn't. I was on a war path and I rutted up my yard real bad and didn't care. I'll fix it later. I sprayed (5) 55gal drums of solution over the entire property and also sprayed my neighbor's yard and front door.

The turbo nozzle does a great job of creating an energetic, far-reaching mist of tiny droplets without using much water. The mist cloud that it creates permeates bushes and trees and seems to cover every surface over/under/behind all the leaves just like a propane fogger is supposed to do. Just don't get it too close or it will damage the flora. I was getting to 20-30min per drum of run time depending on how continuously I sprayed.

I have ZERO mosquitoes now. It's been hours and not a single flying thing has attacked me. The porch and the cars are littered with their carcasses. The front door is a macabre mural of modern art, a showcase of winged death, and I'm leaving it that way as a personal trophy and a probably ineffective means of warding off any blood sucking passers by. They are totally wiped out, and they took the wasps, gnats, locusts, cockroaches, and ants with them. I just took a walk around the whole place and not a single bite. My place is covered in dead bugs. Unfortunately this stuff also kills crawfish, and surely bees too. So if you have bees (I don't really) please keep that in mind. We will see how long this lasts but for now I'm calling it a total victory. Does not seem to kill dragonflies or love bugs.

 

[mcfarmall]

That's awesome! I wish I could find a solution for my propane fogger that works as good. The Black Flag stuff that is sold at the big box home improvement stores is worthless.

Any recommendations from you folks out there?

 

[strantor]

That's awesome! I wish I could find a solution for my propane fogger that works as good. The Black Flag stuff that is sold at the big box home improvement stores is worthless.

Any recommendations from you folks out there?

I looked into foggers before I went this route and I only saw 3 chemicals for use in the propane foggers you get from the big box stores. This website has a lot more options but I can't say whether they will work in your fogger or not. The website also sells industrial foggers which are probably what these other chemicals are designed for.

 

[Jstpssng]

I also avoid pesticides whenever possible, but sometimes you have no choice-especially when dealing with biting insects.
Here's the fact sheet on Bifen Bifenthrin General Fact Sheet.
I like your pressure washer idea, if I was in your situation I would most likely do the same thing.

 

[/pine]

Where I grew up (west FL coast) the skeeters and noseeums were bad at times...many folks that had rotary powered lawn mowers also used them as foggers...
Some type of tank/reservoir was strapped to the upper handle...a small diameter copper etc. tube with a needle valve ran from the tank into a small hole drilled in the muffler...different oils were used to produce a dense smoke that would drive mosquitoes out from under and around open porches etc. but IMO mineral spirits with castor oil made the most effective repellant (and I liked the smell)...

 

[strantor]

I also avoid pesticides whenever possible, but sometimes you have no choice-especially when dealing with biting insects.
Here's the fact sheet on Bifen Bifenthrin General Fact Sheet.
I like your pressure washer idea, if I was in your situation I would most likely do the same thing.

Thank you for the info.

Where I grew up (west FL coast) the skeeters and noseeums were bad at times...many folks that had rotary powered lawn mowers also used them as foggers...
Some type of tank/reservoir was strapped to the upper handle...a small diameter copper etc. tube with a needle valve ran from the tank into a small hole drilled in the muffler...different oils were used to produce a dense smoke that would drive mosquitoes out from under and around open porches etc. but IMO mineral spirits with castor oil made the most effective repellant (and I liked the smell)...

I saw a video on YouTube of a guy who did that. He really was making quite the cloud. Seemed simple but he didn't provide much detail on how he did it and I couldn't find much info outside of YouTube either.

Here's the video. Most frustrating thing is he doesn't say what chemical or oil he's using.

 

[/pine]

At the time I was referring to most guys just used old motor oil maybe with some #2 fuel oil...but back then pollution was not considered an issue and the county did basically the same thing with big fogging rigs on trucks...I think they mostly used kerosine...maybe with some other stuff...?

if you're curious...let a mower muffler get good and hot and let a few drops of different fuels, oils etc. (not gasoline or other low flashpoint compounds) drop onto the hot surface...

 

[strantor]

Well I was accosted by two skeeters this evening in the driveway. I suspect they were refugees who had been hunkered down in my garage and rode out the apocalypse in there. I had the garage door open for a few hours earlier. The mosquitoes had been pretty bad in there but I wasn't about to go spraying water in there with all my tools.

 

[oosik]

1976 - building our log cabin in Alaska. Had a propane powered fogger - output like your picture in post #6. Would drive mosquitos from area for about an hour - then, here they come with vengeance.

Friend in the military gave a quart of chemical that the military used. Mixed 2 oz per quart of insect fogging chemical. Fellow told me - do not breathe the fog - do not fog inside living quarters. I fogged and it put the mosquitos down for at least the following five days. I hate to think what that chemical might have been. I think it might have been DDT.

I've seen what DDT can do to a ferocious population of cockroaches in a duplex in Orlando, FL. There was literally two inches of dead cockroaches on the floor and everywhere throughout the duplex. A REAL surprise to the couple living in the other side of the duplex.

 

[mcfarmall]

I looked into foggers before I went this route and I only saw 3 chemicals for use in the propane foggers you get from the big box stores. This website has a lot more options but I can't say whether they will work in your fogger or not. The website also sells industrial foggers which are probably what these other chemicals are designed for.

Thanks Strantor!

 

[strantor]

They're back. This morning at the front door they were waiting to greet me. I watched them for a minute to see if the treated surfaces had any affect. They landing all over the door which I applied a liberal dose of Bifen to just 40 hours ago. No worse for wear.

In my research a few days ago there was some mention of a "surfactant" chemical which can be added to the Bifen to make it "stick around" better/longer. I suppose I'll need to read more, buy more, apply more.

 

[Doofy]

Where I grew up (west FL coast) the skeeters and noseeums were bad at times...many folks that had rotary powered lawn mowers also used them as foggers...
Some type of tank/reservoir was strapped to the upper handle...a small diameter copper etc. tube with a needle valve ran from the tank into a small hole drilled in the muffler...different oils were used to produce a dense smoke that would drive mosquitoes out from under and around open porches etc. but IMO mineral spirits with castor oil made the most effective repellant (and I liked the smell)...

I use a couple tablespoons of fogger liquid in the gas tank of the walk-behind lawn mower. It must help as skeeters haven't been a problem in a long time. Make sure the fogger liquid has a petroleum distillate base.

 

[strantor]

Since I now realize that this is something that I'm going to be doing on a fairly regular basis from now on, I decided to make my spraying setup a little bit less of a hack job. I reoriented the barrel up right and tapped into the very bottom of the barrel with a new bung hole. Previously I was not able to pump out but maybe 40gal because I wasn't pulling from the very bottom. I installed a little sight glass with a floating red marker, which I can see quite nicely from the tractor seat, so that I don't run the pump dry. It's all mounted rigid onto a pallet now, no ratchet straps. The pressure washer can be taken off by removing a single lag bolt.

 

[ustmd]

strantor,

Keep fighting the good fight, but not sure if you will win. From what I understand (and the internets confirms), mosquitos have a range of 1-3 miles:

FAQ - American Mosquito Control Association

Given that you said you are surrounded by rice fields, I think you are only temporarily thinning the herd.

 

[Doofy]

I used 3 Mosquito Magnets for a period of several years and they made life bearable in the yard for several years. They slowly thinned the horde. Then the mechanical problems with the machines start and they become a nightmare trying to keep them operational.

This year I bought Permethrin to spray around but the bugs were not much of a problem this year.

 

[strantor]

strantor,

Keep fighting the good fight, but not sure if you will win. From what I understand (and the internets confirms), mosquitos have a range of 1-3 miles:

FAQ - American Mosquito Control Association

Given that you said you are surrounded by rice fields, I think you are only temporarily thinning the herd.

After the encounter I described in post #11 they disappeared again. I spent all that time Yesterday building up my spraying skid and at the end of the day didn't feel like spraying. I planned to get up this morning and spray just as soon as there was enough light to do so. Stepped outside, no mosquitoes. Huh. Weird. Go back inside, have some coffee, come back out at dawn to inspect. Front porch is covered in a layer of dead bodies (see attachment). Apparently the stuff DOES have residual effect, it just doesn't kill immediately on contact.

The part that confuses me is why just that one wave after doomsday? Why was there not another wave this morning? I suspect yesterday morning's guests were larvae when I sprayed, incubating in some hidden spot of water near the door. They somehow missed being dosed and were allowed to morph, only to die hungry a few hours later.

Or maybe it has to do with their range and the rice farms as you suggest. Maybe the answer to "why only yesterday morning" lies in the wind. I'm not challenging the claim of 1-3 miles (I feel sorry for the intern who collected that empirical data) but they fly slow and I imagine wind currents have more impact on their destination than free will.

I didn't spray today. I got called out of state for work and anyway I want to see what happens next.

P.S. that porch and door sill DID get swept after the initial spraying. Those are all new deaths from the residual (not sure if you can make it out but all those little black dots are dead skeeters).

 

[strantor]

I guess this is what I will wake up to most days now. It's been like this yesterday morning and this morning. But I would rather sweep the porch daily than be eaten alive by these filthy scoundrels.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Here, various commercial formulations of Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) have been used for years to control (especially) blackflies and mosquitoes. The big attraction of Bti is that it has pretty high specificity to dipteran flies, with almost non-existent toxicity to mammals, birds, fish, and non-dipteran arthropods (eg, bees and butterflies). Bti can be very effective, when used properly (as a larvacide), but I don't know how cost-effective it is compared to the synthetic chemical pesticides.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Here, various commercial formulations of Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) have been used for years to control (especially) blackflies and mosquitoes. The big attraction of Bti is that it has pretty high specificity to dipteran flies, with almost non-existent toxicity to mammals, birds, fish, and non-dipteran arthropods (eg, bees and butterflies). Bti can be very effective, when used properly (as a larvacide), but I don't know how cost-effective it is compared to the synthetic chemical pesticides.

Besides being a nuisance, many mosquito species carry/transmit really dreadful diseases. Too bad the powers that be won't unleash Oxitec (Google it, if you are interested) to damp down populations of these bloodsuckers when they reach nuisance levels.

 

[m1garand762]

Look on Amazon. I buy 25% Bifen concentrate for 28 bucks a quart