Mosquito Control: Protect Your Home
Mosquito Protection Program
Western has decades of experience fighting mosquitoes in backyards like yours. Our Integrated Mosquito Reduction Service uses a combination of habitat modification and use of an adulticide and/or larvicide. We’ll start with a thorough inspection and deliver a detailed program customized to your specific needs. With Western, you can rest assured your yard is safe for your family.
Scientific Classification: Culicid
Most of the time, mosquitoes are not much more than the cause of itchy welts and minor discomfort, but they can also cause serious illness. Prevalent throughout the United States, they can cause several types of disease, including West Nile Virus, perhaps the most common mosquito-borne illness in the U.S.
Typically surfacing in late summer and early fall, West Nile is caused by mosquitoes feeding on infected birds, and then passing the virus to humans and other animals through the saliva they inject with their bites. Traveling through the bloodstream to the brain, the virus interferes with the central nervous system and causes swelling of the brain tissue. For most people, the illness is mild and causes fever, headache, and fatigue. In more severe cases however, encephalitis, meningitis, paralysis, or even death can occur. For those with even just a mild case, it can take several months to recover.
Prevalent throughout the United States, mosquitoes cause several types of disease including West Nile Virus, encephalitis, dog heartworm, and malaria. World-wide, mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths than any other pest.
West Nile Virus
Typically surfacing in late summer and early fall, West Nile is caused by mosquitoes feeding on infected birds, and then passing the virus to humans and other animals through the saliva they inject with their bites. The virus travels through the bloodstream to the brain where it interferes with the central nervous system, causing swelling of the brain tissue. Symptoms are typically mild and include fever, headache, and fatigue, but severe cases can develop into encephalitis, meningitis, paralysis or rarely, death. West Nile is typically mild, but it can take a person several months to recover. Other viruses spread by mosquitoes include malaria, yellow fever, and dengue fever, all of which are rare in the United States but common in tropical areas around the world.
After any warm winter,spring bug populations will have a strong start – and all it takes is a little moisture to kick start a mosquito infestation. Western’s NY/NJ Regional Sales Manager offers some tips:
- Water = mosquitoes: Walk your property from the woods to the street, and look for any and all sources of standing water.
- Drain it: Anything that can hold or retain water needs to be drained and turned upside down. From old tires on a property to standing flower pots, they need to be drained or removed.
- Don’t forget the bird bath: “I love bird bath…they look great, but it’s a mosquito swimming pool,”
Prevention, then Intervention
Although it is common practice to spray for mosquitoes, spraying pest control materials is not the most effective means of controlling a mosquito outbreak. It is far more effective to prevent them from breeding in the first place. Mosquitoes lay hundreds of eggs at a time and gestation only takes about seven days. If they find standing water to breed in, it could mean several generations of mosquitoes in your own back yard.
There are several simple things you can do to minimize the risk of mosquitoes in and around your home, particularly if you have a pond or other water feature.
- Keep water fixtures such as birdbaths and fish ponds clean, and add elements that keep the water moving, such as a fountain if possible.
- Clean gutters regularly to avoid trapping water and creating areas where mosquitoes will potentially breed.
- Work to attract natural mosquito predators, such as dragonflies.
- Try keeping guppies or mosquitofish in your pond as they will eat the mosquitoes and their larvae.
- Maintain your lawns and gardens. Overgrown areas trap moisture where mosquitoes are likely to nest.
- Regularly drain and clean (or remove) things that hold water: pet dishes, wading pools, vases, or anything that may collect water, such as old barrels.