Pest blog
Rainy season and mosquitoes: the bottle-cap rule
In Florida summers, a bottle cap of water can raise mosquitoes in about a week.
Rainy season and mosquitoes: the bottle-cap rule
From June to September, the afternoon storms fill every pot saucer, toy and gutter in the yard. The mosquitoes that bite on the lanai at dusk, like the Asian tiger mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito, lay their eggs in just that kind of small, still water.
The bottle-cap rule
If it can hold a bottle cap of water, it can raise mosquitoes. In warm weather they go from egg to biting adult in about a week to ten days.
The weekly walk
- Tip and toss: saucers, buckets, toys, tarps.
- Clean the gutters so water runs off.
- Change the bird bath water every few days.
- Check bromeliads, they hold water in their leaves.
- Keep the pool running and the screen enclosure patched.
When to call
If you are still bitten every evening after the weekly walk, the mosquitoes are coming from shady resting spots in the yard. A monthly yard service treats where they rest and where they breed, so the lanai is yours again.
