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I went through a stand of grass the other day and it was in a wet spot. The mosquitoes came out in a cloud. I couldn't believe it. Should I spray the area with some type of insecticide? I'm afraid we are going to have West Nile if I leave it as is.

buy a bathouse and get some bats. 1 bat can eat over 1000 mosquitoes an hour!!

If you don't want to wait for a hungry bat to move in :tongue:... get a hermal fogger.
http://www.bugpage.com/xcart/hudson_propane-insect-fogger.html
.... KennyV

I like the bat idea. We have bats here, but we also have a lot of wet spots. We use a lot of skin so soft as repellent. It seems to work. (Both genders use it.)

They recently did a story on the news about a lady who had brought in bats. That would scare me though. Don't bats have their own issues? It's darn eerie, that's for sure. However you need to do something. They are worried about West Nile around here too.

Bats are great to have around if you can get them to stay.... they are also fun to watch, they will pretty much leave you alone, but cats like them... KennyV

Bats can get rabies, but so can most wildlife. As long as you don't have bats flying around your bed room while you sleep you don't have anything to worry about when it comes to rabies, and the benefits in terms of bugs out weigh the tiny risk one could fly in your room at night.

I have bats,they are quite benenficial little critters.when I sit out on my deck I use one of those OFF repellant jobs with the little fan,it seems to work pretty good.when I worked at the V.A. in Topeka on the graveyard shift we would sometimes get bats on the ward ,we would catch and relase.Some of the staff would freak as well as some patients so I would voultneer to catch them and made sure they wern't harmed. russ

The rabies thing is what gets me. I'm not sure if I were a neighbor to someone who brought in bats that I wouldn't question it and the legality of purposefully bringing in rabies carriers that could endanger myself, my family, and my pets.

There are all kinds of bats that fly around my neighborhood. My parents thought I was crazy when I told them about seeing bats until they were over one day and saw them. I like the idea of having natural mosquito deterrents.

Hershey said:

question it and the legality of purposefully bringing in rabies carriers that could endanger myself, my family, and my pets.

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I think you may be OVER reacting to a possibility that is SO remote as to be next to non existent...
Bats are almost everywhere... rabies is extremely rare even with every warm blooded living creature capable of carrying it...
You are about as likely of contracting bird flu from purple martins from your neighbors purple martin nest :laughing:...
with the same legality... :wink: KennyV

rabies are found our can be transmitted by any mammal.as kenney said though it's extremly rare.If you see a critter acting strange or out of character leave it alone.make sure your pets are up to date on their rabies shots.I saw a racoon the other day in the middle of the day coming down a beanfield heading right for me.He was stumbling and I said to myself this guy is out at midday and not acting right so I clapped my hands and yelled at him and he took off the other way.I was lucky cause my three dogs were napping by me and didn't see it.don't know if that coon was sick or what but it was out of character. I also have heard of a couple of horses contracting rabies last year in my area.scary disease. russ

bats are great and they will work very hard for you-eat there weight every night-a lot more people have prob been infected with west nile from mosquitos then rabies by bats- i have heard most of the folklore and old wives tales about these wonderful creatures and it's just hype- we had a whole colony that lived under the shake shingles of our Pa farmhouse. Non of our family was ever bit nor do i know anyone who ever was. Educate yourself guys-------these are great little gods creatures:thumbsup:

We have bats here naturally, but my cats are very hard on them, we keep finding them dead and half eaten it sucks but it's survival of the fittest.

Now that I think about it, wherever you see a lot of bats, you almost never see a lot of mosquitoes. This is good to know.

Last year I had left the back door open one night to get a bit of cooler air into the house, plus give the dogs free access to outside when nature called them. I was sitting in a spare bedroom that I use for a computer room surfing the net when I thought I saw something whizz by the door. I put it off as my imagination, but then, it happened again...and then a third time. Can't be my imagination, I figured, probably some big old moth. I went looking to see what it was and get rid of it, and lo and behold, it was a little bat, maybe 6-7 inch wingspan. I tried to shoo it out the back door, but the silly thing flew downstairs into the basement! So, down I go and finally get it to fly up the stairway and then it flew outside, since the stairway leads straight up to the back door. It's about the only bat I have ever seen around here, although others have seen several. The mosquitoes the little bugger ate more than made up for the little bit of effort it took to get him back outside and I was glad he made it unharmed...plus, it made for a nice story to tell my friends!

beesnroses32 said:

Bats can get rabies, but so can most wildlife. As long as you don't have bats flying around your bed room while you sleep you don't have anything to worry about when it comes to rabies, and the benefits in terms of bugs out weigh the tiny risk one could fly in your room at night.

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we had a Pa. farmhouse that had a whole colony of bats that lived under the cedar shake siding shingles- they never gave anyone any trouble -out at dusk, in at dawn- i would have them here in Tx if i could get them to stay----mosquitos carry far more disease then bats do. We also had one get in the house on occasion and would just catch him and put him back outside-remember they have to be off the ground to launch their flight-on the ground they will be something else's meal:thumbsup:.

I would recommend you find any open containers that hold water and add a capful of clorox to kill larvae. In open stands of wet marsh you need to take sprayer. Bats might work; we have some in the wild, but they don't enough mosquitoes for me. And I'm not real fond of pesticides.

YUK! That stinks. I would spray it and see if you can kill them. I don't think you want bats on your property. We have them here now and I'm ok with it. They do tend to crap a lot all over the side of the garage, but I don't see many mosquitoes.

It is actually perfectly legal to bring in bats almost everywhere. Fact is that 1 person a year dies to a rabies bat bite in the US. That means your chances are nill. Last year in the US more people died from rabies from a cow than from a bat. Also many bats are becoming endangered species, and while it is legal to bring them in it is illegal to harm a bat on the endangered species list. Your pets are more likely to bite someone in a deadly way then those bats are to harm you or your pets.

Unless they are vampires and then they are not going to give you rabies anyway. They will just suck your blood and possibly turn you in to one of them unless you are just dinner. You are more likely to have that happen. Are there many vampire sightings in your area by chance?

RockHound said:

I went through a stand of grass the other day and it was in a wet spot. The mosquitoes came out in a cloud. I couldn't believe it. Should I spray the area with some type of insecticide? I'm afraid we are going to have West Nile if I leave it as is.

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We are having an influx of those blood suckers, but then again the mosquito is Wisconsin's state bird!
One thing that we found that works to protect ourselves when doing any outdoor activity is to put a fabric softener tissue in our pocket before venturing outside. Believe it or not it works! If you want faster better results rub the softener on a few places of your exposed skin.
Jim

jim I used to douse myself with skin so soft but it got to the point I would start sweating and it would run in my eyes and then I got were I could't stand the smell of the stuff.I've tried lemon grass to some success but that OFF fan with the repellant works best for me ,you can just clip it on your belt and pretty much forget about it and the skitters. russ