Quote:
Originally Posted by gary
As an adjunct to the advice on repellents, one of the best pieces of advice
is to walk around your property and ensure there are no sources of free-standing
water in which they are breeding. Typical sources in the garden can be buckets
left outdoors, empty flower pots, bird baths, ponds, uncovered water tanks, blocked
roof guttering and so on.
Without the water, they can't breed and something as simple as emptying an old
used paint tin that has been sitting outside and has filled with rain water acts as
what WHO refers to as a source reduction vector control.
Taking a cold shower before you go out observing can also help.
Avoid dark coloured clothing and wear either white or light coloured long sleeves
and trousers.
If using repellents containing DEET, be mindful that it is an effective solvent
and can damage rubber, some plastics and synthetics. For example, if
you have it on your fingertips it will readily transform the rubber eye-cap
around the eyepiece into gray sticky goop, melt away the keycaps on
a keyboard or leave permanent melted finger indentations on a plastic
camera body.
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I want to reinforce Gary's excellent advice. Habitat control is a great way to reduce the mosquito population. If you have standing water that can not be drained, there are a few commercially available larvacides that can be applied that will prevent the mosquitoes from developing. There are are organic and non-organic options that will work. Deet (as high a percentage as you can stand) can be effective. There is another repellent that I think is a good performer, the active ingredient Picardin, but I do not know if this is approved in Australia. The attract and kill gear can work as can fogging but can be expensive. There is also a new fan repellent with the active ingredient metofluthrin (maybe called Sumi-one) but again I do not know if this is available in Australia. Lastly, there is Permethrin treated clothing that is available in many parts of the world...put after many washings the insecticidal activity will decline as the active is washed away (usually 20 washings or so)...but some folks have some skin sensitivity to the clothing so layers are needed.
But the best in my opinion is to attack the problem at the standing water source...
As a disclaimer, I work for a company that makes products in all the above categories...including mosquito insecticide treated netting (for tents and bed nets)...
Good Luck!
