You should check your house for potential mosquito breeding grounds. Bird feeders, window wells, puddles and other standing water should be flushed with a hose.
This will keep mosquitoes from breeding in your yard. Yet, getting rid of mosquitoes is not that easy.
A mosquito travels an average of one mile per day. So unless you plan on flushing all your neighborhood areas of standing water, you should have a back-up plan!
You can trap gnats using an easily made home trap. Gnats and fruit flies are attracted to the smell of vinegar and sweetness, so ingredients are key.
Place some vinegar and and either dish washing detergent in a jar with a screw-on cap. Sugar and bananas will also work when combined with vinegar.
Punch holes in the cap like you would with a childhood firefly jar. Most gnats will not be able to get out and will drown in the vinegar.
Several traps will work better than one. It’s not the best smelling solution, but it is effective.
Set bait such as honey and wait until they come to feast, then follow the carpenter ants after they visit the honey. Yes, follow them! Carpenter ants form well traveled paths back to their colonies.
Carpenter ants are nocturnal so the best time to do this is at night. You can pinpoint the ants if they are inside your walls by tapping the wall.
The colony area will have a hollow sound. You can also hear the sound of a lively ant colony. A soft rustling noise can be heard from a lively colony of ants at night.
Don’t be alarmed by the sound of this chemical. It is safe to use and is available online and at most hardware stores and garden centers.
If the ants reside in your walls you will need to drill a few holes and spray or puff the boric acid into the holes. You should make several holes to make sure you get the colony and the trails
to/from the nest.
Remember, there may be several colonies so continue to track and monitor the trails made by the carpenter ants and repeat this process if you find additional colonies.
The carpenter ants will take 7-14 days to die.
Outdoor colonies house thousands of ants and there is always a home nest (where the queen ant lives) and satellite colonies with smaller pockets of worker ants.