mosquito's

Buy a mosqito net for each bed - in some places in Africa, this simple measure has cut new malaria incidences by 80%.
The puff of CO2 is ok as long as you hold yr breath each time to offset the increase in yr carbon footprint!

Tammy,

Thanks for the information. You are the second person on the island that has recommended that type of system. I was wanting to make sure it helped before I invested in one. Since the mosquitos seem to love my son and me. However, don't bother my husband and inlaws.

Cresentpoint,

It is truly amazing. We have had such a problem here and now we hardly get bitten at all.

I have heard good things about this system. It has been around for a few years, maybe it's lack of popularity is due to it's rather high price.

Don't confuse it with the "Arctic mosquito shield" which is a citronella sprayer and sells for about $30.

The Arctic Mosquito Killing System is a large outdoor apparatus that sells for about $1000. The list price is about $1500. It can cost $300 to $400 a year to operate.

Let us know how it works.

I’ve tried citronella, in every shape and size. The skeeters laugh at it. They buzz around your head and you can actually hear them giggle.

I’ve tried the Raid Plug-ins. These are not convenient at all.
The skeeters gather on these units for warmth and they gossip about you.

I’ve tried the Raid mosquito coils. The skeeters inhale the smoke and get high from it.
(in other words, they get a good BUZZ !)

I’ve tried the OFF PowerPad lamps (the lantern looking things with the candle inside and the blue "repellent" pads on the top)
The candles burn out much sooner than the pad is done, tea light candles won't fit as a substitute to the OFF candles, and the skeeters use it as a resort.

I’ve tried the Raid spray. (sold at Price Smart in 4-packs) 8 cans later the house stinks to high heaven and there isn't a dead skeeter in sight.

I've sprayed myself with Lemon Eucalyptus.
I've sprayed myself with Cutters.
I've sprayed myself with Deep Woods serious DEET stuff.
I've sprayed myself with OFF.
I’ve sprayed myself with Skin-so-Soft.
I’ve used the repellent towelettes.

I haven't been "clean" since I got here.
A typical day is as follows:
Get out of bed.
Grab one of the six swatters to clear a path to the coffee pot.
Have coffee – one hand on swatter one on coffee cup. Hope and pray that you don’t (again!) mix up the 2 and toss coffee into the air.
Shower.
Enjoy the blessed 3 to 5 minutes of total cleanliness.
Spray self with something.

We had nets for the beds, the kind with the hoop that you hang on the ceiling at the center of the bed. The skeeters will still get you wherever the netting touches the bedding, and where the opening is, if it’s not totally secure, the skeeters see that and call all of their skeeter buddies and relatives to join them in a slumber party at your expense. Now you are not only surrounded by the skeeters, you are trapped in a net with them, trying vainly to find that *&%$ opening at 3:00am to get the heck out of there!

The best thing that I did was to get GOOD Mosquito nets for the beds, the kind that hooks up to the ceiling at 4 points, and has NO OPENING. (I found them online, I paid $70.00 each) To get into the bed you have to pull it up and crawl in, it’s not the prettiest or most graceful sight, but once you are in your bed, you are SAFE! The netting is AWAY from you and the bed, it is all the way to the floor, there’s no opening for a mob attack of the skeeter society, and you can actually SLEEP without those savages sucking the life out of you.

The “Stinger” also works great - not during daylight though. It works off of Octenol which lures the mosquitoes. It says that it will cover a range of 1 acre but I sure as heck won't be testing it that far.
I've seen both the unit itself (price is around $40.00) and the Octenol Lure refills (price around $9.00 and it lasts 3 to 4 weeks depending on usage) at Home Depot. I think you could get a better deal online but then there's the shipping charge of course. The downside to this unit is that it uses power, so when WAPA decides to leave you in the dark, then you're in the dark with the skeeters. (this is when you would go to bed in your nice new net!)

The Swatter is my best friend during the day, because I never really know when the
whatever-I-sprayed-myself-with will lose its effect. You can get these for $9.99 at Cash and Carry. I now have 6 of these wonderful inventions!

I hope this might help anyone who is as fed up as I have been with those blood suckers !

Skeeters beware of Suzette! lol Things have gotten better since I have convinced (or threatened) my husband and son that just because it is beautiful here doesn't mean we don't have to keep the doors shut. It at least keeps the skeeters out of the out of the house for the most part. But, it makes it nearly impossible for me to stay out on the balcony at night and enjoy the view without getting ate up. People keep telling me that I will eventually not react to the bites like I do now, but I don't know if that is true or an old wifes tale. Anyway...it is a bit expensive for the system, but might be worth it.

I'm on STT - we just finished screening in our porches, and love it! The minimal effect on the view is more than made up by the reduction in mosquitos, both on the porch and in the house, especially since our 1 yr old and dog both like to open the sliding screen door to the porch. It's like we added an addition to the house, since we use the porches so much more now.

Rolls of screen were pretty cheap and easy to find on Ebay - approx. $75/roll + $20 shipping. Most of the cost was in hiring a handyman to do the labor, which took about 4 full days of work.

I have also found information that lemon grass is a good mosquito repellent.Try some scented candles or essential oils.

Would appreciate someone elaborating on the mosquito problem.

Is it year round? Seasonal? I understand that they love to come out after the rain.

Why mosquitos in the house? Is it because you don't have screens in the windows?

What locales and islands fare the worst?
And specifically about STX... where and when is the problem the worst?
Does the East End of STX, for example, have fewer squito problems than the West?

We have a condo on the North shore that overlooks the water and almost aways has a breeze. We have very few mosquito's. I think it is the breeze that helps. We are also about 50ft above sea level on the cliffs so we don't seem to have many noseeum's. That may also be due to the fact that the condo has exterminators come often.
I know that many places more inland have really bad problems with mosquito's. Many times there are more area of standing water that breed them.
I would think that the East end would not be as bad due to less rain, but not sure.

dougtamjj,
Did you find out how much the unit cost ?

we live on he east end right over sapphire beach and pelican beaches. When the wind is blowing, like it is most of the the time there are no skeeters. The only time they get bad is right around dusk, Then they come out with a vengeance. The swatters are good tools to zap them. But after a little they are mostly gone.

The wind is the bight thing. They can;t hang out. One more thing. They will gather in areas where they can hide from the sun. Like a bunch of cloths. You pick the pile the clothes up and they are there. It is great fun to ZAP them.

Bill

snap
SNAP
snap snap snap

Love that swatter ! 🙂

it does give one satisfaction when it goes ZAP!