Natural Mosquito Control And Tick Control

Increasingly in the news media, we hear discussions about the positive and negative benefits of natural versus synthetic products. The discussions can be around what’s in our food, plastic bottles, clothes, chemicals in our pool, even the fertilizer we put on our lawns. These are important discussions. Different choices can mean spending more or less money and they may have an impact on our health.

The same concern comes up at times with customers when we discuss mosquito and tick control. We think it’s important you know the differences in our natural or natural barrier treatment and our more traditional treatment. The differences include the overall reduction rate and the cost over a season.

First, let’s discuss our natural barrier treatment. This treatment is developed in-house from various essential oils. Some examples of the oils are cedar wood, lemon eucalyptus and garlic. These oils are all 100% natural oils and derived from plants. Our natural treatment does not eliminate mosquitoes and ticks but causes them to leave the area treated because they dislike the odors of the natural oils.

When first treat your property, you will notice a slight botanical smell for the first 30 minutes until it dries. After 24 hours, very few customers say they smell anything at all. Mosquitoes rely on gases like carbon dioxide to locate us when seeking their blood meal. Because of their keen sense of smell, they will smell the barrier treatment for up to two weeks or longer, even though you won’t smell anything. Since they don’t like the smell of the oils, they will move out of your yard or the treated area.

How effective is the natural treatment? The treatment will reduce the number of mosquitoes in your yard by 80-85%.  In order to continue to keep them out, we treat your yard every three weeks during our mosquito and tick season.

Now, let’s discuss our traditional treatment. This barrier eliminates both mosquitoes and ticks in your yard. It will eliminate 90-95%  of them and keep working for 3 weeks. Mosquitoes usually don’t travel far during their brief one-month lifetime. Therefore, regular treatments can really drop the number of mosquitoes in your yard. It’s common for our customers to say they were finally able to enjoy time in their yard again.

The traditional mist uses a pesticide that is EPA registered and eliminates mosquitoes and ticks on contact. It is misted on vegetation and dries quickly with no discernible odor. The mist will eliminate mosquitoes and ticks on contact during the mist. The treatment does not harm plants or vegetation. As mosquitoes, ticks and other nuisance insects like fleas and spiders rest on and eat the misted vegetation, they will continue to be eliminated. It’s important to note that our technicians are trained not to treat flowering plants to make it safe for bees.

Which treatment is right for you?  Both treatments are effective but the synthetic product is slightly more effective. Both will reduce the number of bites you receive when outdoors in your yard. After either mist dries 30 minutes to one hour after application, children and pets can use the yard again just as they did before.