Some studies suggest that taking thiamine (vitamin B1) 25mg to 50 mg three times per day is effective in reducing mosquito bites. This safe vitamin apparently produces a skin odor that is not detectable by humans, but is disagreeable to pregnant mosquitoes (Pediatric Clinics of North America, 16:191, 1969). It seems to be especially effective for those people with large allergic reactions. Thiamine takes about 2 weeks before the odor fully saturates the skin. * I copied that from here http://www.drgreene.com/21_36.html I've heard or read that mosquitos prefer nice sweaty skin, and also sweet perfumes and shampoos. we have a HUGE mosquito problem, plus we live on the river. mosquito larvae will live in moist mulch under your shrubbery, they don't have to just grow in standing water. besides mosquitos we have gnats, yellow flies(deer flies) horse flies, and black flies-they look just like the house flies but bite the snotfire out of you-;red bugs,....bleh-there's more! but that's enough to scare you for now :D

As agility mom stated Phoenix local Dave Owens, "The Garden Guy," has a 2010 book out on this very subject specifically for the southwest: "The Garden Guy's Southwest Bug Guide." I find it frequently in the garden section of HD, Lowes, Ace, Walmart, Target and local nurseries. sales pitch: Organic gardening has been a lifetime passion for Dave Owens, The Garden Guy. He has written two best-selling books, "Extreme Gardening: How to Garden Organically in the Hostile Desert" and "The Garden Guy: A Seasonal Guide to Organic Gardening in the Desert Southwest." Like the Garden Guy's previous books, the "Southwest Bug Guide" is written with the Desert Southwest's hostile environment in mind, but the information and remedies are effective in any locale. This is an everyday gardener's manual to help identify and control pests the natural (organic) way. Not only keeping Mother Earth safe, but our homes, families, pets and wildlife. Let's all stop using toxic poisons that destroy our environment. ----------------------------- FN: The truth is Phoenix has few bug or disease problems---it is too dry. What is present eats a bit and then gets eaten. Or the eater turns into a beneficial. Either way it seems to me not worth bothering with unless it dramatically effects yield or wholesomeness/appearance of fruit. If it just eats some leaves can't we all just get along? Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon link to book

I've been reading more about mosquito abatement programs & the dangers of insecticides since I wrote the original email, and frankly, it scares the bajeebers out of me. And then, of course, I got the old "Nothing is wrong. The insecticides only kill mosquitoes." (That from the mosquito abatement people.) And, "Insect populations vary from week to week, and year to year." Okay, that made me mad. Will you forgive me if I climb on my soapbox again, for just a little while? I'm worried over here! "Insect populations vary from year to year" is an excuse used by people who promote pesticides. Oh, it's true - the populations DO vary from week to month to year to year. But they're using it as a temporary cover-up for something that they don't want us to see. It silences us. It makes us feel unqualified - our observations aren't worth anything, because we're not scientists. We haven't conducted a long-term scientific study, we could be wrong. It makes us doubt our own observations. And maybe it stops us from worrying. Makes us think, okay, if something was really wrong, SOMEBODY would notice and do something. Until we see the same problem repeating itself. We see the population continue to decline. Sure, they can tell me that the Gulf Fritillary butterflies just aren't here yet this year. But when they never turn up in their former numbers? The next year, either? This is the 4th year - where are they? We need to quit listening to the pesticide promoters, and start believing our own eyes. Our own instincts. This really is a problem. And it's not just the butterflies that are in trouble. I've learned that many mosquito abatement programs are over-spraying with chemicals that are toxic to us, too. AND - there are safer larvacides (to kill the juvenile mosquitoes), and alternative methods of control. Those aren't being used very often at all. The really sad thing is that the pesticides are working very well. Just not on mosquitoes. Leslie

Our property is on a small artificial lake so mosquitos were at some point a concern that prompted us to research this issue, but it looks like they are managed quite well by the fish in the lake so it has never become such a high priority - being swamped with many other things to do - to act on this. With the qualification that we never tested the selected solution, the Flowtron electronic zapper technology has many favorable reviews on Amazon and it appears to have significant benefits. It uses two types of attractants: UV light (in 3 different bulb sizes 15-40-80 W for a coverage of 0.5-1.0-1.5 acre, respectively) and a chemical bait, although many users state that the chemical bait is not necessary to obtain satisfactory results. The insects are killed by high voltage localized to the outside grid on the lantern-like device. There are no chemical toxicity issues and daytime pollinators are not affected since its operation is restricted to night time. It's operating costs are low, especially if no chemical bait is used - where they would be limited to the cost of electricity to power the UV light. Has anyone here used it?