Thank you Fetters. Really good post. Quite timely for us as DH has suggested putting in a garden pond. My first question was, "What about the mosquitoes?" I was intrigued by the mention of Lemon Eucalyptus. E maculata sounded somewhat familiar so I assumed we call it something else down here. I googled it and this is what I found. E maculata is known as Spotted Gum or Honey Gum (good for bees). E citriodora is known as Lemon-Scented Gum. And there is a hybrid E maculata citriodora. Recently these particular gums have been reclassified from Eucalyptus to Corymbia (useful to know in case the nurseries change the labels). I debated whether to mention the next bit. In some areas they are getting a reputation as an invasive weed. It's hard to know when such a reputation is truly warranted. (I have some birch trees, which are most definately not indigenous to my area, and I do get seedlings coming up, but after all these years my birches haven't taken over the nearby bushland. Or is that because they have no chance against the Patterson's Curse, which was once an introduced garden flower.) I suppose all I can say is do some research if you're thinking of planting one. Perhaps conditions in the areas of the US where they are grown are such that they are happy enough to grow okay but not so happy that they get out of control. And the good news is if you change your mind after you've planted one, it apparently makes really good timber. Hello OzOrganic. Sorry to hear about your landlord issue. Don't get me started on that subject. Hope you find a solution soon.

A friend of mine is a dog breeder in Puerto Rico and lives right next to the jungle. For years she had serious tick infestations and had to use Frontline for her dogs constantly. This past year she started spraying a garlic spray called Mosquito Barrier in her yard once a month and the problem ended immediately. She has not even had to put a single dose of frontline on her dogs since she started. She didn't mention mosquitos, but garlic spray certainly worked for her when it came to fleas and ticks. With summer right around the corner, I am planning on buying some for my land today. Also, about guineas, before we moved onto our land we put some adolescent guineas on it in a strong dog kennel, planning to release them when we were living on the land 24/7. Within a week the coyotes had eaten all 25 of them, they had pried through the chain link. Of course, our land already had coyotes so I can't say they attracted prey animals but the guineas were certainly defenseless from them. Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic Spray

Well, I hardly think any product knocks mosquitoes "dead from the sky" (they'd be millionaires if someone figured that one out!), which is what the snopes is disproving, but that doesn't mean the scent of listerine won't deter them. I will certainly give it a try. I'm thinking I might just try to spray it directly on me next time I'm camping. I refuse to use OFF or DEET containing products because I would prefer a few mosquito bites over putting toxic substances directly on to my skin. If I were to ever travel to a place where I had to worry about malaria, I would consider the poison. I currently use an all natural lotion that contains citronella and a few other things that works really well, but it bothers my asthma because it's so strong smelling. You also have to apply it quite often. I think it's called Buzz Off. So I'd be willing to give the Listerine a try.

Attracting natural mosquito predators is what worked for us. We have a small river channel behind our property that gets shallow in dry periods, countless ponds and swampy areas in our neighborhood etc. Attracting mosquitoes to come fly in traps could go on forever and would end up in a lot if $ on replacement inserts in my area lol. It would probably work okay for people who dont have an endless supply of mosquitoes. *Dragonflies are really great. The adults eat the adults and babies/nymphs eat mosquito larvae..Its a double whammy. Many of the mosquitoes that cause the worse diseases are daytime biters. Dragonflies are good at eliminating these. I absolutely will not spray anything that would ever harm the Dragonflies. I think communities with high populations of daytime biting Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which cause Zika, Dengue, Chickungunya, etc should be planning and incorporating Dragonflies into their defense/prevention strategies. Obviously, in an emergency or outbreak they had to mass spray, which is the right thing to do but starting some prevention measures can work long term because pesticides aren't good for people, animals, or natural predators. Who knows what the long term effects of spraying everything and everyone from the ground and air every summer will be! Plus, keep on spraying those mosquitoes, and they will become resistant to pesticides so the pesticides will eventually need to become more toxic and that is a nasty cycle. *Bats are really great for getting the night time biters. *Little treefrogs will eat nightime female biters but will also eat the male mosquitoes that mate with the female biters. The males are attracted to highly scented night blooming flowers like brugmansia, jasmines, nycanthes arbor-trystis, stock, nicotiana, and white moon flower vine (Ipomea alba) etc. Male mosquitoes feed on nectar and don't typically feed on human blood. The males live about a week whereas the females can live up to 2 weeks with the main goal of mating, blood feeding, and laying eggs. I have tons of these kinds of flowers in my yard and the little tree frogs actually sit in the flowers and wait for their dinners. They stay nice and fat :) Thry obviously are eating more that just mosquitoes. Im sure they eat up some of my hummingbird moths and other moths but they are worth it. Its all about balance in nature. More needs to be done to save these little green tree frogs but that's another can of worms. Between the frogs, bats, and dragonflies we hardly have had any mosquitoes biting us in the last 3 yrs. When we first moved here we could hardly go outside especially in the evenings or cloudy days. Now I can go out and enjoy my night garden which I am thankful for because I have so many night blooming flowers. I'm not really seeing any day biting mosquitoes at all now. *Fish can also be used to eat mosquito larvae. The flying mosquitoes won't be caught unless the land on the surface of the water but fish can put a dent in the mosquito population. I am not using fish as a defense right now but have a little patio pond and the fish in there eat lots of bugs and any larvae that end up in their pond lol. Here are some types of Dragonflies found in Florida. https://www.insectidentification.org/insects-by-type-and-region.asp?thisState=florida&thisType=Dragonfly%20or%20Damselfly ~Sjn