Plague of Mosquitoes in My House!

[Teddscau]

Holy fudge-bunner! They're everywhere! We've killed 80 of them tonight! 36 were in the basement! Do you guys know who live in my basement!? My freaking birds! Every time we kill one, three more take its place!

Since posting, we've killed 26 more, bringing the total to 106.

 

[clark_conure]

got a shop vac? Lock you bird in it's cage and use the shop vac as a ghost buster weapon, or a floor vac with one of it's tubes.... it's actually pretty effective, the mosquitoes can't out fly it and no need to be precise.

Been there once when I left a door open, the vacuum sucked them all in no problem.

 

[Scott]

Is there a local infestation, or have they congregated in your house? I don't know what to recommend that is bird-safe other than a fly-swatter! I know some birds eat mosquitoes, not sure if any are common companion avians.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Some facts for you How To Get Rid of Mosquitoes - pestHow

"Should your property be in an area where there is a high chance of mosquito activity, which means the home is shaded and there is a constant water source, then there’s a good chance that the mosquitoes could lay their eggs inside your home. The rule of standing water still applies. Female mosquitoes must lay their eggs in water for them to survive. If you have several house plants with water trays, periodically look for “wigglers” in them. Those are mosquito larvae. Clean out the water tray immediately and you’ll prevent future fliers from biting.
Having mosquitoes inside your home can actually be an indication that a plumbing problem exists somewhere. Check your crawl spaces, basement, and other common areas where the pipes run for a leak. It doesn’t take a large pool of water to spawn dozens of mosquitoes. A simple leak can accomplish the same thing a large marsh can for these insects."

My Plum would be going nuts at flying insects. Hope you get rid?

 

[Kentuckienne]

Google DIY mosquito trap...a two liter soda bottle, tape, beer, and dark paper, it does catch many of them. I have a brother who swears by a recipe he found online, I think it was mostly mouthwash and Epsom salt sprays around the yard...

 

[clark_conure]

You know Dragonfly's eat mosquitoes. So maybe go capture a bunch of Dragonfly's and release them inside your house. Nothing ever went wrong from that, like rabbits in Australia, common starlings in the US, cane toads everywhere the where introduced.

I'm be factious,! don't do that!

 

[Teddscau]

Luckily, I think last night was a one off thing. Great advice, though! I appreciate it.

However, we're now having issues with a frog plague. I got at least 30 tiny frogs out of our window wells today. My dad's been scooping about a dozen out of the pool each day this week. No clue what's happening.

Clark, would damselflies work just as well? Those guys are way easier to catch . Freaking idiots with their invasive species, eh?

 

[clark_conure]

to get rid of frogs I'd get few badgers and bring those into your house. Badgers eat frogs.

 

[Kiwibird]

Mosquito and frog plagues? Sounds like it's time to grab a tin foil hat and "the end is near" sign and head out to warn others I kid, of course. Not sure what part of the country your in, but when we lived in AZ, every year there'd be swarms of some kind of creepy crawlies this time of year (grasshoppers, mosquitos, bugs the size of small horses, those #$%@ noisy cicadas etc...). Always miserable to have a summertime invasion of invertebrates! I guess I personally wouldn't mind the frogs too much, I like amphibians and reptiles. Never minded the annual explosion of baby fence lizards we'd get, and even kind of miss them (have not seen a single wild lizard up here in OR).

Give it a week or 2 and the frogs will either have moved on to be near a real water source or been picked off by predators. As for the mosquitos, you need to find the water source they've been breeding in and either treat it or remove it. OrangeGuard (an orange based bug spray) works well for ants and fruit flies and is safe to use in the vicinity of parrots, however I am not sure of it's effectiveness on mosquitos. It should also not be sprayed anywhere birds could reach it, like directly on cages, play stands etc... but the smell is harmless so you can use in a room a bird is in.