Mosquitoes!
Posted by Carol Lopez on June 16, 2020, 3:20 pm
At the Huerta Escolar (school garden), they are vicious right now. What birds and other predators eat them, and how can we encourage those predators? Do purple martens live around here? I remember my father making purple marten houses, to encourage them to nest, but that was in Vancouver. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Bob on June 16, 2020, 8:20 pm, in reply to "Mosquitoes!"
Carol - Two things come to mind. Don't knock down the Barn Swallow nests on the walls of patios etc. They can make a mess but they eat a lot of mosquitos. Dragonflies are called "mosquito hawks" since their main prey is mosquitos. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Cruz on June 16, 2020, 8:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Hola, Carol. How about bats and bat houses. Don't bats eat lots of mosquitos? Cruz | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Larry F on June 16, 2020, 10:54 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
You're right. Our house in La Manz had lots of bats and dragon flies, and very few mosquitos. Bat houses work in Canada but not sure about Mexico. Easy to make: Google tells you how. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Cruz on June 17, 2020, 1:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Hola, Carol. Something else nice about bats is that they work early evening and night and don't interfere or get spooked with workers. Cruz | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Rhonda O on June 17, 2020, 8:18 am, in reply to "Mosquitoes!"
Bats are the best. There's a huge bat house on a rise above Careyes. The last time I was there it had ten or fifteen bats hanging in it
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Posted by Carol Lopez on June 17, 2020, 9:04 am, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Thanks, all! Such good ideas. I’ll ask Antonio about all of them later today. How do we attract and encourage dragonflies? Do they like certain kinds of plants? | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Valerie D on June 17, 2020, 9:24 am, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
The problem of encouraging dragonflies is that you need standing water for them to lay their eggs ~ a complete no-no in mosquitoland! | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Carol Lopez on June 17, 2020, 1:45 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Thanks, all! Who wants to build a couple of bat houses? | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Carol Lopez on June 18, 2020, 9:24 am, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Seriously, I’d love to hear more about bat houses. In Mexico, are they usually made of concrete or wood? I tried googling, but nothing comes up specifically for Mexico. It might be different building one further north. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Ross on June 18, 2020, 10:21 am, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Mazinka on June 18, 2020, 10:39 am, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Building a bat house for a mosquito infested area!
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Posted by Linda Mandala on June 18, 2020, 1:24 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Wow!!Great video Mazinka...I bet there are lots of young people in La Manz who have time on their hands (no school) and would love to make something out of wood. If there is someone who could instruct them (and me) in making them they could even get a business going....which could be amazing for the town . If we got everyone interested in having a bat house in their yard...Imagine no poisons sprayed in town AND no mosquitos!!
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Posted by cruz on June 18, 2020, 2:17 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Good Idea, Linda. Yo quiero uno! Cruz | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by M Morgan on June 18, 2020, 3:12 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Great idea!!! As an extension of that venture some face-masked entrepreneur could also be collecting and selling bat guano. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Carol Lopez on June 18, 2020, 4:31 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Carol Lopez on June 18, 2020, 1:25 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Thanks, Ross and Mazinka, I’ll ask Juan, el carpintero, to build one for me, and try it out in my yard. Stay tuned... By the way, I mentioned to Antonio the idea of getting some built for La Huerta Escolar, and he said, But bats eat fruit! (Thinking of the passion fruit, etc.)... but it might be OK to sacrifice a few fruits in favor of avoiding dengue, right? | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Paul on June 18, 2020, 7:42 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Are we all going "batty"? | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by nansee on June 18, 2020, 9:30 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Carol, please let us know about your bat house results. I am interested in having one made as well. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Pablo on June 18, 2020, 9:47 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Yup, some bats do eat fruit, but those would be the huge fruit bats (sometimes called flying foxes) and so no problemas. The insect-eating bat species are indeed one of the best agents for keeping mosquitoes in check - they eat roughly 1000 mosquitoes an hour amongst the beetles and other insects they consume. | ------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Pablo on June 18, 2020, 9:51 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"------------Re: Mosquitoes!
Posted by Carol Lopez on June 19, 2020, 10:00 am, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"
Bats need nesting places, and it’s good to help them, as more of their potential homes are being “developed“ for human housing, etc. So if we get several of these structures built, it seems like a win/win. And if people, young, old, local, exranjero can find satisfaction in building them, let’s not look the gift horse (bat) in the mouth. I’ll Choose to believe that they eat lots of mosquitoes anyway, and then it’s on to something else. Dragonflies are much prettier to look at. Here’s a question for the scientists: Can you add something to standing water that will not allow mosquitoes to lay their eggs, (like a few drops of oil) but will allow dragonfly eggs to survive? | ------------Bat houses
Posted by Nansee on June 20, 2020, 5:30 pm, in reply to "Re: Mosquitoes!"------------Re: Bat houses
Posted by Jean on June 20, 2020, 7:17 pm, in reply to "Bat houses"
Mosquitoes are so bloody bad. Ha! When is La Huerta going to spray? Do we need dengue cases to report first? | ------------
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