Mosquitoes and more

[manukarnika]

How do you manage life with mosquitoes? We live in an independent house, mosquito nets on windows don't seem to really help cos the mosquitoes somehow seem to get in perhaps when we open the door to get out or in? Has anyone found any good protection from these sleep depriving, disease carrying life forms?

[ILuvHyd]

The cleanliness of the neighbourhood play a key part in mosquito population. Mosquitoes are very active in the evenings, so make sure all doors and windows are either closed or protected. Make sure the toilet and kitchen exhaust fan openings are closed as well, they are much unnoticied entry points. Start a mosquito repellent like Goodnight or Allout in the evening.

[mn_op]

For small kids Odomos works very well. I also use it when nobody is looking!
CLosing all openings is kind of difficult if you have a old style house with multiple entrances.

[vaduvur]

Has anyone tried UV lamps such as these (http://www.pestcontrolindia.com/spider-electric-flying-insect-catcher.aspx, http://www.pestcontrolindia.com/Illume-electric-flying-insect-catcher.aspx), for controlling mosquitoes? What are the pros and cons?

Pros:
(a) Non-toxic to humans, compared to Baygon, Odomos, Tortoise and Allout

Cons:
(a) Expensive -- to install the first time and maintain; consumes at least 45W of electricity all day/night, during the mosquito season.
(b) UV light from this harmful to humans?

[Helios]

will the mosquitoes be extinct from the city???
What if Govt decides a Odomos week, makes everybody save themselves from the mosquitoes...will they disappear?

Your post is pretty old so feeling strange to replying it. However, let me add another perspective to it. Why is it dangerous to extinct mosquitoes? I would provide some references:

Here is why they are important.
1. In the bigger scheme of things, mosquitoes help keep ecosystems balanced by transmitting diseases. Diseased animals are easier for carnivores to capture and disease keeps the numbers of certain animals from getting too large for the food supply. That seems kind of cold, but that is the way it is.
2.Dr. Richard (Skeeter) Werner, an entymologist with the Institute of Northern Forestry, feels that the mosquito probably plays its most important function as an aquatic link in the food chain of fish while it is still in its larval and pupal stages.
3. Dr. Mark Oswood, a biologist with the University's Institute of Arctic Biology, agrees that the aquatic stages of the mosquito are probably when they are the most valuable in the animal food chain, and he also includes wading birds such as cranes as animals whose diets they supplement.

Mosquitoes are also important pollinators, as a large part of their diet consists of plant nectar. But as a product in the animal food chain, Oswood puts the matter into neat perspective when he says that mosquito larvae might be pictured as: "small machines that transform algae, bacteria and organic matter into compact packages of protein."
4. If mosquitoes weren?t around, spiders ?would have nothing, or very little, to eat.? If the spider population decreased, other bugs that didn?t eat mosquitoes would increase. That would mean more bees, wasps, hornets, and horse flies. Oh, and the fish population would likely decrease as they tend to rely on mosquitoes for food.

Here is an opposite view: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

Finally, do not forget the ultimate advantage: Mosquitos also spread viruses. And they help control human population with viruses they spread.

[returning_indian]

Why is it dangerous to extinct mosquitoes?

Not dangerous for us. None of these animals are getting too big for us. As cold as it may sound ecosystem can go to hell or self adapt. Our objective is to sustain ourselves and ourselves only.

[layman]

We shouldn't kill cockroaches, termites, bed bugs, mice either. The whole eco-system will go out of whack.

Your post is pretty old so feeling strange to replying it. However, let me add another perspective to it. Why is it dangerous to extinct mosquitoes? I would provide some references:

Here is why they are important.
1. In the bigger scheme of things, mosquitoes help keep ecosystems balanced by transmitting diseases. Diseased animals are easier for carnivores to capture and disease keeps the numbers of certain animals from getting too large for the food supply. That seems kind of cold, but that is the way it is.
2.Dr. Richard (Skeeter) Werner, an entymologist with the Institute of Northern Forestry, feels that the mosquito probably plays its most important function as an aquatic link in the food chain of fish while it is still in its larval and pupal stages.
3. Dr. Mark Oswood, a biologist with the University's Institute of Arctic Biology, agrees that the aquatic stages of the mosquito are probably when they are the most valuable in the animal food chain, and he also includes wading birds such as cranes as animals whose diets they supplement.

Mosquitoes are also important pollinators, as a large part of their diet consists of plant nectar. But as a product in the animal food chain, Oswood puts the matter into neat perspective when he says that mosquito larvae might be pictured as: "small machines that transform algae, bacteria and organic matter into compact packages of protein."
4. If mosquitoes weren’t around, spiders “would have nothing, or very little, to eat.” If the spider population decreased, other bugs that didn’t eat mosquitoes would increase. That would mean more bees, wasps, hornets, and horse flies. Oh, and the fish population would likely decrease as they tend to rely on mosquitoes for food.

Here is an opposite view: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

Finally, do not forget the ultimate advantage: Mosquitos also spread viruses. And they help control human population with viruses they spread.

[dbs]

As cold as it may sound ecosystem can go to hell or self adapt. Our objective is to sustain ourselves and ourselves only.

Yeah, sure it may adapt but it may not happen in your life time.

At Mao's urgings, china killed off sparrows in towns to save grain. As a result bugs mushroomed and they suffered till they had to introduce birds again.

[boca]

Your post is pretty old so feeling strange to replying it. However, let me add another perspective to it. Why is it dangerous to extinct mosquitoes?

Thanks for the references.

Human fight is against Plasmodium. We will find a way, one day, to save both the mosquito as well as the millions that die each year.

[Helios]

We shouldn't kill cockroaches, termites, bed bugs, mice either. The whole eco-system will go out of whack.

No, you "can" kill. The amount of bugs that you kill is a tiniest of the tiniest of the tiniest sort. But I am not sure that we should or even we "can" exterminate an entire species. The effects can be unpredictable and unsustainable. As dbs has specified, the chinese tried that. Here is the complete story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign.
By the way, do you know which species survived the ice ages, was there along with dinosaurs? Mosquitoes. Which species may survive the nuclear holocaust? Definitely not human***. So the extermination effort may prove futile and may generate some other problems.

*** FYI, contrary to popular belief, cockroaches (10,000 rads) may not surve it, but fruit flies (64,000 rads), flour beetle (100,000 rads), habrobracon (1,80,000 rads) may survive it. The Deinococcus radiodurans microbe (1.5 million rads at room temperature and nearly 3 million rads when frozen) will definitely survive it. (Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/02/23/1567313.htm)