While your job is critical for managing mosquitoes, there are also helpful tips you can share with your customers to help them reduce mosquito breeding sites on their own. Watch the video below for a tip you can give customers who have potted plants on their properties.
Austin M. Frishman, Ph.D. Standing water does not have to be visible or deep to be a problem. Obvious breeding areas like unused swimming pools, bird baths and small ponds can be checked by anyone. However, what you need to keep in mind are the hard-to-find breeding locations. Here is a list of nearly a dozen common locations where I have found mosquitoes breeding: - Drip pans under refrigerators
- Unused floor drains in basements or under raised floors
- Clogged rain gutters, or gutters that are tilted the wrong way
- Combine these with rotting leaves, and you’ll find mosquito-breeding havens
- Toys left outdoors
- Water under outdoor boat covers
- Air-conditioning pans in attics
- This was the case in my own house. While a cable company was working in my attic, workers stepped on the edge of a tray used to catch condensation from an air conditioner. The pan bent and the water flowed to the new low point where it stagnated, allowing mosquitoes to breed.
- Indoor and outdoor bromeliad plants
- Broken sump pumps in closets or basements
- Tree holes
- Empty snail shells
- Upside-down garbage can lids
- Indoor alligator breeding pits
- Some alligators are raised in pits of standing water indoors, and I have even observed mosquitoes feeding on the soft tissue of their mouths. How’s that for a mosquito management challenge?
Options for controlWith the threat of Zika and other emerging mosquito-borne diseases, control measures are taking on additional importance. Recently, Miami-Dade county officials in southern Florida allowed the release of bacteria-infected mosquitoes into a suburban neighborhood where Zika-transmitting mosquitoes were found last year. This method of managing mosquitoes is not fool-proof, and authorities recognize that the use of conventional pesticides is still necessary to improve mosquito control success. Syngenta offers a mosquito management program called the SecureChoice℠ Mosquito Assurance Program, and field tests have proven it to be quite successful. The combination of two products in a single tank mix provides a significant reduction in mosquito populations for up to 60 days: - Demand® CS insecticide (at a 0.06% concentration) provides an initial quick kill via small-sized microcaps, which release product shortly after application, and longer-lasting residual control via larger-sized microcaps.
- Archer® insect growth regulator (at a 0.01% concentration) adversely affects the reproductive cycle of mosquitoes by preventing larval development, resulting in fewer adult mosquitoes.
For more information, view this instructional video about the program’s application procedures. To receive articles by Dr. Austin Frishman, advanced pest management information and more on a monthly basis, subscribe to our emails. 
©2018 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties and/or may have state-specific use requirements. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration and proper use. Archer®, Demand®, For Life Uninterrupted™, SecureChoice℠ and the Syngenta logo are trademarks or service marks of a Syngenta Group Company. Syngenta Customer Center: 1-866-SYNGENT(A) (796-4368).
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