Hey guys. So, I'm in the greenhouse today talking about mosquitoes and this is the very beginning mosquito season. This is the beginning of May and so I'm always researching what is the best way to get mosquitoes in your yard under control.
I have 2 acres. Some people have a lot smaller, some people have a lot larger yard, but in my particular case, I'm in the deep south and mosquitoes are a tremendous problem here, especially in the months of June, July, and August and well into September. It isn't until October that we start getting some relief from the mosquito problem we have.
So, I'm going to show you a simple homemade recipe from spices you already have, a spice that you most likely have in your cabinet even now. I'm going to show you how to mix it and how to apply it. So, mosquitoes is our topic for the day and how to control them, how to kill them and repel them at the same time.
Especially if you're having a barbecue or if you're planning a lot of outdoor activities with kids, this is a great product to spray. And there's different types of sprayers I'll talk about as to how to apply it, what is the best method. Now, before I mix the product, I want to talk a little bit about application and the type of applicator you're using.
You can use something like this, a 4gallon sprayer. You can use a handheld pump sprayer. You can even, if you're just using this for a patio area that's surrounded by some potted plants, you could use something as small as this or these solo sprayers, which I use quite regularly as same great for a small patio area.
And the key to applying this is knowing exactly what to apply it to and what not to apply it to. You don't want to kill your pollinator. So that's a key when applying the product.
Now, a lot of people will be doubtful as to whether this will work. But there is a professional product sold that contains exactly these formulation, exactly this mixture. So I'm going to show you how to do it with what you would have in your kitchen already.
Now, we're going to use granulated garlic powder, and we're going to use a very specific mixture and a couple of added products to it to make it to boost its effectiveness. But for this size sprayer, which is which is what I'm going to be using and demonstrating where and how to apply it, we want to use one/4 cup to every gallon of granulated powder. So, we're going to mix exactly one cup for four gallons.
So, we've got one cup there, and I've already got some lukewarm water. That's going to help it mix better. If you don't have lukewarm water, or if you don't have hot water, which is what you want to mix it with so it will dissolve properly in your water, use a common blender and mix it that way.
So, that's the one cup of our granulated garlic. And the stronger the garlic, the better. Then, we're going to use common just everyday citric acid.
A lot of people will have this in their kitchen as well. We're going to use one t tablespoon, excuse me, one tablespoon per two gallons or half a tablespoon to a gallon. So, we're going to need two tablespoons of our citric acid.
And when we're applying this, mosquitoes generally stay close to the ground. Rarely will you find mosquitoes above 20 to 25 ft in a tree. So, and it can happen, but generally mosquitoes are found down lower, closer to the ground, hiding under leaves, waiting for that optimum time for them to come out and hunt for a host.
And usually that's early early morning and even more commonly in the twilight hours at at daylight. I have a bee in here trying to help me today. So, the last thing we're going to do is we want the product to stick to leaves.
Now, you could use Dawn soap, but sometimes that can be toxic to certain plants and a lot of people don't like using it. So, we want to use a castile soap and we're going to use one tablespoon per 4gallon container. And this is going to help it mix well.
It's going to keep the product sticking to the leaves where all the mosquitoes are going to be hanging out. So, just remember those are our three common products. I'm going to show you a professional product contains almost exactly the same mixture.
So, let's mix this up. And I'm going to stir this and allow this to sit for about 10 to 15 minutes so it combines properly and so it goes through the sprayer and won't clog. We want that granulated garlic to be completely dissolved and the citric acid also completely dissolved before we run it through the pumping mechanism of our sprayer.
Now, I want to say just a couple of things about Castile soap. A lot of people are against using soaps in their garden, but this is an all naturatural, very safe soap to use around your vegetables, your ornamentals, and anywhere you want to use in the garden. And it's basically just made as a from vegetables.
So, different types of vegetable oils and essential oils. So, just remember castile soap. If you don't want to use the Dawn soap, you can use Dawn soap, but again, you want to use it sparingly in the garden and just use it very carefully.
But this is a lot safer than what would be maybe a chemical soap. So that's what I would recommend and that's why I want to make a special point about this Castile soap because I'm sure I'll get some questions about it. The citric acid is a natural mosquito repellent and it's going to repel them quite well.
And our garlic, which is the workhorse of this formula, is going to kill and repel mosquitoes. They hate the smell of garlic and it will kill them if they come if you spray them directly. So that's just the three simple ingredients and most people have at least one or two of these in their pantry even as we speak.
So just remember the stronger the granulated garlic, the better. I think there's an Indian garlic that's extremely strong that you can buy. It's going to be a little bit more expensive.
And everything I'm using from the sprayer to the garlic, I'm going to put a link in the description so you can get it quickly shipped to you within a day or two. So, if you want to make this for an upcoming event such as a barbecue or an outdoor a day outdoors where kids are going to be playing a lot in the yard, this is a very safe product you're going to apply. Now, one very special rule.
Today is very calm and very still outside. Maybe there's just a a breeze blowing this only about 2 or 3 miles an hour. Don't do this on a windy day because you don't want to breathe this formulation back into your sinuses, into your lungs.
Even though this is a very safe product, still it can irritate your sinuses. Just imagine taking a huge snort of garlic powder into your sinuses. Okay, so I've allowed our formulation to sit for about 15 minutes so it can help dissolve.
It would be even better to let this sit overnight and just let it just dissolve completely. I'm going to take my sprayer out to where I have my water spet out there and I'm going to fill it up to close to four gallons of water before we add our totally very strong smelling. It's very potent in the greenhouse.
Smells like a pizzeria in here now. So, let's fill this up and then we'll add our special mosquito repelling and killing ingredients. Now, one of the tips I want to give you if you do buy one of these sprayers is I absolutely love it because I've had for so many years I had the manual handheld pump sprayers where you're having to pump and spray at the same time.
And so, this is like I think it started out as Black & Decker and then it went to a different brand and I don't I guess it's still Black & Decker. This may be the second or third one I've owned. One thing I will tell you, if you have bad knees or if you have problems picking anything up, before you even mix it, set it up somewhere where someone somewhere high so you can walk around to the front of it and then put it on as you would a backpack because once you put those four gallons of water in it, this gets really heavy.
So, if you don't want to do that method, only do one gallon at a time, it will go through it a lot quicker, but it will be a lot easier to pick up. So, let's add our formulation here. It's been sitting for a while.
I'm just going to give it one last stir. before we put it into our sprayer. And so this is going to top it right to the 4gallon mark.
And so if there's anything in there at the bottom that hasn't completely dissolved, refill with water again and then stir and allow it to dissolve because you want the garlic and all the formula to be completely mixed and completely dissolved. So, let's get the backpack sprayer on and head out into the garden and kill some mosquitoes and prevent new ones from coming in. Now, the first place I'm going to spray today and I'm going to talk about spraying around your vegetable garden.
You don't want to spray directly on any of your vegetables because you need your pollinators to come in and pollinate and move on to the next flower in your garden. So, just remember that spraying vegetables is a no no. But spraying around the garden, around the walkways or anything like that, ornamentals, things that don't need a pollinator is okay.
But just remember, in the vegetable garden, we're just spraying the walkways and the pathways to repel mosquitoes that might come in while we're working out here. Now, things like this ornamental grass, I don't have to worry about pollinators because there's no flowers or any reason a pollinator would come in here looking for a flower to pollinate. There aren't any.
But we want to remember that anywhere there's going to be human activity, there's going to be mosquitoes hiding in that area, waiting for a chance to come and bite a host. So, just remember any types of grasses like this, you want to make sure you spray in and around them on top, all around the base because they do love to hide in these places. On trees you can spray up to 8 n 10 feet because sometimes around the bark mosquitoes can be hiding in those areas as well.
Now things like this magnolia will be blooming and sending out flowers pretty soon. We're in May, so by the middle or the end of May, we will see a lot of flowers on this. So I'm not going to spray up high where there's actually flowers starting to form.
Now I'm going to spray down close to the bottom and around the ground area where mosquitoes might actually hide. Now, generally mosquitoes are not going to be hiding in the gravel areas. They're going to be hiding in shrubs and grasses and on trees and maybe up a little ways into the trees.
So, just remember, you're not really have to worry so much about gravel areas. I The only reason I spray the gravel area in my vegetable garden is I don't want to put any of this product on vegetables, which could possibly alter the taste or it could repel or damage my chance for pollination from pollinators that may be coming in. So grass areas are perfectly safe.
Just remember that there can be a little bit of an odor, but once it settles in and dries, you're not going to notice any odor really. You're just going to be mosquito-free in that area. Now, most of these types of sprayers have adjustable tips and wands on them where you can go from a stream to a very fine mist.
These battery powered ones have an excellent reach, so you can reach 15, even more feet up into the tree. So, just remember that you can adjust that there. But I've got a video I'll try to remember to put an end card at the very end of this video about how to hook up a leaf blower to one of these which kind of creates that similar type of almost thousand machine that professional pest control companies use to do fogging around for mosquitoes.
So that's one way if you already have a leaf blower and you happen to buy one of these for a few $2 $300, you can combine the two and have an excellent sprayer that will spray quite a bit farther. And number one rule to remember is don't do this on a windy day and don't stand under it where it can drift back into your face or wear a face mask. That's really important.
So this is some strawberries I recently planted and they're always being attacked by ants. So I've kind of created a water moat that'll hopefully keep the ants off here. They could still come up the water line that goes in there, but this really cuts down on my ant problems.
But this can also create a problem with mosquitoes. Mosquitoes love to breed in small, shallow, standing water. So, one of the keys is is I add a few of these mosquito bits to each one of my humidity trays.
I just sprinkle a few in there. These are non-toxic to humans and pets, but it's absolutely toxic to mosquitoes. So, prevention is key when you're talking about mosquitoes.
You can put this in any type of humidity tray or standing water like this and it will knock out the larvae and prevent it from becoming adult fleas. So, I'll link this as well. Before we head back out into the greenhouse, I just wanted to talk about preventing mosquitoes can be a huge key to stopping them from biting you.
So, I'm sure in the comments there's going to be a lot of doubts and questions about where this this really works. And I wanted to show you a professional product. And I'm going to give you a closeup of the actual ingredients of said product.
But this will absolutely work. And there's a professional product. If you don't want to mix it yourself, you can buy this right here.
This contains exactly the same for formulation. The only thing I've added is the Castile soap to help it adhere to any leaves. So, I'll give you a close-up shot of the ingredient list, and I think you'll be surprised that it is exactly like our formulation.
All right. And I'm going to try to hold the steel for you. But basically, it's just garlic juice and citric acid.
And the potassium sorbate is such a small percentage that's really inconsequential. That probably is a preservative. But anyways, that's what we have right there.
Garlic juice and citric acid. And of course, I've added the, as I said, the the soap, the Castile soap. So, this is Mosquito Barrier.
Like I said, I'll put a link in the description to every single product, but this has the same formulation, the same smell, is very strong, and there, if you read all the directions and the specifications of this product, it can last up to 4 weeks. And so, again, the stronger you make your formula, it could last 4 weeks or even longer. So, if you go from, let's say, one cup to four gallons and you doubled or tripled to that, it's going to last even longer.
With this, you can mix it stronger, but the formulation is what it is. So, you would use this up really quickly if you started doubling and tripling. It's not super cheap, but if you don't want to mix it yourself, again, you can buy it online.
So, I'm going to put a link uh right up here about how to combine a leaf blower and one of these backpack sprayers. And I would recommend using a much smaller amount because you're using two different machines. It gets quite heavy, but it actually works.
I just can't see justifying 8 900 even $1,000 for one of the professional fogging machines because I only do this two or three times a year. And it's usually for special occasions, barbecues, when family's coming over. So just remember that if you're doing this more frequently, maybe it would be worth buying one of those more expensive fogging machines.
Again, I'll put a link to what I think is the best one on the market after doing a lot of research. I'm tempted, but I've not pulled the trigger yet on a professional fogger. So guys, I really appreciate you watching.
If you have any questions about this video or any previous video, because I have a catalog of over 200 videos, please become a public subscriber first because I tend to try to answer those questions and comments first because I get so many per day. When you're getting hundreds of comments and questions a day, it's really hard to answer everything in a timely man manner. Sometimes I don't get back to a question maybe a few days later, so people are wondering what happened to me.
But I'm still here. I'm just trying to keep up with it. So guys, I really appreciate it and have a great day.
