On 9 Apr 2003 07:53:20 -0700, (jameson) wrote:

It is now summertime and we are coming to notice lots and lots of
BUGS!
When we lived in the city, they sprayed almost nightly for
mosquitos... this helps them not be so bothersome to us but now they
seem to be a noticable pest...among other bugs...
Here are a few issues I would hope that some yard/garden experts could
help me out with:

Mosquito Hawks (those big looking mosquitos)... I am not sure if this
is thier actual name, but from what I understand, they eat mosquitos
and are not interested in my blood... my exterminator guy tells me he
can spray my bushes to kill most of the M. hawks... but will killing
them INCREASE my regular mosquito populations?

Mosquitoes require water for most of their life-cycle, so making sure
there's no "standing water" around will help with the problem. A
little difficult when it's been raining for a week, of course. :-)
Advice here always includes "getting rid of old tires," (where water
can collect) which doesn't seem to be a major problem, but *does* show
there can be water collection spots where you don't normally see the
water.

What's the bat situation there? Bats are said to eat zillions of
mosquitoes every evening. You could try putting up a bat house to
encourage a mosquito-control patrol of your own.

Wholesale spraying often does more harm than good.. The stuff that
kills mosquitoes also harms bees and butterflies. Bees = pollination
for many veg crops.

I'd never heard the term "mosquito hawk," but it appears to be another
name for "dragonflies" which do, indeed, feed on mosquitoes and other
small insects. I'd want to encourage as many of those as possible.