Mosquitos in brownstone gardens
Can any brownstone owners (or renters) let me know whether your gardens are actually usable in the summer months, or whether the mosquitos render them pretty unusable. I know this last summer was bad b/c we were house hunting and would get bitten like crazy just standing out there for a few mins. But is…
Can any brownstone owners (or renters) let me know whether your gardens are actually usable in the summer months, or whether the mosquitos render them pretty unusable. I know this last summer was bad b/c we were house hunting and would get bitten like crazy just standing out there for a few mins. But is that a perpetual situation? Or is it cyclical depending more on the mosquito population for the year?
I guess I’m just wondering how much brownstone gardens/patios/decks actually get used.
Additionally, does the location matter in terms of mosquito population? In other words, if you are surrounded by other gardens which are overgrown and not well cared for, does that dramatically increase the chance of a mosquito issue?
The biggest problem in our Prospect Heights backyard is the infestation of Asian Tiger Mosquitoes. They are much more vicious and even bite in the daytime. They can also breed in the water in a leaf after a rain, so even clean backyards can have a problem.
We use lots of tiki torches and keep bottles of repellent outside. Windier nights are more comfortable, since they bite less.
Park Slope has zero mosquitoes and no projects.
i think it varies block by block. One back deck on 9th st in the south slope I had few mozzie problems. But in a north slope garden it was moderately bad, cobble hill it was bad & in ft greene it was unbearable.
Yeh, our Prospect Heights backyard is pretty much unusable from July through early September. Standing water is always the biggest culprit and if any of your neighbors’ yards are neglected, you can bet there will be plenty of standing water in them. The other issue is that PH has very deep lots and plenty of big trees so the general preponderance of greenery adds to the problem. I’ve noticed when I visit friends in nabes where the yards are much smaller and many are concreted over that there are far fewer mosquitoes. We are giving serious thought to screening in a portion of our deck so that we can at least sit out in the evenings after work and enjoy the breezes without being bitten to death.
Re: Purple Martins
These birds, although lovely, have an ill deserved reputation for eating mosquitos. They in fact prefer dragonflies–which are the real mosquito killers.
One thing nice thing about brooklyn mosquitoes is that their buzz is a lot worse than their bite. It never seems to itch for more than an hour or two. But when ever I go to my friends on Long Island I get these mosquito bites that itch all week.
I didn’t try it last year…but someone told me to get an outdoor fan. The theory is that mosquitos are very weak fliers and can’t battle the “wind” created by the fan.
Another trade off I noticed was the more sangria I drank, the less I cared about the bites. Maybe it was the lemons I used 🙂
I use my garden in the spring and early summer, but essentially find it intolerable in late July and August due to mosquitoes and the heat. Citronella candles, repellant, etc. do help, and it does seem to vary summer to summer, and of course if neighbors have standing water they will breed killer mosquitoes.
But basically — yep, there are lots of mosquitoes in Brooklyn in the summer.
I live in Prospect Heights and suffered tremendously last summer. I garden and compost a lot as well as build furniture and entertain in the backyard. I would wear 10% DEET spray, carry citronella tiki torches, spray with chemicals in the lawn, and even got a handheld electric zapper and still found it a problem. The thing that helped the most was the DEET spray and I think the novelty of a garden and being outdoors is much more important than the insignificant worry of cancer.