Scio Machine

The summer is the time for barbecues, backyard parties, lounging in the backyard or bathing in the pool. It is also the season for insects, normally of the flying variety. Flies and mosquitoes can become everything from mildly annoying to downright dangerous. So what can you do to protect yourself in the garden during the summer?

The first thing to do is start clearing up your garden before the summer starts. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and it only has to be a half-inch deep. This means that you should keep the gutters free from fallen leaves and other blockages.

Blocked gutters and drains are major breeding grounds, but so are all items that can hold rainwater. Flower pots, buckets, old tyres and folds in sheets are others.

Drill holes in pots, containers and old tyres; pull tarpaulins tight, upturn boats and canoes and if you have water features, make certain that there are either guppies or goldfish in there as well, because they are famous for feeding on mosquito larvae.

Making a pre-emptive strike on mosquito breeding grounds will radically lessen the number of mosquitoes in your garden and thereby reduce your liklihood of being given West Nile virus (in the USA). It will also protect you against E.coli.

However, your neighbours may not be as fastidious as yourself, so mosquitoes will still come into your garden. To protect yourself from these spray insect repellent containing DEET (25% +) on your clothes and exposed skin to avoid mosquito bites.

In the twilight, hang a bug zapper with a blue light and an electrified coil in the environs of where you are sitting. The best ones also use pheromones to attract mosquitoes, particularly octenol.

Some species of mosquitoes hang about animals, so rub some natural mosquito repellent on your dogs or do not allow them to lie at your feet.

Do not use DEET on them because they will lick it off and become sick. Use citronella oil, lemon oil or garlic. There are lots of others as well, but they are not as effective or as long-lasting as DEET.

If you are cooking, and who would not be, be cautious of meat, particularly chicken and pork. If the meat is frozen, thaw it gradually and keep it in the fridge until minutes before you are going to cook it.

The risk zone is between 40-140F, when bacteria will grow very quickly and flies will lay eggs in it. If you have to store the meat out of the fridge, store it ‘under water’, that is, in a marinade, so that flies can not get at it and it is out of strong sunlight.

Keep food and drinks apart, so that the fridge is not opened so frequently as to permit the temperature to rise above 40F. Use two sets of kitchen tools, one to deal with uncooked meat and fish and one to take cooked meat and fish off the flames otherwise you will contaminate the cooked food.

Use a meat thermometer to check that the foodstuff is cooked: 160F for meat and 165F for chicken. Discard cooked food not consumed after two hours or after one hour if the ambient temperature is above 90F. If you want to use marinade up on cooked food, boil it first.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently involved with the anopheles mosquito. If you would like to know more just go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.

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I don’t know whether you have ever used a handheld, indoor bug zapper, but I think that they are wonderful. I?m talking about the handheld sort that looks like a child’s plastic, toy tennis racquet. They come in two basic sorts. I rather the rechargeable bug zapper, for the reason that batteries end up up costing more than the indoor bug zapper itself, although you could always buy rechargeable batteries, but then they are costly too.

My wife and I like to spend time in the garden. We meet friends there, dine there and in general loaf about outside, as do most folks about here, when they are not working. What’s more, it?s much cooler outside than inside. A comfortable chair, a few snacks, a cool drink and a book or a companion and life does not get much better. In fact, it’s idyllic.

That is until about six or seven o’clock when the first wave of mosquitoes have judged that the sun’s rays have lost enough strength that they will not evaporate and they come out searching for blood. Some evenings are worse than others, of course. Usually, the mosquitoes are pretty tolerable, especially seeing as I have discovered the indoor bug zapper. (I don’t know why it is referred to as an ?indoor bug zapper?, it is just as effective outdoors as in).

It’s not that I want to kill things, but I find it difficult to have sympathy for mosquitoes. Nevertheless, I do get a certain amount of enjoyment from seeing and hearing mosquitoes and other bugs literally blow up with a flash and a spark as they come into contact with the electric and ground wires of the indoor bug zapper. These electric bug zappers are capable of packing quite a charge, especially if the batteries are new or the pack is wholly charged.

The other day, I found a new use for my handheld, indoor bug zapper. I’ll tell you how it came about. I was in the garden, as normal, and my bug zapper was close at hand as the first squadron of mosquitoes was expected. I had my book in one hand and the bug zapper on my knees, when my wife asked me to go to the store for her. No problem, therefore, I set off on the five minute walk.

I was half-way there when I noticed that I had the indoor bug zapper in my hand, but it was not worth taking it home and beginning the journey again. Anyhow, on my return journey, I had my small bag of groceries in one hand and the indoor bug zapper in the other, when a local tyrant of a dog came running out of a garden directly for me. This has happened often and, although he has never bitten me yet, it is rather menacing. He stood there glaring at me with teeth bared and his ‘pack’ of assorted local pals came out to encircle me and join in.

I don’t actually know what the best course of action is in this situation. I have tried holding my ground, but the intimidation just continues and I have tried to continue walking, but he gets worryingly close sometimes. This time, I suddenly lashed out with the indoor bug zapper and just hit him on the snout. Well, I’m not sure whether it hurt him, it did not appear to too much, but it gave him a very nasty shock in more ways than one, I can tell you! He leaped about four feet into the air as if he were on a pogo stick and then fled for all he was worth with all his friends behind him. It was very gratifying after six months of persecution from this dog.

Nevertheless, I don’t take my indoor bug zapper everywhere with me, but I will in future, if any more local dogs trouble me. I know it works a treat. I have seen that one since, but he stays well away from me and doesn’t utter a sound. I think I would take my indoor bug zapper with me, if I were wandering in an unknown part of town or the park though.

Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you are interested in getting an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the hyperlinks to our web site or blog.

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Anyone with a beautiful garden, patio or deck will certainly enjoy sitting outside on a warm summer’s day or evening. But if there is one issue that can blight it for you, it is mosquitoes. Sometimes, it only takes one of two persistent mosquitoes to make your blood seethe. Mosquitoes are a nuisance for certain, but they can also be a health hazard, spreading dengue fever and malaria and several other really horrible diseases. So how do you go about keeping mosquitoes out of your garden?

Maybe you cannot realistically hope to keep mosquitoes out of your garden entirely, but there are some things you can do to deter them and keep their numbers down. Stopping them procreating in your garden is the first step to take. Mosquitoes do not have a long flying span. Many of the mosquitoes that trouble you in your garden will have been born in your garden.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in still water, so make sure that there is none in your garden. They will lay eggs in water vats, dogs’ bowls, water that has collected in old tyres, bottles and tins and your rubbish bins, so make sure that no water can gather anywhere. Blocked gutters are another breeding site. If you have a water feature, put fish in it to eat the larvae.

Mosquitoes hate the smell of lemon, so you could grow citronella plants, lemon thyme, lemon grass and even a lemon tree, if the climate is right. Otherwise you could burn citronella scented candles or oil in the vicinity They not only keep the mosquitoes away, but the smell is very fresh and envigourating.

If they are still plaguing you, you may have to resort to mosquito repellent. You could drench your clothing with permethrin, like the army does for jungle combat or just smeer a deet-based product on your skin. There are also plenty of green mosquito repellents too, like lemon oil, citronella and eucalyptus oil.

Garlic is said to repel mosquitoes, so you could try growing garlic nearby. It is also believed to repel ticks and has proven to discourage greenfly (aphids) from roses. What could be better, especially if you are partial to garlic too?

You could hang up one or two of those lanterns that attract insects to them and then vapourize them with a high voltage shock. These electric bug zappers are particularly proficient at destroying mosquitoes and house flies, which can also be a nuisance when you are lounging out of doors.

They are inexpensive and will last for years. They give off a pleasing glow and some claim to be able to clear areas of a quarter, a half and even a full acre of land of all flying insects by the use of the ultraviolet light and pheromones.

By using some or all of the above methods of keeping mosquitoes out of your garden, you should be able to enjoy your drink, a chat or a snooze in complete peace and freedom from flies and mosquitoes.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on a lot of subjects, but is at present concerned with work on mosquito bite treatment problems. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.

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The common indoor bugs we see all over the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. No-one likes to have insects indoors, so most people go to just about any extremes to eradicate these common indoor bugs. Less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are not less unwelcome.

No matter where you are in the world, it is very hard to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors closed all of the time, which is obviously impossible. I now live in Thailand and I know for certain that this is not an option.

So, what on Earth can you do? Well, let’s deal with all the flying bugs first, because of all the common indoor bugs, I find them the most obnoxious indoor bug. They are very annoying, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can create painful sores and besides that, all flies spread disease. I cannot bear to see them walking on food, knowing that they have probably just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their stinking feet!

My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not dear and can be fitted retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can cover only one half of a window at a time, but I do not think that’s a problem. You can still set up cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposing ends of a room. I just love to see the flies on the mesh trying to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to burn as little light indoors as possible so as not to attract these common indoor bugs.

My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house much either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are difficult to keep outside and they do consume hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to struggle its way through the wires.

My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a child’s tennis racquet. The come in two forms: battery and rechargeable kinds. They are fantastic at catching and destroying any flying bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really ought to. They are most gratifying. These three defences will keep your house pretty much free of flying insects.

The crawling common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on self-closers will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in pretty very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they eat other bugs too. They are on our side to be honest. However, for those who can not bear to trap them and put them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works a treat on spiders too.

Fleas can be a problem, if you keep cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep those common indoor bugs under control fairly easily. However, there are two final methods that we employ. Every week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with an insect killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you stick with these measures, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and any less common indoor bug too.

Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you want to get an indoor bug zapper, just click one of the hyperlinks to our website or blog.

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If you aren’t already familiar with the electronic insect killer, you are really going to love it and if you have used one before, I’m sure you’ll welcome it back like an old pal! The handheld insect zapper does just what it says it does: it zaps bugs. But it does it really, really well.

Any insect that comes into contact with the hand held bug zapper is electrocuted. Smaller bugs like gnats and mosquitoes are vaporized with a very satisfying flash and a crack. Larger bug, like house flies and wasps die, but don’t explode like the smaller ones.

Just how many times have these flying bugs taken the edge off an otherwise enjoyable evening in the garden? Or how many times have you not been able to get a good night’s sleep, because you know there’s at least one mosquito in the bedroom. It has happened to me dozens and dozens of times, I know! It is very satisfying to get one’s own back with the handheld bug zapper.

I don’t like killing things unnecessarily – I’m married to a Buddhist- but mosquitoes? I’m sorry, they can die. And the electric bug zapper does it without any more ado. No waiting and hoping they’ll fly into the ultraviolet light and into the mesh. No, one sweep of the electronic insect killer and the mosie’s gone and you can hear whether you got her or not. (I say her, because the sucking mosquitoes always are females – I assure you, I wasn’t being sexist).

There are two basic kinds of handheld insect zapper. There’s the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both work on the same principle, but I prefer the rechargeable kind, although I guess you could use rechargeable batteries too. (I bet they would be more expensive that the bug zapper in the first place). Anyway, I have had a hand held bug killer of the rechargeable sort for five years and I am very happy with them.

These days, I spend a lot of time in northern Thailand with my wife, so you can bet your life that my handheld bug killer gets a good work-out practically every evening. We usually eat in the garden in the evening and all socializing is done outside by tradition, especially in the rural areas, where we live, so it comes in real handy. I also use my electric insect killer to ’sweep’ the bedroom for bugs before we retire at night, just like a secret agent.

The electronic bug killer seems to get better every time I buy one, which makes it difficult to give you definite specifications. The electric bug zappers I bought four or five years ago, often failed after six to nine months of purchase, although their ability to hold a charge was less after four or five months.

However, the latest electronic insect zapper will easily last 9-12 months and still be formidable after nine months. My newest model even has a strong light called a headlamp incorporated into it. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be for, but if you think that vengeance is sweet, you can attract mosquitoes with it and then zap them with your electronic bug killer.

Have you ever used a handheld bug zapper? If not, or if you want to get a handheld bug zapper, just click one of the hyperlinks to our web site or blog.

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