I Stopped Getting Eaten Alive in My Own Backyard — Here's What Changed

I do pest control for a living, and for years I couldn't use my own backyard in the summer.

By July it was a write-off. The kids couldn't play out there. We couldn't eat outside. I'd walk the garbage to the curb and come back with my legs covered in bites. That was every year.

So a couple seasons ago I started treating my own yard like I'd treat a customer's, and I paid attention to what actually worked.

Year one: spraying helped, but not enough

The first year I just sprayed a barrier treatment around the yard, about twice a month. It helped — definitely better than doing nothing. But by the back half of the summer they'd come right back between treatments, and on a hot, still evening the yard still wasn't usable.

The reason is simple: spray kills the mosquitoes flying around that day. It doesn't stop the next batch from hatching. And they breed fast — a little standing water and a few days is all it takes.

Year two: I added the boxes

This year I did two things differently. I started early, in May, before they had a chance to build up. And I put four MosquitoCon stations around the perimeter and ran them alongside the spray.

That's the black box in the photo. It holds water and a larvicide, and instead of repelling mosquitoes, it draws them in. A female looks for standing water to lay her eggs — the box looks perfect to her — but the larvicide means those eggs never become biting adults. Every one that picks the box instead of your gutter is a whole batch that never shows up.

So the spray covered the adults, and the boxes covered the next generation before it got off the ground. That's what did it.

The difference

This summer, none of the old stuff happened. We've been using the yard all season. The kids are out there. Taking the garbage out is just taking the garbage out. If you've ever lost a summer to mosquitoes, you know that's not a small thing.

It wasn't the spray alone and it wasn't the boxes alone. It was both, started early, working together.

If your yard's unusable right now

Start early. Spring, not July. It's easier to keep them from building up than to beat them back once they're everywhere.

Dump your standing water. Clogged gutters, plant saucers, buckets, tarps, kids' toys. Every one is a breeding spot, and clearing them is free.

Don't count on one product. Spray gives you relief now; larvicide stations work the breeding cycle for the long haul. Together they cover what neither does alone. The stations are a professional tool too — not the citronella bucket from the hardware store — which is a big part of why a treated yard feels so different from a DIY one.