It's so nice at the dacha in the summer: the birds are singing, the trees are pleasing to the eye with their greenery, and clean air flows into the lungs...
But this idyll can be spoiled by small, winged, annoying mosquitoes, which fly in swarms at guests and at the owners of the site themselves and thirst for human blood.
Where do mosquitoes come from in such numbers? Sometimes it seems like there are whole hordes of them, says Anastasia Kovrizhnykh .
If you are faced with an unprecedented abundance of blood-sucking insects, the reasons for their appearance may lie in your dacha itself.
For example, the plot is located on clay soil that does not absorb moisture well, or there is a hole/pond from which you take water for irrigation. Even barrels of water can become a real home for mosquitoes, or rather, for their larvae.
Female mosquitoes use any source of standing water to lay eggs, which will then hatch into larvae that turn into small mosquitoes.
How to fight mosquitoes
While the decision to create a pond or a pit with water at the dacha can be cancelled in the name of saving from a mosquito invasion, heavy soil cannot be made light and quickly absorb moisture.
This means that you will have to take care of a good drainage system and aeration of the soil, especially on the lawn and garden paths.
The second reason for the appearance of mosquitoes in large numbers on the site is irregular lawn mowing and rare grass mowing throughout the entire dacha.
Green wild thickets are a place where bloodsuckers can feel very at ease, because again, water accumulates and stagnates in thick grass. It is quite easy to avoid this if you are not lazy and mow the lawn/grass on the site at least once every week and a half.
You pulled yourself together and diligently mow the grass, but the mown grass remains on the site, gradually accumulating and turning into a huge shock of green mass? This is the third reason that attracts swarms of mosquitoes to your dacha.
Insects will find good shelter in rotted, damp grass, lying on the lawn or in the far corner of the dacha. But then you won't know where to hide from these "vampires".
Therefore, the mown grass should not be dumped in one pile, but laid out on a flat surface to dry. If you have neither the strength nor the time for the latter, at least cover the pile of grass with a tarpaulin or film.
The fourth reason why mosquitoes have taken a fancy to your dacha is your carelessness, which manifests itself in leaving sweets on the table. Yes, candies or a jar of leftover jam thrown on the dacha terrace will attract not only bees, but also mosquitoes. Therefore, keep it clean and thoroughly clean up your dacha after a picnic, closing off mosquitoes' access to sweets.
And the fifth reason is that mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide. And it is released when we breathe. Of course, no one is going to forbid people to breathe.
But the very fact that mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide emissions can be used. How? By setting up a trap for the insects. Take sugar and yeast (for 50 grams of sugar - half a teaspoon of dry yeast), about a glass of warm water and an empty plastic bottle.
Cut the bottle in half, pour warm water into the bottom, dissolve yeast and sugar in it and cover the bottom with the mixture with the top of the bottle so that the neck is located at the bottom.
What's the trick? During the fermentation process, the yeast and sugar mixture will start releasing carbon dioxide, and the mosquitoes will fly into the bottle and will hardly be able to get out again.
Previously we wrote about how to grow juniper.
Expert: Anastasia Kovrizhnykh
