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Motronic posted:Current conversation in the pest control thread so I don't have to repeat it. Spoiler alert: maybe? Depends on what kind you have. Oh perfect thanks for the heads-up I haven't checked that thread out much.
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May 24, 2023 01:29
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I don't know how but a spider set up a web in the mesh collection bag portion of my mosquito magnet trap and it has been having one hell of a feast. I have heard excellent things about the Mosquitaire trap but mostly when using the CO2 option.
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May 24, 2023 03:05
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Jenkl posted:Does anything actually work with respect to getting mosquitos to gently caress off? I think smoke of any kind works ok. We use citronella candles and/or incense out on the deck
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May 24, 2023 03:11
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If the original wood color is showing through, is it time to re-stain the deck?
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May 24, 2023 03:23
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Jenkl posted:Does anything actually work with respect to getting mosquitos to gently caress off? The #1 thing you can do is make sure they don't have easy breeding grounds on your property, which means standing water. If you've got anything that collects water after a rain and stays filled for a few days that's where your mosquitoes are coming from. Yes, you should tip the bird bath every other day or so and re-fill it. Obviously this isn't going to work if your property backs up to a swamp, but it's amazing how many people have a few small things kicking around their property creating small pools and puddles. The classic example is tire swings, but I've also seen the drip trays on outdoor planters be lousy with mosquito larvae. Downspout extensions that don't run down-hill all the way and collect water in a low spot are another good one, as are those plastic spatter catchers people put under their down spouts. Pretty much anything involved with catching and disposing of water needs at least a glance, and a solid once-over of everything else to make sure there isn't an ancient solo cup under a bush or something being a mosquito nursery.
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May 24, 2023 03:27
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Vim Fuego posted:Citronella candles Citronella candles have not proven to provide any additional protection over anything that produces smoke. So unless you really like the smell of them there's no real reason to stick with them. We got a little thermacell machine which seems to work but you have to remember to keep it charged, start it 10-15 minutes before you want to be outside, and have a usable cartridge.
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May 24, 2023 11:13
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Yeah I like my Thermacell as well, seems to work pretty decently.
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May 24, 2023 11:44
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Having a whole lot of fun getting 9 different solutions to a problem from 5 different contractors. I'm repairing some termite damage in my house and part of that process is replacing the flooring. My current floor doesn't have a subfloor and is over a completely open crawl in the very humid gulf coast. Call some flooring people- 'oh yeah you need to put down a 6mil vapor barrier on the dirt under your house or the floors will buckle' Call my buddy, a contractor, to see what he thinks- 'no that won't do anything your crawlspace is very well ventilated, I wouldn't worry about it' Call another floor person, and also another contractor friend-'put down ice and water shield on top of your existing floor before you lay the new floor, we've been doing this for a few years without any callbacks but I can't promise it won't rot your subfloor because in theory it should' Call a different flooring person-'No that will definitely rot your joists and subfloor in 2 years' Find an LSU extension service paper called 'Insulating Raised Floors in Hot, Humid Climates'-'either use closed cell spray foam or foil faced rigid foam board with all joints and penetrations taped, vaper barrier on the dirt doesn't matter in an open crawlspace. Or just dont turn your AC below 78 and vapor drive disappears (but gently caress that I want to freeze)' Call back my first contractor buddy-'hmm yeah I've never seen the foam board like that before but that would make sense' Call my termite bond guy to see if spray foam or foil faced foam board would gently caress with my termite bond-'spray foam is fine after we treat the wood, that foil stuff on the bottom of the joists will rot your floors especially if you have a leak you don't know about' So I don't even know what the gently caress right now, lol. The crawl space may not be deep enough for them to safely spray foam, I'm meeting with an insulation guy tomorrow to find out what he says. Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 00:32 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 00:12
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Enjoy your new trex flooring. It comes in some lovely colors.
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May 25, 2023 00:16
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Johnny Truant posted:Yeah I like my Thermacell as well, seems to work pretty decently. This is the only thing that works for me. Tried everything else.
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May 25, 2023 00:19
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The Dave posted:Citronella candles have not proven to provide any additional protection over anything that produces smoke. So unless you really like the smell of them there's no real reason to stick with them. Yeah, I like the smell. Never heard of a thermacell, looks interesting
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May 25, 2023 00:22
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For mosquitos: anyone try out Thermacell's LIV system? It's kinda expensive but I live in a dense neighborhood and any standing water mitigation I do is worthless if I can't get a hundred neighbors on the same page. I also only would need two devices and the minimum kit is three.
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May 25, 2023 00:35
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Cyrano4747 posted:Downspout extensions that don't run down-hill all the way and collect water in a low spot are another good one, as are those plastic spatter catchers people put under their down spouts. Pretty much anything involved with catching and disposing of water needs at least a glance, and a solid once-over of everything else to make sure there isn't an ancient solo cup under a bush or something being a mosquito nursery. On this specific issue, I have those corrugated plastic tubes connected to my downspouts and they are both ugly and likely to hold enough water to breed mosquitos. I want to put some basic concrete splash blocks (I think that's the name for them) down, but the local stores only seem to carry either plastic ones, which seem like they're too light and could get dislodged, or fancy metal ones that look goofy. Does nobody make plain concrete splash blocks?
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May 25, 2023 00:50
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Having a whole lot of fun getting 9 different solutions to a problem from 5 different contractors. I'm repairing some termite damage in my house and part of that process is replacing the flooring. My current floor doesn't have a subfloor and is over a completely open crawl in the very humid gulf coast. I would not insulate between your floor joists with anything except maybe Rockwool batts as the other methods can trap water and moisture and can conceal damage. Or they rely on a perfect installation which isn't happening outside of LSUs lab. Putting a vapor barrier down on your dirt crawlspace would help some with humidity but unless you're willing to spend a lot for full encapsulation and a powered dehumidifier, I wouldn't count on the results. I'm in Texas on a vented crawlspace from 1950 with a subfloor and tar paper and the only issues I've had with rot is where the front of the house is about a foot off the ground and even though there's a vent right there, it's not enough air volume to remove the humidity fast enough. The parts of the house over deeper crawlspace are totally fine. I've looked into insulating my crawl space but I stuck a temperature sensor down there and it never gets over 70, so it's actually cooling my floors in the summer.
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May 25, 2023 00:53
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Sounds like thermacell isn't too hot with pollinators or wildlife and we have a really friendly neighbourhood cat I'd never do anything to harm.
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May 25, 2023 01:02
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Kylaer posted:On this specific issue, I have those corrugated plastic tubes connected to my downspouts and they are both ugly and likely to hold enough water to breed mosquitos. I want to put some basic concrete splash blocks (I think that's the name for them) down, but the local stores only seem to carry either plastic ones, which seem like they're too light and could get dislodged, or fancy metal ones that look goofy. Does nobody make plain concrete splash blocks? Can you just use some concrete pavers for this?
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May 25, 2023 01:44
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Jenkl posted:Sounds like thermacell isn't too hot with pollinators or wildlife and we have a really friendly neighbourhood cat I'd never do anything to harm. Huh I didn't know that, good lookin out. I'll have to check it out, in about a month we're going to bring our 'sewer cat', as the neighbours kids call her, inside. Her name is Lasagna and she is a glorious little girly 
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May 25, 2023 02:24
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Jenkl posted:Sounds like thermacell isn't too hot with pollinators or wildlife and we have a really friendly neighbourhood cat I'd never do anything to harm. That's good to know! I have a native bee house that's thriving and I don't wanna mess em up
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May 25, 2023 04:52
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Can you just use some concrete pavers for this? Can I? I legitimately don't know, I thought you wanted something funnel-shaped to route the water away from your foundation. If it's safe to just lay down some pavers, sure, I'll do that. Maybe put down a little gravel first so they slope away from the house? I seem to recall "Water is your greatest enemy" being the title of this thread or another home improvement thread at some point, and it stuck with me 
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May 25, 2023 13:07
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Kylaer posted:On this specific issue, I have those corrugated plastic tubes connected to my downspouts and they are both ugly and likely to hold enough water to breed mosquitos. I want to put some basic concrete splash blocks (I think that's the name for them) down, but the local stores only seem to carry either plastic ones, which seem like they're too light and could get dislodged, or fancy metal ones that look goofy. Does nobody make plain concrete splash blocks? Had the same trouble finding them around here, ended up getting the concrete ones at a local landscape supply place.
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May 25, 2023 14:28
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When I lived up in Northern Alberta 15+ years ago, a guy I worked with had one of those propane powered mosquito trap things. It was unbelievable how many it pulled in. There was a little mesh type bag they flew into and got trapped, probably 4-5" long, and within a day it was stuffed full. He emptied it, repeated, and within a day or two he was basically left alone in his back yard. Anecdotally, YMMV, etc.
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May 25, 2023 14:40
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Kylaer posted:Can I? I legitimately don't know, I thought you wanted something funnel-shaped to route the water away from your foundation. If it's safe to just lay down some pavers, sure, I'll do that. Maybe put down a little gravel first so they slope away from the house? Ahh, I wasn't entirely clear on what your goal was. Yeah, if you need to direct runoff then a paver probably isn't going to be adequate. I guess you could use mortar and make a little channel/aqueduct that way but that's a lot of work.
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May 25, 2023 17:09
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slidebite posted:When I lived up in Northern Alberta 15+ years ago, a guy I worked with had one of those propane powered mosquito trap things. Those things are said to work by basically everyone here and Finland is mosquito paradise... As a lot of northern places seem to be.
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May 25, 2023 17:45
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slidebite posted:When I lived up in Northern Alberta 15+ years ago, a guy I worked with had one of those propane powered mosquito trap things. I stayed at a friends cottage in Northern Ontario and he had the same set-up, saw zero mosquitos the two weekends I was up there.
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May 25, 2023 18:19
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Per the pest control thread, there's a CO2 based version called a mosquitaire that seems well reviewed and safe. Pricey though. I'm gonna try some garlic juice.
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May 25, 2023 18:27
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Jenkl posted:Per the pest control thread, there's a CO2 based version called a mosquitaire that seems well reviewed and safe. Pricey though. The commercial propane units are the bomb. It's the only thing that really, truly works for every type of biting bug. You'll find them hidden in the landscape at high end resorts all over the caribbean. The expense doesn't stop at "holy crap, these cost $800?????". You'll find they have limited range so you probalby new a few to cover an area properly. You'll need to keep up with propane tank changes. And they clog all the drat time, so you're doing periodic (near daily) maintenance or at least checking them. They also don't just immediately work most times. You're essentially trying to interrupt the breeding cycle. So once you get through the first one they do much better. If they are still running. And by the time you notice you have mosquitoes back and go check/unclog/swap the tank on yours it's too late and you're got a bloom starting over again. If you can get away with spraying garlic extract on your grass and shrubs every 20-30 days for the summer it's a much better solution in every possible way unless you have an on-site gardening crew anyway. It just doesn't work or isn't enough in some places and then yeah.....I'd just set reminders to go check on the drat CO2 traps.
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May 25, 2023 18:36
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Is this the right question to ask about a hare-brained scheme for building a combo garage/boat house near a family cabin?
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May 25, 2023 19:24
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Just get bats and swarms of dragonflies
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May 25, 2023 22:59
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Kylaer posted:On this specific issue, I have those corrugated plastic tubes connected to my downspouts and they are both ugly and likely to hold enough water to breed mosquitos. I want to put some basic concrete splash blocks (I think that's the name for them) down, but the local stores only seem to carry either plastic ones, which seem like they're too light and could get dislodged, or fancy metal ones that look goofy. Does nobody make plain concrete splash blocks? Buy the plastic ones and fill the bottom with concrete? Fun story about these, the neighbor's builder *insisted* they were supposed to go backwards, so instead of the raised side at the back and a nice sloped surface for water to run out... he put them with the wall of the splash on the outside, so they'd always fill with water. I have to go back out and swap them around now that he's gone...
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May 26, 2023 01:41
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I don’t check out HC&H much, is this the right thread to talk about how I think I may have hosed up my freezer a little by leaving the door slightly open overnight? I’d like to figure out what’s wrong before calling in someone for repairs
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May 26, 2023 02:19
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Can you not shut the freezer door? What makes you think it's hosed up?
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May 26, 2023 02:22
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Vim Fuego posted:Can you not shut the freezer door? What makes you think it's hosed up? The door shuts fine and it’s still freezing but it makes a sound like CLICK-buzz-click every couple minutes. It’s loud enough to be a little annoying but it also just sounds like something’s wrong and I’d like to figure out if it’s going to get worse. The kitchen is small and we had extremely limited options for what would fit in the space so I’m a little extra worried
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May 26, 2023 02:38
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Snowy posted:The door shuts fine and it’s still freezing but it makes a sound like CLICK-buzz-click every couple minutes. It’s loud enough to be a little annoying but it also just sounds like something’s wrong and I’d like to figure out if it’s going to get worse. Do you have an icemaker? If so, you've angered it in some way. The only solution is a priest.
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May 26, 2023 02:39
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devicenull posted:Do you have an icemaker? If so, you've angered it in some way. The only solution is a priest. There is one but I turned it off not too long after we got it because it was making noise but different from now as I recall. I’ll check it tomorrow just in case, thanks. I’d love it if that were it but the timing makes me pessimistic.
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May 26, 2023 02:43
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devicenull posted:Buy the plastic ones and fill the bottom with concrete? If you go to that length may as well just free form and pour your own splash blocks. It's a pretty simple shape, you could do it with a dry mix concrete pretty easily. Or form it upside down with foam and wood. I'd try a landscaping supply or something. I just searched for precast splash blocks near me on Google and came up with a few options near me. The first one had a review that said "needed a splash block, found it only here".
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May 26, 2023 02:49
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I gotta be pedantic on the Thermacell posts. The manufacturer says: our product is safe please buy it lol: https://thermacell.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4526251807380-Are-the-products-safe-for-bees-and-other-wildlife- No but really, it doesn't seem that bad. To the extent possible with how well we understand insects albeit, which is really not very much at all of course. I think it uses metofluthrin. So yeah it's definitely not great, I have not read into efficacy too closely yet but I absolutely hate mosquitoes. I wonder what swampy places like Florida do because people should do that (only if it is very important for your property, I would not want to spread this info or encourage a bunch of people to have metofluthrin around like every 50 ft because there may be an understudied community effect). Propane and metofluthrin I'm guessing? I may use it at night if I was being cautious and would be more careful if I had bees on my property, there would probably be more specific reading if it's possible to use it while beekeeping. DEET is my favorite chemical compound I think ever. Super effective for me. It feels quite chemically though, haven't gone camping much so I dunno how I would feel about it on clothing and skin for multiple days all the time. I might get used to it. edit: If you have New York Times access or can get to without paywall, this seems to be a rather excellent mosquito hate list, and NYT crowd would be considerate of our animal and pollinator friends using good sources, I use Wirecutter for bunch of stuff: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/mosquito-control-gear/ Inner Light fucked around with this message at 03:27 on May 26, 2023 |
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May 26, 2023 02:59
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Motronic posted:The commercial propane units are the bomb. It's the only thing that really, truly works for every type of biting bug. You'll find them hidden in the landscape at high end resorts all over the caribbean. This is interesting because I had been planning on picking up a portable thermacell to keep in the camper, but then thought, hey, the camper's got a lotta propane on it and if a propane unit works well... but then it seems like that's more meant for consistent longer term use in one particular spot, based on your explanation here? And not something that would do poo poo if just firing it up at a campsite for a few hours. And maybe uses a lot of gas? Welp.
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May 26, 2023 03:07
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I dunno if there's much you can do to keep mosquitoes under control on a mobile basis besides wearing insect repellent. The traps and lures and so on would have some effect, but are they going to catch everything before it bites you? That seems unlikely.
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May 26, 2023 03:28
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I dunno if there's much you can do to keep mosquitoes under control on a mobile basis besides wearing insect repellent. The traps and lures and so on would have some effect, but are they going to catch everything before it bites you? That seems unlikely. The link above has products from the Thermacell company that are mobile. I would be careful with this but I have my suspicions if anything clearly detrimental to bee populations or activity would be OK to be freely marketed to be used as labeled (all over trails, camping etc.) by consumers in Lowe's Depot or other huge stores. Is it amazing for bee populations? No and it's definitely toxic to them if they do unfortunately touch it. But if you use a product as labeled and don't literally dance all over a field full of plants rather than dirt or other areas, I would probably try it out. It dissipates in I think hours. I hate mosquitoes and like to touch grass sometimes. I would also slather and bathe in the DEET. I get a ton of bites and don't think I've gotten bitten if I used DEET well enough. Inner Light fucked around with this message at 04:29 on May 26, 2023 |
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May 26, 2023 04:25
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Steve French posted:This is interesting because I had been planning on picking up a portable thermacell to keep in the camper, but then thought, hey, the camper's got a lotta propane on it and if a propane unit works well... They don't use a TON of gas (a 20 lb tank last for 2-3 weeks) but yes, you're really working to interrupt breeding cycles. Will it make an immediate difference? Sure, but it's not going to be 100% at all. I would presume it's highly dependent on how much bug pressure there is in the area to begin with.
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May 26, 2023 14:00
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