Question:
Are you tired of mosquitoes bothering you and your animals? I have
found that the most effective way to protect your property from these
annoying pests is by putting up a bat house. Bats eat 600 mosquitoes in
an hour! They don't bother humans or animals and once you get the bat
house you never have to spend another dime on mosquito control. You can
find the best bat information on the web at
http://webb-it.com/bats and never have to worry about mosquitoes again!
Answer:
-I've heard that soy bean oil is a good prevention for mosquitoes. Covers
the surface and stops them breathing? Obviously this won't work on a pond
but it sounds great for standing water and nuisance spots.
-In fact, that is how malaria outbreaks used to be controlled. They
would put kerosene on the surface of the water, and it would prevent
the wigglers from breathing by not allowing gaseous exchange between
the surface water and the air. It would, as you noted, be impractical
in a pond that housed living things other than mosquitoes.
-I live in a county which has historically had a high rate of rabies.
High enough that we do vaccinate our horses for this as there have been
a few cases of even rabid horses here. Our skunk population is the
major carrier.
Unless you have vampire bats, I wouldn't worry too much about them,
despite that fact that I did find a rabid bat in my barn. The liklihood
of a rabid bat (other than vampires) biting you is pretty infintesimal,
I would think. I know we don't have vampire bats around here. I can't
imagine one of the others we do have going after any animal just to bite
it. The one I found wasn't moving much. While a dog, for example,
might find it and get bitten while messing with it, I don't think it
would spread the disease easily except among other bats. Perhaps the
experience in CO is quite different from ours, however.
