Thread: Any of you guys/gals have a bat house?

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Charlie used to play baseball every year. I have tried everything to keep the skeeters and gnats from eating me alive. One day i rushed home because i could not find my deet. Still not finding it i grabbed the dogs spray pump bottle of flea spray. sprayed some on my hands and rubbed in my hair and on my arms. Worked fantastic. Have used it every since. I have never had a reaction and i have very sensitive skin. I know it sounds crazy but when you are standing in a open field being eaten alive you will do anything short of setting yourself on fire to keep the bugs off. This stuff really works.

I have a wooded lot and see bats in the early evening so I put up a house but they never used it. Then we figured out most of the mosquitoes were from our leaf clogged rain gutters so we got gutter guards and that greatly reduced the skeeters but I don't know where the bats went or where they live now, but skeeters do attract them.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Bats are funny critters. They are very specific about where they'll live in relation to the sun exposure, and shelter, as well as high up on a wall. Lots of great bat sites out there with a ton of info. Almost built one a few years ago, but have never seen any bats around here!

Originally Posted by ford2custom

The only thing that will work is DEET, the higher the concentration the more it will keep the Mosquitoes away. DEET is toxic but other then having a Bee Keepers net nothing else works. I wish someone could prove me wrong, but believe me I know they cannot. I would really appreciate something other then DEET but it just isn't going to happen. We have tried everything, we have tall pine trees around our house and at night we can see the bats but they can only eat so many. I’m saying this with 13 years of trying everything that people suggest. I have researched the Internet and read reports from the Military testing products, again I hate to say it but it’s true. Prove me wrong!!!

Richard

i grew up in south louisiana and now reside in mississippi...... your wrong , theres all kinds of products and home remidies that work , i also work on a towboat and wheter you believe it or not the mississippi river has a few skeeters , my guys goop theirselves with skin so soft and have not had any problems the last ten years sence they ditched using off..

Originally Posted by flh4speed

i grew up in south louisiana and now reside in mississippi...... your wrong , theres all kinds of products and home remidies that work , i also work on a towboat and wheter you believe it or not the mississippi river has a few skeeters , my guys goop theirselves with skin so soft and have not had any problems the last ten years sence they ditched using off..

Don't get me wrong; if you or anyone else could help with this problem I'd be more then happy to say I'm wrong. If I had lots of money I would say send your crew up here and I would pay them to work around my house. About two days they would be packing up and heading out.

I would like to be wrong but like I said I’ve been dealing with these Mosquitoes for 13 years at our current home. I’ve tried everything people have suggested. Some people would swear by fabric softener sheets, they say to put them in your shirt pocket and they will repel the Mosquitoes but they didn’t. I’ve used mineral oil, skin so soft, the only thing that dose is that it makes it harder for the Mosquitoes to pierce the skin because the oil is slick. I do not doubt that you have Mosquitoes where you live, but these will make you swear like crazy. If anyone would come up with a sure fire way of repelling Mosquitoes with out DEET they would get rich real quick. I would be the first in line to buy a case, quart, or gallon. Or whatever it would come in.

I wish I were wrong when I can’t get outside without getting eaten up.

If it works for you great, I wish it would work here but it doesn’t.

This site talks about skin so soft, and other home remidies.

http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/skeeters.asp

Richard

Richard I know what you mean. Mosquitoes have dining preferences. If I'm alone in the house, they go for me, but if the wifes around, it's open season on her...she's sweeter in their opinion!
I've had luck with skin so soft in mild areas, but while working in the Florida Keys, and Everglades, nothing but the highest DEET content will keep them off you. The Deet was so high it would melt the plastic on your watch. And if you missed a spot with the Deet, they'd find it in a heart beat! When we were kids, we used to take B complex, which creates an ordor on your skin that repells them a little. We experimented, and some took it, some didn't, those who didn't got bit quite a bit more!
Worse than the squeeters is the no see umms. Damb those guys! They get through screens!

Originally Posted by stovens

Richard I know what you mean. Mosquitoes have dining preferences. If I'm alone in the house, they go for me, but if the wifes around, it's open season on her...she's sweeter in their opinion!
I've had luck with skin so soft in mild areas, but while working in the Florida Keys, and Everglades, nothing but the highest DEET content will keep them off you. The Deet was so high it would melt the plastic on your watch. And if you missed a spot with the Deet, they'd find it in a heart beat! When we were kids, we used to take B complex, which creates an ordor on your skin that repells them a little. We experimented, and some took it, some didn't, those who didn't got bit quite a bit more!
Worse than the squeeters is the no see umms. Damb those guys! They get through screens!

I first came across the skin so soft about 20 years ago, it seemed to help but that was in the city. Where we live now is a different ball game, I must have awful bad blood or what ever is best for them, they get on me like stink on sh-t. When you can't get outside, when you wait for the Weather to change it gets frustrating. The only way you can be in the garage a night is to have the doors shut and it's 90 degree's with 90 percent humidity. Even with the doors shut they will find a way to get in. They like to get you just under the eye when you have both hands working with something. If someone had a good remedy other then DEET, I would be all for it. Ticks, and Fleas are bad also. If they could come up with something for people like Cats, and Dogs I would be the first to try it.

Richard

I have also read that certain plants in your yard can repel bugs. The skeeters here are also BAD it seems like nothing works some times and there freaking big. Some times it feels like the getting a injection from the doctor..... You can feel the needle going in. Main thing is to make sure there is no standing water. I did not think of the Gutters also like stated above. I do think most of the problem comes from the small pond thats about 100 yards from my house though. Maybe Ill jump the fence and dump a load of those mesquito eating fish????

the wife and my grandparents lived down the bayou in lousiana and from time to time they would burn an old tire that would have some affect on them for a temporary time , a little wood smoke helps as well .. the wife says eat a lot of garlic and they will leave you alone, but im thinking that might just be a wise tale but you never know..

They don't like the smoke for sure, I don't know about the garlic. Every once in awhile a meth house goes up in smoke around here, it seems to help or maybe it just gets them higher, and higher.

Richard

My brother uses vanilla flavoring for the bugs and skeeters. I never tried it, but he swears by it. Same problem here. Can't even work in the garage after sundown unless the doors are closed.