Mosquitos

One of the worst things about living in New Orleans was the mosquitoes.  There were probably only 2 months out of the year when they weren't a big problem.  When I left New Orleans in 1994 I left behind the mosquitoes for good... or so I thought.

 

For some reason, in Auburn, when I am outside in the summer afternoons the mosquitoes are abound.  I don't know if they are just everywhere, or if there is something about my yard or my neighbors yards, or near by water features causing the problem. 

 

We noticed that there was a good bit of standing water after relocating some rocks to the landscape bed along the back of the house.  Apparently the condensation drain from the a/c was dripping in this areas and the rocks were preventing the water from immediately evaporating.  Thus over time it grew into a quasi, miniature marsh.  I'm exaggerating a little bit, but there was definitely some standing water at all times back there.

 

Being urged by Trina to take action, I came up with a plan involving PVC and Gorilla glue to take care of the problem.  Being the super intelligent engineer that I am, I happen to know things that the average person doesn't - like the first rule of civil engineering:  Water flows down hill.  Unfortunately, the discharge for the condensation pipe was at a relative low point in our entire back yard.  Not to be deterred, I surveyed the grades (using my highly-calibrated eyeball) and decided that I could route it around the north side of the house with enough fall keep the water moving. 

 

Two trips to home depot, two brief sessions of trenching and pipe laying, two days of procrastination, and the project is almost done.  Actually, I just need to cover the pipe back up.  It appears to be functioning as intended.  I guess I won't know if its truly working until enough head builds up to start overflowing from the condensation tray inside of our house.  But so far, so good.  The standing water is gone at least.

 

The mosquitoes haven't immediately disappeared.  I did some quick research online and realized that they really only need a moist environment and some tall grass to breed like crazy.  My ailing vegetable garden is now suspect number two.  I'll have to address this in the coming week.  The solution may be a god mowing and removal of the squash and zucchini plants (which seem to be past their productive stages).  I was tempted to use a healthy dose of one of those non discriminatory insecticides.  Allegedly some of them work very well for ridding mosquitoes.  However, apparently if I use those products I will kill all of the 'good' insects, I will destroy the local streams and lakes, my pets will have skin rashes and respiratory issues, and my entire family will get cancer.  I don't know if that is the exact working on the product label, but the critics on the internet forums seemed to be very educated on this...