Question:
Dinner will be in the backyard. Any ideas for keeping the mosquitoes away
for 4 or 5 hours?
Answer:
-If you are in a "very" mosquito prone area ... you may want to rethink
this idea. There is NO foolproof method. Even if you went to the extreme
of spraying everyone down with Cutter as they arrived, it does not work
with everyone. And if everyone is having to constantly swat bugs off their
food and from their faces ... you can bet that it will not last 4 or 5
hours. They will all leave after a few minutes. Could be a very short
dinner.
-Again this depends on how many mosquitoes we're actually talking about,
but, is the number of people small enough that you could get a
mosquito-netted tent to enclose the area? This may not be an economical
option, but is possible for groups of say 20 people or less. SOme of the
outdoor catalogs sell mozzie-net tents.
-Can you stand the smell of citronella candles? I like them, but not
everyone does. Where we live, people joke that the mosquito is the state
bird -- and the candles do seem to work. You can get them in little
ornamental buckets, or on poles.
-There's a product called Mosquito Beater made by Bonide Products in Yorkville
NY, that is an area mosquito preventive that also aids in the reduction of
other insects such as black flies and house flies, for out door use. It is
available in hardware stores. I use it when shooting prebridal and engagement
sittings. It's very effective.
