Asian Tiger Mosquito

I went out to the garden this morning to get some bean picking out of the way with. I could not believe the number of Mosquitoes attacking me and vicious Mosquitoes at that. My bush beans are very leafy and were loaded with beans. I would lift a plant off the ground to remove the beans and was shocked to see the mosquitoes fly up from under the plants. I thought it rather odd being attacked in the heat of the morning in full sun and noticed the black and white color on these blood suckers. I didn't recognize this mosquito and didn't understand why they were under the plants. I always thought that mosquitoes loved stagnant water.




So here I sit with about 50 bites on my legs and feet doing some research and have found that this breed of mosquito is the Asian Tiger Mosquito. These suckers attack during the day time and do not need pools of water to survive. I have also learned that the spraying that is done to control the mosquito population and the West Nile Virus is done at night. Night time spraying only controls the night feeders. Seems the only way to control these Asian Tiger Mosquitoes is to go around and spray vegetable oil on any damp areas . The oil will suffocate the larvae.


I thought it odd that Wikapedia claims that this Asian Tiger Mosquito is the Mosquito known to carry the West Nile Virus and the eastern equine encephalitis, a virus disease of wild birds that occasionally affects horses and humans in the southern half of New Jersey. . I wonder why we have all the States using the pretense of controlling these viruses by spraying for mosquitoes. By Federal law it is against the law to spray during day light hours due to the fact that the sprays could harm honey bees and pollination.

I do some container type gardening and have noticed that in buckets that have big leafy plants such as Horse Radish, these mosquitoes love it under these plants too.
I have used vegetable oil as a spray to control bugs on the leafs of plants but have never used it on the ground or in the containers.
I'm hoping to learn what others do to combat these suckers seeing as how they have worked their way up to here from Texas. I am thinking you Southerners have been fighting them for years and have some tips.