I spent two hours on my backyard patio on Saturday night with security light turned off, and no mosquitos or other bugs bothered me, though I did notice a couple of disoriented mosquitos which could have been disoriented by Mosquito Cognito.
I turned on the light to watch the sprinklers when I cycled them on for a few minutes to check the tree coverage. In just a two minutes, I had several mosquitoes after me, and ducked back into the house.
I am thinking this shows that the security light is bad for attracting bugs, including mosquitoes, and is better if it can be replaced somehow. I set up my first 27 lumen solar powered wide angle spotlight from Target on the back of Lyndhurst as an uplight, and it works great. I have purchased 11 more similar lights, including 5 more identical 27 lumen units, 4 different wide angle spotlights from Frontgate which might even be better, and 2x 20 lumen rock lights. One idea is that with good enough perimeter lighting, need for central security light is reduced or eliminated. And it looks much prettier too. The big security light makes the fabric security shield around my patio opaque, so it doesn't actually improve visibility from the window, can actually see farther with the light off, though it might give intruders a sense of being watched.
I can see why Mosquito Cognito is not recommended for indoor use. It's quite smelly. And it gets much much worse if you turn the unit upside down to install the scent cartridge. Then any part which has already been liquified will spill right onto the floor. It was a good thing I did this in the garage, as I had only the hard garage floor to clean up, and I did that with scads of wet and dry paper towels. The unit is designed so that you can install the cartridge right side up, then no spilling. It took about two days for the smell to fade away from my garage. Perhaps I got a bit of extra mosquito protection from that. As I was cleaning up spilled Mosquito Cognito in the garage, there was clearly a mosquito in there.
The indoor Dynatrap 3 has been successful in catching a few mosquitoes inside my house. But it failed to catch the one that was bothering me for several days in the master bathroom--a key test. Finally, I killed that one with the Lentek Koolatron bug zapping wand. I've decided you always need one of those close to hand. I gave a couple of them to my friends.
Here's a link describing that you can grow lemongrass, marigold, and even citronella around your home to deter mosquitoes.
Here's the best link I've found arguing that warm white LED's are ignored by bugs, but not true for cool white.
Here is some discussion of natural mosquito and bug repellants.
I turned on the light to watch the sprinklers when I cycled them on for a few minutes to check the tree coverage. In just a two minutes, I had several mosquitoes after me, and ducked back into the house.
I am thinking this shows that the security light is bad for attracting bugs, including mosquitoes, and is better if it can be replaced somehow. I set up my first 27 lumen solar powered wide angle spotlight from Target on the back of Lyndhurst as an uplight, and it works great. I have purchased 11 more similar lights, including 5 more identical 27 lumen units, 4 different wide angle spotlights from Frontgate which might even be better, and 2x 20 lumen rock lights. One idea is that with good enough perimeter lighting, need for central security light is reduced or eliminated. And it looks much prettier too. The big security light makes the fabric security shield around my patio opaque, so it doesn't actually improve visibility from the window, can actually see farther with the light off, though it might give intruders a sense of being watched.
I can see why Mosquito Cognito is not recommended for indoor use. It's quite smelly. And it gets much much worse if you turn the unit upside down to install the scent cartridge. Then any part which has already been liquified will spill right onto the floor. It was a good thing I did this in the garage, as I had only the hard garage floor to clean up, and I did that with scads of wet and dry paper towels. The unit is designed so that you can install the cartridge right side up, then no spilling. It took about two days for the smell to fade away from my garage. Perhaps I got a bit of extra mosquito protection from that. As I was cleaning up spilled Mosquito Cognito in the garage, there was clearly a mosquito in there.
The indoor Dynatrap 3 has been successful in catching a few mosquitoes inside my house. But it failed to catch the one that was bothering me for several days in the master bathroom--a key test. Finally, I killed that one with the Lentek Koolatron bug zapping wand. I've decided you always need one of those close to hand. I gave a couple of them to my friends.
Here's a link describing that you can grow lemongrass, marigold, and even citronella around your home to deter mosquitoes.
Here's the best link I've found arguing that warm white LED's are ignored by bugs, but not true for cool white.
Here is some discussion of natural mosquito and bug repellants.
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