Invasive Aedes mosquitoes lay their eggs just above the waterline on the damp inner walls of small containers, not directly in the water. The eggs are tough and drought-resistant, able to survive drying out for months and then hatch once water rises to reach them.
You know the obnoxious mosquitoes that bite you in the middle of the day? Part of the reason they’re as bad as they are is because they are very good at laying eggs. But once you understand why this is the case, you can do something about it.
Rather than dropping eggs onto open water like some mosquitoes, female Aedes lay their eggs on a damp surface just above the water's edge, on the moist inner sides of a container, along the rim of a saucer, or on wet debris near a small pool. In fact, they favor small, artificial containers around homes. They’ll lay eggs in flowerpots and saucers, buckets, old tires, bottle caps, clogged gutters, tarps, and any other little vessel they can find that holds a bit of water.
The eggs themselves are durable. They can survive drying out for weeks or even months. Then once water from any source reaches it, they hatch. This drought-resistance is why simply dumping a container once isn’t enough. The eggs might still be stuck to the side.
Female Aedes quite literally avoid putting all their eggs in one basket. The technical term for this is skip oviposition. A single female will deposit a few eggs in one container, a few in another, and so on, seeding multiple sites across a yard.
For you, what this means is you can’t just empty containers. You have to scrub the items or get rid of them completely. Wiping the inside clean or tossing the item is the only way to truly stop them from coming back.
If you're tired of Aedes mosquitoes that keep coming back no matter what you do, Mosquito Squad of Los Angeles can help. Mosquito Squad helps you find and shut down the container sources and treats the resting zones. That way, you can better protect your yard with up to 90% reduction in mosquito activity on a recurring 21-day cycle.
