Gutters and drains that hold even small amounts of standing water for more than a few days are an excellent mosquito breeding habitat. Your gutters could potentially produce hundreds of new mosquitoes per cycle.
If you have a mosquito problem on your property, you’ve probably already heard the advice “get rid of standing water.” That’s good advice, and is the single most important thing you can do on your own to control mosquito populations.
But it’s a lot harder to do than it sounds like it would be. Gutters are one of the most overlooked and productive mosquito breeding sites on any home.
Mosquitoes don't need much water to breed. A female can lay a raft of eggs in as little as a tablespoon of stagnant water. A gutter with even a slight clog from a clump of leaves or granules from aging shingles can hold enough water to produce mosquitoes continuously from spring to fall. Because gutters are out of sight, the water sits undisturbed for weeks. And that’s what mosquito larvae need to develop.
Other common mosquito breeding sites, easy to miss, are downspout extensions, corrugated drainage pipes, French drains, catch basins, and yard drains with standing water in the sump. These are all sources of standing water, which, ironically, are supposed to get rid of standing water. Any of these could be a mosquito hatchery waiting to happen.
In the Twin Cities, spring snowmelt and summer storms fill these systems repeatedly, and the freeze-thaw cycles of early spring can knock gutter brackets loose and create new sags. That’s why checking your gutters at the start of the season and after heavy rain is one of the highest-impact things you can do.
If you're a homeowner in the Twin Cities and you’re dealing with persistent mosquito trouble despite good yard maintenance, Mosquito Squad of Twin Cities can help. Mosquito Squad provides barrier treatments that target the resting and harboring areas across your property. A trained technician will walk your property and identify hidden breeding sources like gutter issues and drainage problems. Then they’ll treat accordingly and come back every 21 days so the mosquito population stays in check all season long.
