It helps a lot because mosquitoes are weak fliers. Steady breezes above five or ten miles per hour ground most of them and scatter the carbon dioxide plume they use to track you down.
If it feels like the mosquitoes are worse when the wind dies down, then your feeling is right. Mosquitoes are not very good at flying. In fact, mosquitoes can only move at about one or one and a half miles per hour. You can walk faster than they can fly. Even a modest breeze will exceed their top speed several times over.
Mosquitoes can’t fly well in the wind. But even if they could, the wind helps in another way. It scatters the carbon dioxide plume that you exhale. Mosquitoes can’t easily track you when the carbon dioxide is scattered.
On the West Michigan lakeshore, you can see this effect play out most days. During the day, it’s breezy and the first blocks inland don’t see many bites. A yard a mile inland behind a windbreak of trees, though, is a different story. Likewise, when the evening comes and the breeze dies down, mosquito activity climbs sharply. That’s part of what sends them out at dusk to make your life slightly worse.
All that is to say, you can use the limited flying abilities of mosquitoes to your advantage. If you put up a box fan or turn on a ceiling fan, it will make it harder for mosquitoes to reach you. This is more effective than citronella candles or most DIY methods of mosquito control. It also helps to thin out dense landscaping on your property as well because it allows the breeze to go into the places where mosquitoes would otherwise be able to hide.
That said, the best way to deal with mosquitoes on a property is to treat the population as a whole. Wind and fans blow them out of the way for a little while. Professional barrier treatment knocks them down outright.
If the mosquitoes have been bothering you lately, Mosquito Squad of West Michigan Lakeshore can help. Mosquito Squad treats the sheltered zones where mosquitoes wait out the breeze. This can help you protect your yard with up to 90% reduction in mosquito activity on a recurring 21-day cycle.
