Who You Gonna Call? Mosquito 86!

Once again, the blogging gods have seen fit to send my way the manna of product reviews. This month, I received the Mosquito 86 to review. As was pitched by the representative of the company, the Mosquito 86 is “a new, innovative way to eliminate mosquitoes in a manner that has previously only been offered through professional mosquito and pest sprayers that use commercial sized foggers or truck-mounted systems.”

I.E. It is commercial grade pesticide.

I am not an organic gardener, though I do try to stick to mostly organic methods, mainly because I am a cheap ass part Scottish woman and you can’t get much cheaper than organic. But, I am not above using chemicals if I feel they are worth the cost and effort. So I said I would look at this product.

Beyond that, being a gardener/nature lover/without air conditioning, I regularly eat dinner with my family outside in the summer. Mosquitoes put a crimp in that lifestyle and I don’t particularly like to decide between battling blood sucking insects outdoors or being heated to the same temperature as my food indoors.

This seemed like it might be a good solution. Why not give it a try?

The box arrived as promised and my eldest son and husband assembled the contained system with no problems and without once having to refer to the directions, not that they would have if they needed to, but it was nice that the situation never came up.

While they assembled, I did read the directions and the box, and read the following “Kills mosquitoes (check), wasps (check), yellow jackets (check, check, check, check) and bees (ummmm…). Fortunately, it is late in the season. Most of my flowers are dead or fast fading, so bees don’t make forays into my yard at this time.

My eldest, who is 12, donned the system and my husband and I immediately started to sing the theme song to Ghostbusters, though we were quickly reminded of our age when our son asked “what’s that song?” *Sigh* The loss of the high entertainment of my childhood is tragic.

And for those who may be concerned about the effects of the chemicals on my son, remember, this is the same stuff that your local city (at least mine, anyway) drives around and squirts into your front yards via truck. Here in Ohio, mosoquitoes are a concern due to West Nile.  This chemical has been found safe at reasonable levels (which we will be well below) for humans and pets.

My son sprayed the yard and a few hours later, we sat down to dinner. I have to admit, dinner seemed more mosquito free. It was certainly more yellow jacket free, and they had been a serious problem at dinner as of late.

So, would I recommend this product? That is a tough call. They had me right up until the box said “bees”. I need those in my garden, so this is not a product I could use regularly or even often. September would be the only month where I could even think about using this product. But, most of suburbia is not as dependant on bees as myself but they are certainly as plagued by mosquitoes and yellow jackets as I am. The average suburban home owner would find this to be an effective product.

In the meantime, I was pleased to see that Columbia Pictures has decided to release yet another Ghostbusters. At least then my movie references to my children will seem a little less obscure.