Capitol Hill resident Michelle Mingrone was already thinking about summer back in January. But rather than dreaming about sunnier days ahead, she was feeling fed up about an impending source of misery. This year, she resolved, would be the year she took matters into her own hands.
Mingrone was going to fight the mosquitoes.
Not just avoid them by covering up, staying inside, or putting on bug spray (which she says her kids hate with a passion), but actually reduce the population. “I just want them gone,” Mingrone said. “I don't want them around.”
Mosquitos thrive in D.C.’s humid climate, and even this year’s sustained cold temperatures in January are unlikely to have put a dent in the population of the two main breeds that plague the city: the northern house mosquito and the invasive Asian tiger mosquito.
But humidity is just one part of the equation for a mosquito haven. In order to breed, they need access to water — and on any given street in D.C., there’s an abundance of containers that collect still water where mosquitos can lay their eggs. The trashcan lid with rainwater on the top? Or the planter in your front yard that has a bit of water pooling at the bottom? Both perfect spots for young mosquitoes to develop.
“We often see areas within an urban landscape where there is a lot of container habitat having more or higher abundances of mosquitoes,” said Paul Leisnham, the chair of the University of Maryland’s Department of Environmental Science and Technology. Add a source of food (such as leaves or other insects) and a shady environment, Leisnham noted, and you’ve got a perfect spot for these bloodsuckers to multiply.
Mingrone suspected that mosquitoes near her home were coming from the catch basin on a nearby curb. So she decided to do some research on mosquito abatement and see if there were neighborhood groups that have tried to collectively combat mosquitoes before. She found one effort just northeast of the city.
A few years ago, over 400 households in University Park, Maryland set up mosquito traps in their yards in conjunction with a study led by Rutgers University. The researchers found a significantly lower number of female mosquitoes (aka the ones that lay eggs and bite) in neighborhoods where there were a large percentage of households with traps.
In March, Mingrone sent out a message to a couple of community listservs to see if anyone would be interested in a group discount on the same mosquito traps used in the study. In a week, she said 1,000 neighbors responded.
That was the beginning of the Itty Bitty Mosquito Population Committee, a block-by-block effort concentrated in the Capitol Hill area to bring down the number of mosquitoes in their community. So far, over 200 people have volunteered to coordinate their blocks, which are organized by ANC zone. While the largest concentration are in Ward 6, people have joined the cause across the whole city.
Part of what motivated Mingrone to start the group was knowing that there was little the city could do to help individual homes. DC Health is responsible for mosquito abatement treatment for standing water in public spaces, like drains and catch basins along city sidewalks, but not private properties.
And it’s difficult for city-led abatement programs alone to make a tangible impact on reducing mosquito populations anyway, according to Leisnham. “Agency-led [mosquito] control is largely ineffective at managing these container-utilizing species,” he said. “It is really hard to spray over an area and control all the little containers in people's backyards.”
Still, DC Health told The 51st via email that residents can submit requests for treatment of stagnant water in public spaces to the Division of Animals Services, and added that they are “happy to collaborate with community groups to ensure that areas of concern are addressed.”
The Itty Bitty Mosquito Population Committee is taking a five-pronged approach to bring down the mosquitoes this summer in their neighborhood, shaped by science and community. You can join them (see if your block is already being captained here) or other otherwise follow in their footsteps.
Toss out any standing water
The first step is the simplest: toss any standing water you can find in your yard. Check anything where water can pool, no matter how big or small: a dog food bowl, a saucer underneath a planter, a kiddy pool, etc. Trash cans are also major hot spots for mosquito breeding grounds. “If the lid is open during the rainstorm, it collects down there,” said Mingrone. “If a bag splits and has juice in the bottom… It's disgusting, but it's perfect for mosquitoes.”
Even small amounts of water can be suitable for a mosquito to lay eggs. Wherever you can find stagnant water in a container, throw it out.
Treat your water containers
Of course, some yards have water that can’t be thrown out, be it in rain barrels, ponds or bird baths. In that case, you can treat these containers safely with mosquito larvicides.
A common one is a mosquito “dunk,” a small, donut-shaped disc that dissolves in water and releases a bacterium that kills mosquito larvae. There are also mosquito “bits,” which do the same thing but are useful for spots that are too small to drop a dunk in, like drains (highly habitable spots for mosquitoes). Both are sold at most hardware stores.
While these don’t kill adult mosquitoes, they do prevent their offspring from turning into adults — and a single adult female mosquito can lay up to 100 eggs. Treating your water containers can help prevent the next generation.
Trap the mosquitoes
While treating stagnant water helps stop future mosquitoes, setting up traps can actively reduce mosquitoes at all life cycle stages.
The cheapest option is a DIY “bucket of doom." Take a bucket, fill it with some water and organic material like leaves, drop a quarter of a dunk in there, and put it somewhere shady. It will attract egg-laying mosquitoes to breed, and take out a whole set of offspring. You’ll also want to make sure you cover the top of the bucket, either with a lid with small holes or mesh, so that other critters don’t accidentally fall in.
To take out egg-laying adult mosquitoes, the Itty Bitty Mosquito Population Committee recommends buying GAT traps. They are similar to a bucket of doom in that they attract mosquitoes with water, but there’s also a sticky card along the sides of the trap. “Mosquitoes are kind of erratic flyers, so they hit the sticky card before they get down or out,” Mingrone said. Once they get stuck, they eventually die.
The Itty Bitty Mosquito Population Committee is also using “mosquitaires,” devices that mimic the scent of humans to lure mosquitoes before sucking them into the trap. They are electric-powered, so you’d need access to an outlet to use one.
These traps, which are made by Biogents, both target the Asian tiger mosquito, an aggressive species that also bites during the daytime. The devices aren’t cheap: a GAT trap is $100 for a pair and each mosquitaire is $189. But because Mingrone was able to get hundreds of houses on board, they were able to get a discount: $50 for the GAT trap pair and $150 for the mosquitaire. Mingrone says anyone can take advantage of these discounts by going through the Itty Bitty Mosquito Population Committee’s site (which also has information on how to maintain the traps).
Some plants in your yard may be providing a shady, moist spot for mosquitoes to gather and breed — like English ivy, an invasive species commonly found throughout the District.
So if you were already looking to refresh your garden or remove some invasive plants, consider using this time to put in native species that attract mosquito predators, like dragonflies.
Mingrone recommended DC Natives, a local gardening organization that promotes the creation of pollinator habitats in the District, as a resource for finding information on native plants.
Talk to your neighbors
Ultimately, you can treat your water sources and have multiple traps set up in your yard, but if your neighbors aren’t doing the same, you’re probably not going to see a significant impact on the local mosquito population. That’s why Mingrone says that talking to your neighbors is the “secret sauce” of the whole operation.
“It's way more efficient to coordinate your placement [of traps],” said Mingrone. “Having neighbors come together and figure out how many do we actually need to cover our block, and can we pool money to get the expensive ones?”
And if there’s one thing most people have in common, it’s hating mosquitoes — so strike up some conversations and see if there’s interest in banding together. If there are people who are particularly motivated to put together a group initiative, you can follow the Itty Bitty Mosquito Population Committee’s footsteps by having people sign up to be block captains: volunteers who take the extra time to organize their immediate neighbors, coordinate ordering and placing traps, and remind others to toss out stagnant water.
Mingrone emphasized that the goal isn’t perfection, but rather it’s about bringing neighbors into the fold and, in turn, increasing coverage of mosquito abatement tactics.
“The more people that are working together, the more successful we'll be,” said Mingrone.
Sam Delgado is a freelance multimedia journalist living in D.C. She was previously a Future Perfect fellow at Vox.com and a production manager at More Perfect Union.
Killer Queen is a 10-player arcade game designed to get you off of your phone and playing with strangers. In one D.C. bar, dedicated fans are trying to get new players hooked.
With your help, we pursue stories that hold leaders to account, demystify opaque city and civic processes, and celebrate the idiosyncrasies that make us proud to call D.C. home. Put simply, our mission is to make it easier — and more fun — to live in the District. Our members help keep local news free and independent for all:
