Natural Mosquito Control ~ An Effective, Non-Toxic Solution

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Natural mosquito control that’s easy, effective, and money-saving — check out this brilliant *non-toxic* solution for one of summer’s biggest problems!

Thanks to Brown Bread Mozzie for sponsoring this post and for a natural mosquito control option for those of us who want to enjoy our yards without toxic chemicals!

Have mosquitoes overtaken your yard? Try this simple — and non-toxic! — way to keep them out of your yard for a year or more! Natural mosquito control couldn’t be easier.

Natural Mosquito Control Methods — Which Actually Work?

Here in Minnesota, the land of ten thousand lakes and ten zillion mosquitoes, some refer to mosquitoes as the state bird. Most summers, they are plentiful and fierce, and they drive us poor Minnesotans indoors during those few precious months we might actually want to be outside!

Last year they were so bad no one could play in our parks, and the only time we spent outside was on our screened-in porch.

While natural bugsprays have their place, they don’t always work very well. Even when they do, they need to be reapplied often, which besides being a pain means a lot of money and plastic over the course of the summer.

I started making homemade bug repellant, which solves the money and plastic problem, but to be honest when the bugs are out in force, I’m not sure it’s quite up to the job. (That’s in part because I make the kids’ version, which lacks some of the more powerful mosquito-repelling oils. Will be trying those out when kids are older 🙂 )

Here are some effective home remedies for mosquito bites if you need them.

I’ve added plants to our landscape that are supposed to repel mosquitoes — like lemon balm, catnip, basil, and mint — and while these are wonderful plants for cooking and making tea, they seem to do diddly squat for keeping away mosquitoes.

I get swarmed picking my lemon balm tea by the mosquitoes that make their home quite happily in my lemon balm, despite its reputation as a mosquito repellant!

I was thrilled when I learned about a super-affordable, non-toxic system that targets mosquito larvae and keeps skeeters out of your yard for a year

Natural Mosquito Control from Brown Bread Mozzie

Brown Bread Mozzie — named using Cockney slang for dead (brown bread) and Australian slang for mosquito (mozzie) — uses Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTi), a naturally-occurring soil bacteria to kill mosquito larvae before they hatch.

The trap is toxic ONLY to mosquito larvae, black flies, and fungus gnats, and completely safe for everything else — your family, pets, wildlife, and beneficial insects. (Here’s the EPA write-up on BTi.) No sketchy chemicals, no expensive treatments or machinery.

Set up is simple and takes just a few minutes — you just put water and a scoop of BTi in the buckets, place the traps around your yard, and eliminate all other sources of standing water.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, but the only place in your yard they’ll find it is laced with BTi, which means the larvae die rather than multiply your torment. You can add granules to any standing water you can’t eliminate.

The kit comes with four buckets and a big tub of BTi granules, enough to replenish the pails twelve times and keep mosquitoes from your yard for over a year. Mosquito season here is only a few months, so I think the supply should last me several seasons.

Years without mosquitoes just from setting out buckets and adding granules once a month? No spraying, no bites, no hiding inside on beautiful summer days! YES!

If only Japanese beetle control were that easy. They may take a bit more work, but here are some ways to get rid of Japanese beetles naturally.

To set up your mosquito traps, you just put a scoop of granules in each bucket and fill halfway with water. I used rain water I’d collected in buckets, but you can also use water from a hose.

Place the buckets at the borders of your yard, no more than 300 feet apart. My yard’s a lot smaller than that, so I offered to put a bucket at the far edge of my neighbors’ also small yard so they could enjoy some mosquito-free time outside also. They were delighted!

doused myself in homemade bug repellant and placed the buckets around the yard quickly to avoid getting bitten by all the ravenous monsters out there. I waited for a week to pass, while the unsuspecting mosquitoes laid their eggs in water toxic to their larvae.

We had a lot of rain in that week, which meant lots of places for small amounts of water to collect, allowing the mosquitoes to continue to breed. All they need is the drops collected in a leaf! I dumped any standing water I found, but all that rain meant the process took a bit longer.

Within about 12 days, though, virtually no mosquitoes! No swatting wildly while I harvested my tea!

I actually stood beating the lemon balm for several minutes, and no mosquitoes came out seeking to snack on me. A friend harvesting my grapes one evening also reported zero mosquitoes.

I have high hopes that my extremely bug-averse elder daughter will actually come to enjoy gardening with me again. She’s been anti-outdoors ever since the first appearance of these nasties. SO hoping that turns around!

Here’s why it’s so important to get outside.

Inside the house I recommend an easy homemade fruit fly trap to get rid of that other flying nuisance of summer.

Natural Mosquito Control for an Entire Year

How wonderful to pick herbs, pull weeds, and play with kiddos without being attacked by those horrible creatures! While we continue to get chowed at our farm and around town, our yard has become a mosquito-free haven. Thanks, Brown Bread Mozzie!

If you’ve suffered endless bites, sprayed yourself with repellants, or fogged your yard to avoid the buggers, this non-toxic solution is worth checking out.

This ingenious system keeps mosquitoes from breeding in the first place, so there’s no repellant, fogging or other deterrent to bother with. You’ll save money, avoid chemicals, and enjoy your yard so much more.

**2019 update: Brown Bread Mozzie is pursuing EPA certification and is unavailable until the process is complete. You can find some similar Bti products here.**

2026 Update: I’m honestly not sure what’s become of Brown Bread Mozzie (presumably stalled endlessly by the EPA). However, I came across a simple DIY version you can make using the Bti product mentioned above from Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park. Check out the simple tutorial here.

Tell all your friends how they can enjoy a mosquito-free yard with natural mosquito control as well!

Looking for other natural pest control options? Here’s what to know about defeating squash vine borers and using orange peels, peppermint oil, and used coffee grounds to repel other garden pests.

Pin to save this natural mosquito control method for later!

Disclosure: I received compensation and a complimentary Brown Bread Mozzie kit in exchange for my honest review. I only promote products I believe in and am comfortable using on my own family. All opinions strictly my own.

Photo credits: Mosquito close-ups by nuzree and kaigraphick. (The rest courtesy of yours truly.)

Susannah

Susannah is a health and environmental writer focusing on gardening, foraging, medicinal plants, and sustainability. Her work has appeared in Mother Earth Living, Ensia, Northern Gardener, Sierra, and on numerous websites. Her first book, Everything Elderberry, released in September 2020 and was a #1 new release in holistic medicine, naturopathy, herb gardening, and other categories. Find out more and grab your copy here.