Beware of Blood-Sucking Monsters on Halloween
They lurk around your neighborhood 🏡, terrify you every time you're outside, and feast on your blood 🧛.
These bloodsuckers aren't vampires, they're mosquitoes! 🦟
.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&w=2000&h=2000&fit=max&or=0&s=dde136bd86fc5b0ded64a6db652c0da1)
If you plan on trick-or-treating 👯 or passing out candy 🍭 this year, beware of little mosquito vampires and their blood thirsty bites 🩸.
Mosquitoes are mysterious. But what's worse is that we create places where mosquitoes can terrorize us and ruin our outdoor activities, like Halloween.
Watch how you can bite mosquitoes back this Halloween:
It's not magic that attracts them to troll around our yards, it's the perfect micro-climate: stagnant water 💧, shady areas, and dense vegetation 🌳
Happy Halloween Hacks 🎃
In order to have fun, we have to be healthy. Here are some tips for a safe Halloween.
1) Eliminate stagnant water around your home.
Remember that no water means no mosquitoes. 🚫🦟 Tip 'N Toss to prepare your yard for all of your October festivities.
2) Wear repellent to avoid bites and risk of mosquito-borne disease when outdoors.
Even though the air may seem chilly, mosquitoes are always active in Southern California. You can avoid frightful bites on Halloween by wearing repellent on exposed skin.
How to choose & apply repellent:
Choosing which repellent to use is a personal choice, as long as you choose 1 of the 4 CDC-recommended active ingredients:
- Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (also known as PMD)
- Picaridin
- DEET
- IR3535.
The active ingredients will be printed on the front of any repellent bottle, along with a percentage, which is a range of how long protection will last -- like sunscreen.
Similar to sunscreen, you apply evenly onto exposed skin whenever you are outdoors. This includes your face, however gently apply repellent onto your hands and then pat onto face.
Always follow the directions on the repellent bottle label and have adults apply repellent onto children.
Where to buy repellent:
You can buy repellent online or in any superstore or outdoors store. Usually, repellent is found in the outdoors or gardening aisles.
Remember that repellent comes in many forms:
- Repellent aeresol sprays
- Repellent wipes
- Repellent lotions
- Repellent liquid sprays
Repellent can also be scentless or come in a variety of scents.
3) Curse mosquitoes with powerful California native plants.
Switching tropical plants (like bromeliads) with CA native plants reduces pest resting areas areas like ivy and bushes. These plants don't require a lot of water, are drought tolerant, and are bringing biodiversity back to neighborhoods 🦋🐝.
Want to receive our monthly digest in an email? Sign up to get monthly email alerts 📧 through our Bite Back Program.
🖋 Written by Ally Gaspar, Outreach Assistant