Fend Off Mosquitoes and Biting Bugs Naturally

Humans have a complicated relationship with hexapods. They buzz us, pester us, spook us; they find their way to our food, sip our drinks, eat our plants; they can bite us, sting us, and infect us with diseases. It's not for nothing we term any creepy-crawly thing - whether it's a true insect or not, such as spiders and ticks - a "bug."

But the truth is, we can't live without them. As University of Delaware entomology professor Doug Tallamy, PhD, explains, "If we removed insects from the planet, humans would disappear in a matter of months. So, they're vital - yet all we do is think about how we can kill them. The fact that we have global insect decline is another serious issue, and people just shrug and say, 'Who needs insects?' Well, everybody needs them."

We all know about busy bees making honey, and we've learned about the industriousness of ants. In fact, most insects are a hardworking part of the food web.

"Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "That's one out of every three bites of food you eat."

When bees, butterflies, and other insects aren't doing the heavy lifting of pollinating, they're laboring behind the scenes - and often not getting much credit for their efforts. Many insects are conscientious composters and recyclers: They break down plant material, such as dead leaves and trees, and insert their nutrients back into the soil.

Agriculture and the rest of the natural world would suffer without their help, warns entomologist Michael Caterino, PhD, a professor in the Plant and Environmental Sciences department at Clemson University.

While we might think of all insects as pesky, there are many beneficial bugs helping us out by managing the true pests in our gardens and on our farms. "There's an insect army out there that would be our allies if we took better care of them," Caterino says. Yet we often spray or squash insects every chance we get.

Many birds live on caterpillars, and if those birds lost their food source, it would have a significant impact on the survival of those bird species. "It takes thousands of caterpillars to make one clutch of birds in North America," says Tallamy. "If we eliminate insects, we would lose 96 percent of North American terrestrial birds."

And the future for insects is indeed looking grim: Research has suggested that global insect populations have declined by some 45 percent since 1970. The culprits - habitat loss, light and chemical pollution, and the climate crisis - are all influenced by human actions.

In addition, a 2019 report in the journal Biological Conservation found that more than 40 percent of insect species worldwide are currently under threat of extinction due to intensive agriculture and agrochemical pollutants, invasive species, and climate change.

But insects can be bugs. So, what can you do to protect yourself while also supporting pollinators, fireflies, and other essential hexapods?

A Change of Attitude

Reaching for the repellant or turning on the bug zapper won't address the root of what's bugging you. The key to managing insects is to change your approach, advises Tallamy. To do this, you need to think like an insect.

For example, determining how ants or cockroaches have entered your home and where they are breeding is key to getting them out. Simply dosing them with pesticides is only a stopgap measure. "Chemicals are as bad for us as they are for the insects, so you don't want to be spraying these things around your house if you can avoid it," says Caterino.

"It's much easier to change your behavior than to attempt to poison the world," explains Tallamy. "The worst part is you think you're killing them, but you're actually just causing more issues without finding a solution to the problem. The very first thing insecticides kill are the natural enemies that control pest insects."

One simple way to avoid being bitten is to not attract them in the first place. At the same time, you'll be protecting beneficial insects.

Begin by changing your outdoor light bulbs. "To protect the moths that create the caterpillars, change outdoor lights from a white bulb to a yellow bulb," says Tallamy. "Yellow wavelengths do not attract nocturnal insects. If everybody did that, we'd save millions and millions of beneficial insects every single night."

Mosquito Protection

When it comes to insects, many people consider mosquitoes public enemy No. 1. Forget about sharks or tigers or crocodiles - or even pufferfish; the most dangerous animals are mosquitoes, which can transmit one or more of myriad deadly diseases with a single bite you may not even notice.

Snakes - No. 2 on the deadliest list - kill some 100,000 people worldwide each year. Yet pesky mosquitoes have caused, on average, an estimated 830,000 human deaths every year since 2010. "There are estimates that almost half of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived succumbed to a mosquito-borne disease," explains historian Timothy Winegard, PhD, author of The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator.

The climate crisis is pushing species of mosquitoes into new, wider territories, and they're bringing what were once considered tropical diseases to North America and other parts of the world. Malaria is the most notorious among these diseases, followed by viruses including West Nile, Zika, chikun­gunya, dengue, and yellow fever. (Vaccines can protect you from chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever.)

Only certain mosquitoes carry those and other diseases - and only female Anopheles carry the malaria parasite. The risk of contracting malaria in the United States is low: While an average of 2,000 cases are reported per year, most of them are from travelers carrying the disease and returning from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, or South America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, no one wants to be bitten by any mosquito, and taking preventative measures can help minimize that risk, says Tallamy.

"It's almost impossible to control mosquitoes in the adult stage," he says, so stopping them while they're in the larval stage is the most effective tactic. He recommends using Mosquito Dunks, commercially available tablets that kill larvae before they can grow into blood-sucking female adults, the only mosquitoes that bite.

"You get a bucket, fill it full of water, put in a handful of straw, hay, or dead leaves, and then you put it in the sun for a couple of days and it builds up populations of diatoms and algae," Tallamy says. "That is what mosquito larvae eat and that's what attracts the adult female mosquitoes. It's not the Mosquito Dunk that attracts them. And once the female has laid her eggs in the bucket, which is several days later, then you add the Mosquito Dunk."

The tablets contain a nonchemical pesticide, or biopesticide, Bacillus thuringiensis, which is a naturally occurring bacteria found in soil that destroys mosquito larvae but isn't harmful to people or animals. (Find nine natural mosquito-repelling plants here.)

Another simple tactic is to use an electric fan when you're sitting outdoors. "Mosquitoes can't fly into a directed breeze," Tallamy explains.

Wearing long sleeves and pants and minimizing standing water in your yard or on your apartment balcony are other ways to reduce mosquito bites.

Tallamy advises against spraying pesticides or foggers. "You're killing all the pollinators that we need and not controlling mosquitoes."

Helping Beneficial Bugs

What we plant and how we tend our yards and gardens can deter certain insects and help others. Consider some of the following tips, which can save time, money, and work.

• Use leaves as ground cover. The firefly - also known as the lightning bug - is a type of beneficial beetle declining in population due to habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change, and light pollution. Fireflies, in their larval stage, eat snails, slugs, and worms, helping protect your favorite plants from becoming food. Yet almost one-third of North American firefly species may be at risk of extinction, according to a study in PLOS One.

Fireflies spend much of their lives as larvae, living in leaf litter, dead trees, or decomposing wood. An easy way to help is to keep fallen leaves on the ground instead of raking them up. "Retain the leaves that fall on your property and make beds out of them around your trees," says Tallamy.

• Opt for native plants over manicured lawns. Many homeowners spend hours tending expanses of green grass, yet turf doesn't contribute to biodiversity or benefit the local ecosystem. "Reducing the area that we have as a lawn is a major thing any homeowner can do [to aid good insects]," says Tallamy. "Plants are capturing energy from the sun and turning it into food, and it's the food that supports all the animal life on the planet."

Growing at least some native plants is a first step toward a healthier yard. Adapted to the climate and region where they naturally occur, native plants provide essential habitat and food sources for pollinators and support healthy ecosystems. "Planting a diversity of plants that are native to the place that you're gardening will be the best for the insects that are supposed to be there," Caterino explains.

• Plant a tree. An oak tree, a keystone species in some regions in the United States, can provide a habitat for numerous animals and insects and be a food source for more than 950 types of caterpillars, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

"If you live where oaks occur naturally, adding an oak to your yard is a very easy and very important thing that you can do," says Tallamy.

Whether you have a big back- or front yard or only a tiny balcony, planting natives can make a positive impact. "The good news is that insects are resilient," he says. "And [they] can rebound if we create habitat."