That Time We Talked About Mosquitos

This is episode number 92 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could be with us on the show.

We're glad you are here.

Alive and kicking.

That's right, we are on episode 92, that means we were just 8 episodes away from the big 3-digit thing.

And there's the music that I forgot to cut out at the— you guys, everyone out there now has heard the full intro music for the, the Homeowner Show now because I forgot to take that little tidbit off at the end.

The little bumpity bump. Yeah.

Should I leave it in?

I think you should leave it in.

I'm gonna leave it in.

At least for today.

It's, it's the deep tracks from the Homeowner Show.

It's like the late night after-hours part of the show that we don't want anyone to know about.

Broadcasting from a van.

That's right.

The interior is nothing but crushed velvet.

Oh man, that is creepy on so many levels. Moving on. Yeah, how you doing, man?

I'm doing well. So I— things, things seem to be rolling out into a somewhat normalcy?

I sure hope so. I mean, it seems like things are becoming a little more normal.

Yeah.

But I'm— man, I've got this weird feeling that normal is, is kind of out the window.

Just gone.

Yeah, I mean, you remember back to 9/11. I mean, you and I were definitely old enough to, to remember that. I was, I was, uh, in college. Yeah, sophomore in college whenever that happened, and I just remember the world changed. That was the point at which you couldn't wait for your friends and family at the terminal gate anymore. You got to now take off your shoes to go through baggage— not the baggage, to go through security. There were definitely things that changed.

Isn't that when the whole liquids thing changed with airlines, as well? Nothing more than 3 ounces?

Yep.

That's right. Yeah.

So I, I don't know, maybe I'm, maybe I'm being a little bit pessimistic here, and I am not a pessimistic person, but I just feel like the new normal is going to be something different than what we're used to.

Yeah. And it also feels like we're just kind of moving from one crazy to another.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, either way, like, we, we had just started to like get out into the world a little bit, and, and then we, we had some awful, horrible stuff happen, and then protests and riots are coming out of that. And like, like that's, that's taken over the news cycle, even though there's like, you know, it's sprinkled in with bits of COVID So yeah, whereas COVID used to be the meat and potato and now it's like the sesame seeds in your Chinese food.

It's still there.

It's still there to get stuck in your teeth.

Yeah. Well, all I know is that I am glad that we're back in the studio. Yes. Second week in a row. And next week, we're gonna start with guests again.

That's right.

So that's exciting.

Despite all of my optimism, I got next to nothing done in the studio during all that time. I just kind of like wallowed in my own filth since I just had to be here by myself.

Yeah.

Didn't do anything.

Next to nothing. You did get one thing done.

Yeah, just one ceiling panel.

Better than nothing, man.

And people are gonna think that we don't need to be hosting the Homeowner Show considering how long it's taken us to get this stupid room done.

That's true. However, like, the number of things that I've gotten done personally at my house over the last 2 and a half months has been unbelievable.

Well, you got to be home.

That's true.

I had like corona jealousy of people, man. I never got to be home during that. Everyone was like, I'm tired of it. I was like, man, I'd love to be home.

Yeah, like, I'll tell you this. Like, I've not been tired of being home. I've, I've really relished the time with my family too. Like, I'm— but I really like my family. I know that there's people out there listening, they go, I don't like my family, but I like my family. But I can tell you, we were not— we were not sitting around bored.

Sure.

We were busy.

Yeah.

And, and when I didn't have something I was doing with my family or, or, you know, teaching, which I don't ever want to be a schoolteacher. Bless all you people. Um, I, I was in the yard, I was in the garage, I was, I was doing stuff. So then like the number of things in my house that got fixed or, or done up a little bit differently.

Yeah.

Um, we added a bunch of lights, we added, you know, all kinds of stuff. So I mean, little projects that need to be done, they got done right around my house at least, but I couldn't come to your house.

That wasn't helpful.

Yeah.

And like a lot of this is like a 2-man At least a 2-man job. It'd be really easy with like 3 guys, but you know, at least 2. So I—

I wonder if a lift would help.

Like a, like a, like a sheetrock lift, you know what I'm talking about? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like a ceiling lift.

I don't know, because this stuff's not as, um, if you guys have ever put in, uh, beadboard ceiling, it's real— it's, it's not thick at all. I mean, like, it's pretty flimsy. I mean, even compared to sheetrock.

Oh yeah.

Um, oh yeah.

I mean, sheetrock is It's— is pliable.

Like, it, it, it has a little bend to it.

It's got a bend to it. But this stuff, you could almost fold in half.

You could wear it like a ghost costume at Halloween.

I would really like to see that.

I'm gonna make it happen for you. That being said, I'll be the most symmetrical ghost ever.

Well, that is if you put it on straight.

Just wear it on my head.

How you doing?

Man, so this has been a crazy week, even by my standards.

Even by your standards?

Even by my standards.

What does that mean?

So, you know, my folks and I, we're in business together, like we own a business together. And so my folks live on some property as well. And so like I'm constantly over there, we're constantly having meetings and all these kinds of things. That's where the office is. offices. And so our next door neighbors at our office is a private zoo. So, which I don't think we've ever talked about before.

I think just passing, we've kind of mentioned it and people are like, did they just say? But that's probably about it.

Yeah. And like, so they opened it up to the public. I mean, it's not like just, you know, crazy animal hoarder or Tiger King, which I haven't watched, by the way, and I refuse to watch.

You're probably better for it. I am. I know I am.

I mean, I'm— I wish I hadn't heard the conversations about Tiger King so much. I think I would have been a better person had I not heard those.

Right.

That being said, so the private zoo next door, they have all kinds of stuff. They've got— probably the coolest one they have is like an albino hyena. And it's got like— it's white with black zebra stripes. on him almost. Really, really cool looking. I mean, those are creepy animals, but he's really cool looking.

Yeah.

So anyway, we share property line with them.

Okay.

And so there was a pretty big storm that came through last week. Hang on, let me preface this by saying earlier that week, my mom had been out in the pasture taking care of her new chickens. She got like 10 new chickens.

Wow.

A couple weeks ago.

Which she loves.

She loves the chickens.

Yeah.

She loves giving them punny names as well. And I think most of them are Star Wars themed.

Oh, okay.

Um, but anyway, she was out taking care of the chickens and almost stepped on a water moccasin.

Oh.

And so my dad went out with the .22, which was— that was actually funny as well because he had it all cornered and he popped it with a .22. And when he did, the snake jumped up in the air and he goes, hurt, don't it?

Please tell me somewhere there's video of that.

I wish. I wish. My mom got a picture of it, but she was like, when she heard the dialogue, she was like, I should have been running the video camera.

Yeah, because I mean, if you don't know, you can always still take a picture while videoing.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a thing.

So anyway, it was like a 5-foot water moccasin. It was a big water moccasin.

Yeah, it was.

So that happened. And then about 4 days later, this big storm rolls through and knocks the back fence down to their property. And behind them is usually the— they actually have a bison and a couple of water buffalo and some pigs and llamas and, you know, like their pasture exotics.

Okay.

Well, at that time out there was the emu. And I didn't realize this, but emus are actually raptors.

Really?

So they'll eat other birds.

Really?

So it began terrorizing the chickens and cornering them, trying to eat them.

Oh my goodness.

So my mom's flipping out.

Right, because you don't wanna take on an emu.

No.

No.

No one does. Like, so my dad goes inside and grabs the shotgun.

Oh gosh.

Comes back out and it's chasing chickens down the fence line. So he goes, all right, I'm gonna scare him off. So he takes aim over the top of the emu's head. Well, right as he goes to pull the trigger, 2 of the chickens fly up over the fence. And this is a 7 or 8 foot fence.

Oh gosh.

So the chickens fly up over the fence. When the chickens fly up over the fence, the emu jumps up after them.

Oh, well, I mean, they can't fly.

They can't fly, but—

But they can jump.

They can jump.

Okay.

And they're really tall to start with.

Right.

I mean, that— I think that emu was like 6'5 or something like that.

Holy cow.

I mean, like when it's like sticks its neck all the way up in the air.

Wow.

They're not— I mean, like they're not as big as ostriches because I think ostriches can be like 8 feet.

Oh my goodness.

Um, they're, they're much bigger. Um, anyway, emu jumps up straight in the air right as my dad pulls the trigger.

Oh no.

So he blows the emu's head off.

This is not good for neighbor— neighborly business. No.

So they have to call them and they're like, they're not even in town because they go all over the country. Like sometimes they bring animals to like Jack Hanna. when he has like interviews and stuff like that.

Wow.

And so I got— at this moment they're actually in Atlanta, and so like they have to call him on the phone. They're like, hey, sorry, but the emu is dead.

No.

They're like, is he, is he dead or is he injured? No, he's really dead.

This, this is dead dead.

Dead dead.

There's, there's dead, there's dead dead.

Yeah. And there— and so they kind of explained to them the situation, and they're like, we're so sorry, we totally understand.

Oh, so they, they took a little bit of like, hey, this wasn't your fault.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, really Really, if you think about it, it was the emu that came across the fence.

It was.

I mean, even though the fence was down.

Well, and the water buffalo had come across the fence too. And so like there was just pandemonium in the pasture in general.

Now, is this in and amongst your— there are horses as well?

No, there's no horses over there right now.

Okay.

So, I mean, like the horses probably would've cared less.

Okay.

But anyway, so my mom calls me and she's like, you're just not gonna believe what just happened.

Oh, that is a crazy, crazy story.

So I, I ended up having to the next day go and drag this emu carcass over to where they were burying it, because that was the only, that was the only caveat, was like, we totally understand, you know, we're not upset, we're not mad, we know, we understand what was going on, you didn't mean to kill it, right? But these things happen. Sure. Um, we just need you to deal with the body.

So, I mean, they didn't— they don't have like someone on retainer like call in and be like, hey, we got a dead emu over here.

I'm sure they do, but like at this point it's like, it's on your property. Yeah, I mean, and that's— I think that's completely reasonable.

Yeah, it's like, you killed my emu, bury it, right?

Yeah, or eat it.

Well, I, I've never eaten emu.

Had I been there, I might have cleaned him. I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, you, you can eat ostrich.

Well, apparently emu is really good.

Okay.

Like, it's, um, you ever heard of the, uh, they call it the ribeye in the sky? Um, it's a sand crane.

Oh yeah.

But like, it's like a red meat.

Really?

And so is emu.

I, man, you— I had no idea.

So yeah, it's not, it's not like— it doesn't look like chicken at all. Like, it's, it's almost like looking like From what I understand, the pictures I've seen of emu meat, it looks like elk.

Wow, that's really interesting. Well, I will say that everything to my son is chicken. Tonight, he was like, Mom, I don't really want to eat this chicken. I was like, well, that's fine, because it's a pork chop. Everything's chicken to him.

That's right. When my kids were little, everything was sausage.

Yeah, whatever.

I don't like this sausage.

Alright. That's really fantastic because it's not sausage.

That's a steak.

That's a steak. It's actually a ribeye. Yeah.

Okay. It's beans.

That's a vegetable there, son. I don't really know what's wrong with you.

A legume.

Well, that's a way more interesting week than I had.

It was a terrible week for the emu. No joke.

Although I will tell you that life is going to feel a lot more normal starting tomorrow for me.

Oh yeah?

Because, um, I'm going back to work finally.

Oh yeah? You get to go to the office?

Yeah, I mean, I've been— I've been working, don't get me wrong. Um, there's been quite a bit of stuff that we've been doing at home, but now I'm going back to the office, so I'm actually really looking forward to it.

Do you guys have to wear face masks?

No, we do not.

Hand sanitizer?

I'm sure that's gonna be available.

Um, is it mandatory?

No, it's not. And, and one of the things that's kind of interesting is like that office has been vacant for 2 and a half months at this point. Yeah.

So I mean, it's probably a little stale.

Yeah, I mean, my office, I mean, anybody could walk into and be completely safe because nobody's been in there. So I mean, there's not any reason to have been in there. I'm sure there's a layer of dust everywhere, but, um, as far as people being in there or anything like that, it's gonna be pretty safe.

That's so— that's good. No, are you still gonna— are you gonna give it a good Cloroxing?

No, no, no, because there's nothing to chloro— I mean, you can Clorox stuff, but just for the sake of using Clorox wipes, that's dumb. So I'll probably give it a good— give it a good, you know, dusting. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna get some Pledge on it most likely.

Take the air compressor in there and just blow everything off.

Now there's an idea.

Skirt it out in the hallway, let it be somebody else's problem.

That's not a bad idea.

If there's corona in here, it's coming your way.

Look out below.

Although that was, that was kind of the interesting thing that came out. What was it, last week? That it doesn't live on surfaces as long as they thought it did.

Oh yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things.

So if you haven't been there 2 and a half months, if it was in there—

Yeah, no, I mean, I mean, overnight it would be gone. So, I mean, nobody's, nobody's been in there. So now I do think we're going to be kind of limiting other people coming into the office.

Yeah.

But which is kind of interesting.

But, um, I can't come loiter in the hallway?

Well, no, we only have a couple of people to do that anyways. Anyway, well, uh, we, we've got a really interesting episode, I hope. Uh, one thing that we've not really done Um, let's talk about— I mean, we talk about your business from time to time, but, uh, tonight we're gonna talk about something that's just pesky and nobody likes them. And we just want to kind of have a conversation here about mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes.

Oh my goodness, those things are the absolute worst. Here's what's crazy is like, you were saying that everybody's dealing with them right now.

Oh yeah.

So we found one in our house the other day. And we're like, oh, stupid mosquito. Well, they're— I don't know what's going on with them. I guess they have the virus too because, um, they're moving faster than normal, at least in my house.

Okay.

We couldn't find it. I mean, we would see kind of, you know, buzzing by.

Yeah.

Um, and there it goes. Well, um, the next morning I went to the kitchen and, um, I turned on the water and apparently there was a glass or something there that had water in it and like 4 flew out of that thing. Oh yeah, it's like, oh my gosh, we got it. I told my wife, I was like, we cannot keep water inside of a container. Yeah, any—

They will find it and they will get in it.

Absolutely they will. And so anyway, I think we've— we're at a better place than we were, but man, they're, they're starting to come out. And I don't know how, because we had more mosquito hawks than I've ever seen in my life about 6 months ago.

Well, and that, that's actually, that's actually kind of like a An urban legend. Those don't actually eat mosquitoes.

You have just ruined my life. Thank you a lot, because those things are terrifying.

Yeah, you can kill— I mean, like, you can kill them. They're technically mayflies. Everyone just calls them mosquito hawks.

Okay, well, they look like mosquitoes. They look like they could eat mosquitoes.

That's why they call them mosquito hawks, is because they look like mosquitoes, not because they actually eat mosquitoes. Yeah, um, they're just so gigantic and mosquito-looking. But they're totally different variety.

They're a fly.

They're beneficial, they do good things, but they don't eat mosquitoes.

They must have done a lot of good things about 6 months ago, because they were everywhere.

Oh, yeah. You're talking about mosquito hawks?

Yeah.

They're seasonal. They're kind of like love bugs. I don't know if everybody calls them love bugs, but the little black winged bugs with the orange-tipped head that mate and pair up and fly together and just ruin the paint on your car?

Yes, they do.

Fun fact on that, the reason that people get them on their car so bad is because—

They're driving?

No.

Oh.

Because like, you gotta think, I mean, like, there's no other bug that you just get a massive amount on your car when you're driving. And the reason is because your emissions almost mimics identically their mating pheromone.

Oh, so they are actually—

They gather at roads.

They like—

Yeah, they think, they think the nookies are coming.

Well, that's all that they're good for as far as they're concerned.

Oh yeah.

If you see them, they are together. I mean, when you see a divorced love bug, you're like, what is wrong with you?

How did you not find somebody?

Exactly. Like, every, every one of you other than you has found someone. Yeah, you were the most unlucky love bug ever.

Yeah. So anyway, which has nothing to do with mosquitoes, but just fun facts. Yeah, pheromones, cool stuff.

Yes.

So, and there's lots of things that like mimic pheromones when that interact— that we interact with on, on weird situations. So, um, but mosquitoes, uh, man, just so many people are dealing with them. I mean, this time of year, this is when our This is when a lot of mosquito treatments really kick into gear. People start getting on plans and systems in order to get them under control. This year, it's been a little bit heavier than before, and I think it's because we had a lot of spring rain.

We did.

Anytime you have lots of rain, you're eventually going to have lots of standing water, and that standing water is just going to help populate the mosquito. Infestations. Um, you know, I was gonna say, when you were talking about mosquitoes, you know, 4 flying out of your sink when you turn the water on in the morning, I gotta tell you, one of the most terrifying things you can ever experience is if you've left the toilet seat overnight and you go in to relieve yourself.

Oh gosh.

And as you're standing there vulnerable, the most vulnerable, the most vulnerable you're ever going to be, And mosquitoes come flying out of the toilet.

Oh, man.

And you can't move.

Okay, so I have a legitimate question.

Uh-huh.

Does closing the lid help?

Sure, yeah, no, it helps.

Oh, well.

Now, it doesn't mean they can't get in there. It's just less likely that that's going to happen because if you leave the lid open, they can just fly right in.

Right.

So.

Well, so, I mean, we're typically a close-the-lid family.

But as all should be.

Yeah, I mean, it's just common decency and courtesy, right?

But especially if you're going to leave something in there, you want it to be a bit of a surprise, right?

Right.

Oh, come on.

You're completely ruining my desire to have a urinal in my, in my bathroom.

But urinals don't typically have standing water in them.

Well, some of them do.

Some of them do.

I guess I'd need to get a waterless one.

Yeah, well, I mean, like, some— they're just different designs, but like a lot of the ones I see now don't have it at—

No, that's good. Those things are disgusting.

And that's probably why, because like, you know, you probably have like really gross gas stations that have the standing water version, and yeah, um, that's, you know, not a place you want having blood let from you.

Oh, and then they go bite someone else. This is a disgusting episode.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just saying. And things have touched.

Yes, that's gross.

So, yeah.

So help me understand, right? What can I do? I mean, when it comes to mosquitoes, I mean, I like— right now is like a beautiful time to be outside, especially in the mornings and the evenings. Beautiful time to be outside. And, um, I'm just curious, what, what can I do to help alleviate my mosquito problem?

Well, you know, It kind of depends on the route you want to go. A lot of people now are wanting to go kind of the natural route. There are some things that you can do— well, there's a lot of things you can do to help alleviate the mosquito population naturally. But it really kind of depends on the situation you're living in. A lot of people I run into when they call us and they have us come out and they're looking at mosquitoes, they're like, we're just having a real bad problem. Then when I look over the back fence, it's like, well, you live right by a drainage ditch.

Or a lake or a pond.

Yeah.

Or something.

Um, and like, if it's a lake or a pond, I can actually be of more help than if it's a drainage ditch, because a drainage ditch is gonna have water constantly moving through it. Why is that different? Because with standing water, there's things that we can actually do to the standing water in order to reduce the mosquito larvae population. Wow.

So, so if I like, in my backyard across the green, right, is a pond, it's a pretty large pond, right? Um, But you would have to treat the water.

Yes.

Over there. Right. And so I've gotta call the—

You've gotta call the golf course. You gotta call the homeowner association. You have to have permission. And then who's gonna pay for it and all those kinds of things?

Well, I can guarantee you who's not paying for it. And that's, that's me.

Uh-huh.

And the homeowner association.

Yeah.

So I think we got problems.

So, but there's actually like a, there's, I mean, like if you do have a pond or a, I mean, and lakes, lakes tend to not have as big of an issue because lakes tend to have a better fish population. Mm-hmm. But if you have a healthy fish population, they will help with that, or frogs, or all those different kinds of things. If not, what you can do is there's a product called Mosquito Dunks. They look like donuts that you throw in the water, just like crusty donuts. You throw them in the water, they dissolve. They're sort of like— do you ever have Sea Monkeys when you were a kid?

Yeah.

So, you know how those don't come alive until you get them wet?

Right.

Same, same sort of circumstance. These are actually microorganisms that eat mosquito larvae.

Oh, okay.

And that's like all they do. And so you introduce these microorganisms into the water, um, and like, I'll even put 'em in our stock tanks. They're, they, I mean, like they might give a little, like, you know, zip to the water, but it's safe to drink.

Okay.

Um, it doesn't do anything, make it toxic. It's a completely natural thing to do to the water. And it just reduces the— it doesn't completely eliminate them, but it definitely helps keep them under control.

Right.

So you're going to have a population reduction that way. The other thing you need to pay attention to is how much brush you have in your yard, because any low-lying brush, that's where they're going to be hanging out. They're going to be looking for shady spots that are nice and where they can get in from out of the wind and from out of the elements. And also it's because, you know, as they're going to, they're going to kind of hang out underneath that 8-foot canopy. And so anything from like 8 foot down to ground level, if there's leafage in that area, there's gonna be probably mosquitoes hanging out underneath those plants because that's kind of their target market, right?

They're not, they're not chasing birds. They're not chasing, you know, squirrels up in the trees. They want, you know, bigger mammals down close to the ground where they can get to 'em real quickly and kind of sneak up on 'em without making a whole lot of noise. 'Cause they do make quite a bit of noise when they, when they get up on you.

Yeah.

Um, and so the, the less time they're in the air, You know, the, you know, the, the more likely they're gonna be able to get a blood meal.

So if you've got a lush garden or, you know, lots of trees, right, those sorts of things that are, you know, and, and, you know, some trees have a pretty high canopy, but sure. If you've got any foliage, right, they're gonna be around.

Absolutely.

And, and, and you add water to that and it's like, it's on top of that. Yeah.

You're, you're compounding at that point. Um, Um, and, and so it, you know, you can, you can actually, you know, clear that out. Um, or if you just have like brush piles that you've just left sitting around for a long time and haven't dealt with, you haven't burned it, you haven't bagged it, you haven't done it. Those can actually be big harborage areas. Any, any low, low-level leafage and foliage and organic matter on the ground other than grass. They don't really like to hang out on grass. There's certain kinds of mosquitoes that will, but most of the ones that we have around here won't.

But anytime you've got that kind of thing going on, you've got other bugs and other things.

Oh, absolutely.

A bigger problem probably than mosquitoes are, I would expect.

Sometimes, sometimes, absolutely. I mean, it definitely adds to the situation. You're not doing yourself any favors pest-wise. So you can either clear those out or you can have those areas treated. There's We can get into a couple of the different ways that you can do that. Um, but, but yeah, so I mean, like, you really just need to take, you know, like, you know, take stock of your situation. You know, am, am I by standing water? What kind of standing water am I by if I am by standing water? And what can I do to address that standing water? Because like those mosquito dunks, like you can, you, I mean, like if you're a homeowner, you can just chuck 'em out in that, in that, uh, drainage ditch.

Okay.

That's no big deal. I mean, you're not— I mean, do you have permission? Do you have permission to do that? Probably not. Is it illegal? I don't know, because, yeah, but I can't do it.

If it's rushing water, is that gonna matter?

No.

Why? I mean, wouldn't it just, you know, wash away?

Because this is, this isn't a runoff situation. I mean, like, it's, it's sort of— I mean, like, it's sort of like throwing a goldfish back there. Okay. I mean, like, you're Yeah. Nobody cares because it's, it's an organic thing that's in the water. Um, so yeah, it, it's not creating any sort of runoff. It's not adding any pesticide or anything like that. Um, so then, I mean, if you want, if you're just going completely natural, you wanna address the brush, you wanna address the water, and then you can start, you know, putting in plants like citronella plants. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, there's certain kind of like citronella candles.

Yeah.

That you can do. I often tell people a lot of times is like really, really good fans are some of your best friends on your back porch when it comes to dealing with mosquitoes, 'cause it makes it difficult for them to fly.

Right.

Um, especially if they've already had a blood meal. Um, I don't know if you've like ever swatted a mosquito that was, you know, engorged.

Yeah.

Um, it can be kind of gross, but they're a lot easier to kill because they're fat and slow.

Right.

Um, so a fat, slow mosquito is gonna have a real difficult time flying in a real heavy fan. Mm-hmm. It also just helps you keep cool. It makes it you know, your back porch experience kind of— sure, a little bit, a little bit nicer.

Yeah. Um, and they've got some really cool ones that like mount to the wall.

Yeah.

You know, if you don't have like an overhang where you can put a ceiling fan or something like that in, they make them oscillating even. So I mean, those are kind of nice.

Let me tell everybody something. They don't make fans like they used to.

No, they don't, because the old ones were like metal, right?

Yes, that's what I have.

And the, and the insides of those things are, you know, They're all metal parts.

Yeah, I mean, like, my fans probably weigh like 40 pounds. Yeah, I mean, they're massive and they'll cut your finger off if you stick it in there. But man, they put out some air.

Yeah, they do.

Um, there's nothing flying on me when I'm sitting there.

Well, we, we've also got a really cool space at our house that is, um, that's enclosed. I mean, it's a, it's a screened-in area. We call it a, uh, just a courtyard.

Yeah.

And, um, It's completely closed in. And so, and we have a fan in there anyway, but, um, I mean, mosquitoes can get in there anytime you open the door. They can get in. But right, I mean, they're not going to last really that long.

No.

Um, as long as you don't have a water source in there, you know.

And I'll say this, man, like that, those, the kind of enclosure that you have at your house is, is not as common here.

Right.

And I think part of that has to do with the pine needle situation. Like the pine needles get stuck in there and you have to get up there and clean them off. But like, I remember, uh, in growing up in Florida, I mean, like if you had a swimming pool, you had one of those over the entire swimming pool. Oh, almost everybody did.

Really?

Um, and it really helped, you know, if you're, you know, your outdoor experience by the pool. I mean, like there weren't mosquitoes and I don't think it's cuz there weren't mosquitoes, it's because everybody had these, you know, screened-in back porches that covered the whole pool.

Mm-hmm.

Which, I mean, if you think about it, that's a massive structure added onto your house.

Right.

to, to cover the swimming pool.

Sure. Um, so probably makes it really nice though.

Yeah, I mean, I've seen a few here, but just not as many as I was— I would expect.

Yeah.

Um, interesting. And, and like, like you said, I mean, like, you know, you can mount fans to the ceilings of those and still let sunlight through. And absolutely makes it kind of cool.

It really does. And we, um, we eat out there a lot, a whole lot. And we'll, we'll spend, we'll spend time out there. In fact, when it was— when we were the teachers over the last couple of months, we did a lot of school out there. Yeah, just because it's a way to get the kids outside and, and it was, you know, we don't have to really worry about bugs and that, that sort of thing. But I know that a lot of people don't have that kind of a space for sure.

Yeah. So, yeah.

Okay. So what, whenever you talk about like citronella plants, I heard you say something about that. I mean, I know what a citronella candle is, right? You know, you burn those and it keeps the— they don't like that smell, I assume, is what the, what the problem is.

Yeah. Yeah, it's sort of a natural repellent. You'll actually find citronella oil in a lot of bug sprays and things like that, because it doesn't have an unpleasant odor.

Sure.

I mean, it doesn't smell like roses or anything like that, but it's not like a skunk.

That's kind of what those wristbands— you've seen the wristbands, the Bug Be Gone or whatever they're called, I don't know. They've got citronella in them, don't they?

I don't know for sure. I would imagine so. Um, because I mean, like, you— I mean, like, it's not like a flea collar. You put— you don't want to put anything heavy in there on people, and for sure.

So how much of that stuff, like any, any of those types of things, like whether it's bug spray or whatever, how much of that do you actually have to have on to— do you have to douse your whole body like most people do, or do you just have to have enough to kind of get— how far does their smeller go, I guess, is the question.

Well, and so that's, that's kind of like an interesting question because a lot of the new studies have actually— because like bug spray doesn't work for me. Like, it just never has.

Okay.

They like me anyway. And so what a lot of the research has been showing, a lot of people used to think it was your blood type. They're like, oh, what blood type are you? Oh, that mosquito must like that. And like, that's— they've shown that to not be the case.

Well, it's interesting because they don't like me, right? They love my wife. They do not like me.

Right. And so what they've found out is that it has nothing to do with blood type, but it just has to do with smell.

Okay.

How you smell. And so while they may not prefer the smell of citronella, but if they smell something that they really like, they'll go through what they don't like in order to get to what they do like. So like bug spray is just like a deep woods kind of stuff. That helps, um, like when you're going through like deep forest and stuff like— so it's helpful, um, but like I still get— I tend to get eaten up. And so like a lot of people are always like, I can't believe you're outside in like long sleeves and jeans and boots all the time. And I'm like, well, I'm way more comfortable this way than I am getting eaten alive.

Sure.

Um, and I just— I tend to— that's just how I dress most of the time anyway.

Yeah, even in the summer, Craig is out there with his long sleeve jeans and boots.

Every day.

Oh well, okay.

But yeah, so I mean, all that to say, like, it's— you just kind of got to find what works for you. And so like, I don't put that stuff on me because one, I've realized it doesn't work. And so if it doesn't work, why would I want to expose myself to anything that could potentially be harmful down the line?

Yeah, and plus, I mean, you're spending money on something that is just useless, right?

Yeah, I mean, just so, um, so all that to say, like, if they like you, they like you. And if it makes you feel better to put bug spray on, put bug spray on. I mean, if you— if it makes you feel better to put natural bug spray on, put natural bug spray on. But more than likely, if they like you, they like you, and they're gonna bite you.

Yeah. So if you could find something like a citronella something to wear, that seems like it would be a pretty good thing, as long as—

It couldn't hurt.

Yeah. I mean, but that being said, if they— if they like the way you smell, right, I guess you're— yeah, kind of screwed anyway.

I mean, my best advice is like, if they— if you— if you find yourself getting getting eaten by mosquitoes quite a bit and you enjoy going outside, find something that's, you know, sort of light but long-sleeved and, you know, pants.

Yeah.

Um, and I just recommend that anyway if you're going to be in the outdoors because, I mean, like, that helps prevent with like chiggers and ticks and all kinds, you know, all kinds of other stuff.

Or, or just stop showering. Or, you know, maybe—

well, no, I mean, like, that, that may actually make it worse, honestly. Because when you shower, your soap is actually helping dissolve a lot of your secretions. If you weren't to shower for several days, you might actually smell more attractive because you're smelling more like you than you normally would.

Oh, man! I've been playing this all wrong!

All wrong! You do have to take a shower every week.

That's right. I take a shower once a month whether I need to or not. ear or not.

Fine, Mom, I'll wash behind my ears.

OK, now there are some other solutions.

Sure. All that to say, none of them are going to be as effective as pesticides at the end of the day.

Which is where I was headed. You have a lot more effective things that can be done that are more costly, but they're more effective.

Sure. That's not to be pro-pesticide. It's just It's just the way it is. I mean, like, it's more effective at the end of the day. It just is.

Right.

Especially the way we do it in one circumstance. And so all, and put this under this umbrella, no matter if you're going to go down the pesticide route, you know, just make sure that you're finding somebody who's, one, who knows what they're doing, and two, is going to be responsible about what they're doing.

Okay, what do you mean by that?

You know, a lot, a lot of people I run into, you know, they are DIY people. Um, and I don't, I don't mind DIY. I mean, it does not hurt my feelings when people want to do their own pest control.

Sure.

Power to you. If you're going to do it, make sure— I mean, like, you're dealing with, you know, harsh chemicals, and you need to follow the directions on them. It's— they're, they're not there as suggestions. They're there in order to prevent other bad things from happening. like runoff and overexposure and all, just a plethora of things that could, you know, be harmful to you.

Right.

That being said, I run into a lot of people who will go to, you know, a big box store and pick up a, you know, bottle of whatever, read the instructions where it says, you know, mix this 1 ounce to the gallon. Right.

Right.

Yeah. And so in their mind, It goes, well, if 1 ounce is good, 3 ounces must be amazing. And, and I, I, I kid you not, I run across this all the time. And this is, this is why we have problems with pesticides is, is, and like I even run into professionals, I'm finger quoting if you're not watching the video, um, professionals who will do the exact same thing.

Wow.

Um, and it's, it's just irresponsible and reckless and, you know, all kinds of bad things that you should never do. Um, so, And you don't need to do that. It's effective when you do it right and when you apply it right. And, and then, and that's the other thing is like, well, if, you know, if 1 ounce is good, then 3 ounces must be amazing. And, and then it says, well, only apply it here. It's like, well, I'll just do 3 ounces and I'll apply it everywhere, you know? And it's like, come on, guys. Like, this, this is what makes people who are trying to do the right thing, it makes our job more difficult.

Yeah, it's like, it's like people that take 3 days of a 10-day antibiotic and then they're like, oh, it's gonna be fine.

Yeah, yeah.

Which, I mean, that's a legitimate thing. I mean, I get it, you feel better, you don't want to take antibiotic if you don't need it, but the reality of it is that there's a reason that that was prescribed for 10 days. Right.

And so, and here's the other part of that is, and this is, this is a good example because I had a, I had a really Uh, uh, cautious, uh, customer the other day, um, who was wanting to get rid of mosquitoes. And she's, she's kind of walking me through. She's like, well, I've, I've planted a lot of these healthy pollinator plants over here, and I've got fruit trees in the back, and, and this and this and this and this. And, and so like, I'm, I'm literally taking like 45 minutes to an hour to walk through her property with her so that she can show me, because you don't want to apply pesticides to the things that you're planning on consuming.

Right.

You know, and so like when we go through a yard, a lot of times people will just say, hey, go fog for mosquitoes. And so we go do that, but before we do that, we go kind of make a mental checklist. Okay, there's an orange tree. Okay, there's a fig tree. Okay, this guy's growing rosemary over here, and then there's some thyme over there. And so we've trained our people to recognize herbs and plants and different things like that because we don't want to be exposing people to pesticides when they're picking their orange or fig or whatever.

Right.

Um, and so this lady, uh, I actually, um, you know, she was obviously very conscious about what was used on her property. And so I'm walking her through how I do things. And as I'm— when I finally get done and I'm actually doing the application, um, she had a kind of a greenbelt behind her house. And we're— I'm treating the greenbelt. And as I get through the greenbelt, I see a different kind of plant than I usually see in this area. So I kind of turn my equipment off and I walk over there. And what I found was like a wild grove of okra growing behind her fence.

Interesting.

And so I went to where the okra started and I turned back around away from it and then treated away from it.

Okay.

And then I went back and told her, I was like, hey, I was treating the back of your property, but while I was there, I found this wild patch of okra and I wanted to let you know that I found it and I didn't treat it. So I mean, like, if it starts to bloom, I just want to let you know it's safe if you wanted to go back there and pick some okra.

Interesting.

Um, and she was, I mean, she was ecstatic, one, to find like all the, I mean, like it was a lot of it growing. Um, and hopefully she'll get a good crop from it because okra is yummy.

Oh, it's super yummy.

Yeah.

I, I've got a story about that.

Oh yeah.

I'll tell it real briefly. Um, I dated a girl from—

Just one? Is that what you're telling your kids?

Come to think of it. Date a girl who's from Michigan.

Okay.

And she would not eat okra.

Wow.

Now, if you're from Michigan, you're going, yeah, I don't eat that stuff. And they're apparently— they, they just— I mean, she specifically told me that's horse food.

That's horse food?

That's what she told me.

Okay.

It's horse food. And, and we continued having more conversation about vegetables, and we came across black-eyed peas, and she said, well, that's cow food. She wouldn't eat either one of them. Now, I'm not knocking her for that.

I will—

that was her thing. Um, but I'm like, you are missing out on 2 very good, delicious vegetables.

And those 2 things can go in the same pot.

Yes, they can, and make some very delicious things. So I, I appreciate the fact that, that you're conscious about those things.

Yeah.

Um, so when you're talking about pesticides, I mean, you're Uh, you mentioned fogging. So what are my options here? Because I, I think there's a couple at least, right?

Yeah, I mean, your 2 basic ones are fogging and then having a misting system installed.

Okay.

I mean, that's your 2 big— there are different kinds of fogging. There's like heat fogging, there's liquid fogging, um, and then, and then the misting system is, is essentially a, uh, it's like a particleization of, of water with pesticides in it.

Okay.

Um, and there's different options within all of those. as to what you can, what you can do. Um, you know, the, the obviously the nice thing about a misting system is that it can be there when your tech isn't, and you can put it on a timer when the mosquitoes— and you can— I mean, like, the great thing about them is you're really going to get control.

Yeah.

I mean, over, over time, you're going to have complete control of your yard. Uh, the downsides are that it's really expensive.

Yeah.

And I don't recommend them if you're doing like, you know, microfarming or anything like that, because you're gonna be getting pesticide on everything, right?

Um, because you really can't— I mean, even though you can kind of control where it is, it's a mister, and, and if there's any wind, it's going to carry it. It's going to carry it.

Yeah, and it is. I mean, like, it's, it's a mist. It literally carries it across the yard, right? A lot of people want you to put it up high, which is actually not that helpful. Um, it's, it's really good if you can put it down lower to the ground, like on a on a standard like 5 or 6 foot fence, that's about perfect height. Mm-hmm. Um, to, to put one, or if you have like, you know, heavy foliage, you can put it on risers coming up outta the ground. Um, there, there's lots of different ways to install it. You know, a lot of times we'll tell people like, hey, you don't really need to put it on your roofline, but they'll be like, I want it on my roofline. Oh, put it on your roofline.

Yeah.

Um, there's nothing—

a lot, a lot of people like to put it, you know, under the eaves of their—

right.

Of their roof, just because that seems to be convenient and it And it doesn't—

it doesn't not help. Sure, put it that way. It doesn't not help.

But you, you said something earlier that really their line is 8 feet and below, right?

Pretty much.

And if that's the case, I mean, most rooflines are kind of a maximum of—

Right.

8, you know.

And, and so like, if you're, if you're putting like on a 10-foot roof, I mean, you're gonna point it down.

Sure.

Um, to, to get down there. And so like, but like, if you're growing, if you're growing herbs and, and vegetables and stuff, if you have a big enough yard, you can like section off the misting section and then your garden area. But most people don't have yards that big.

Right.

Um, and so we just try and make 'em aware of those kinds of things. Um, there are natural products that you can put in, in misting systems. They're not as effective. Um, but that can also be misleading too because there's synthetic and non-synthetic pesticides that you can put in there. And the non-synthetic or the, um, now I forget the actual term for it. It's, it's made, uh, the partic— that particular product that we use is actually made from an African marigold.

Okay.

Um, and it's a, I'm gonna get this wrong. I think it's a pyrethrum. Um, but you know, don't quote me on that cuz there's a, there's pyrethrum and a pyrethroid, and I think the pyrethroid is the synthetic. Um, but anyway, one, one of those, whichever one's made from the, the African marigold and is not the synthetic, um, it's a great product. But if you have any landscaping in your yard, it's just gonna cook it. Hmm. I mean, absolutely shrivel all the leaves off of it. Wow. It's gonna kill every mosquito around. And it's quote-unquote natural.

But it's not good for your yard.

No.

And if you've got a yard—

Well, and what I, what I, what I like, it wouldn't kill like St. Augustine grass. It wouldn't do that.

A lot of things don't kill St. Augustine grass.

Your St. Augustine grass would still be green, but if you have any like soft vegetation, it's, it's gonna cook it.

Okay.

Um, so, okay, but very effective.

Yeah. So could you put— you're talking about being low. I mean, could you put it throughout your yard on like— I mean, if you almost like a sprinkler irrigation system, can you put it on where like the risers actually pop up and—

No, you couldn't really do it like that. It doesn't really work like that. But I've had it on a big— I mean, I've covered 7 acres.

Wow.

With— I mean, it took several systems.

Sure.

But yeah, I've covered 7 acres with the mosquito misting system before.

Wow. So now the other option there is fogging, right? But before we get to that, I just want to mention that the mosquito misting systems, it's not a buy once and you're done, right? Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah, you have to refill it over time, right? And that can, that can be expensive as well.

So you pay for the install of the system, right? But then you got to refill the tanks However much you use it, right, you got to refill it.

I mean, I mean, like, these numbers are probably not gonna hold true over time, but like, you know, an average system for us is a 55-gallon unit, and that's usually gonna cost, you know, anywhere from $2,200 to like $3,700 for like an average system.

Wow.

And then to refill that thing, it's like $220, which you probably need to do once every 3 months.

Yeah, so that's—

it's steep.

That's getting pretty expensive.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

But, you know, Cadillac of control.

Sure. I mean, you get what you pay for.

Absolutely.

You know what else you get what you pay for?

I am waiting with bated breath.

Paul the Plumber.

Paul the Plumber.

Man, that guy is gonna take care of you every single time. If you got a plumbing issue, and it may be probably bigger than mosquitoes—

Absolutely.

In the toilet.

Let me tell you, some plumbing issues can cause bad mosquito problems.

I'm sure. I'm sure that is true, but Paul the plumber is gonna be your guy to call.

Yeah, for sure. If you got standing water, you probably need to call Paul.

Absolutely. You need to figure out what the problem is. And here's the thing, like something I didn't know, um, I've mentioned this before, is that plumbers don't just work on water things, right? I mean, they work on gas lines and, and other things as well. So, you know, having a good, a good plumber that you can trust is really, really important. I mean, um, my, my mother-in-law, she just actually installed a dishwasher. She lives in a very old home and there is no dishwasher that is installed in the home. And so she had one that I— for forever until I brought her one that was on wheels that she could move around and kind of hook up to the sink.

Okay.

She just washed everything by hand.

Right.

And so just this last week, she put a dishwasher in.

Nice.

I installed it under the cabinet. She took out some cabinetry and—

She had to be excited.

She was elated and got a great deal on a used washing, uh, dishwasher, but she had to have someone, you know, hook it up. I mean, she installed it but then had to have someone actually put the piping in for it and everything. And first thing I asked her was, do you know a good plumber? Right? Because I mean, you can call Joe Schmo and he can come over and do it, but he's probably not going to do the job that Paul's going to do for now. So, um, if you're, if you're interested in having the best experience whenever it comes to plumbing, you need to give Paul a call. There you go. And the way you can get him is at 832-521-3252, or

you can call him— book him online. I'm sorry, book him online in a couple of different ways, right? Yeah, you can, you can send him an email at paul@paultheplumberllc.com. You can get on their Facebook page as well. And you can book them right on, on Facebook.

You book them on Facebook, you can book them on their website.

On their website, yeah, which is paultheplumberllc.com. Um, and Deborah is going to be there to, uh, to help you out and, uh, get you scheduled.

Absolutely. So we are proud to have Paul the Plumber as a sponsor on the show. For all your plumbing needs, give Paul a call.

So now let's talk about fogging systems. Um, what is the advantage of a fogging system over— I mean, I say a system, it's not really a system. Yeah, it's you going out.

It's— yeah, it's a technician coming out to your property and actually fogging the property. What I, what I like about having the property fogged— and they're actually just companies that this is all they do now, um, I mean, like, they're solely focused on mosquito fogging as, as a service and a business— is you're gonna have somebody that's paying attention to your property. You know, if you, if you have a misting system installed, kind of the downside is, is like if you kind of have your plants where the plants are and you've got your herbs over here, you really can't be like moving it around because then you have to have the system adjusted or reconfigured or redesigned, which, which we do.

I mean, people, people change their backyards all the time. They're like—

But that's costly.

It's— well, that's actually way cheaper than having it installed.

Okay.

You know, it's, it's not cheap, But it's a lot less expensive than, you know, the, the installation.

Sure.

Um, and even sometimes than just the refill. So because, I mean, like squirrels will chew on it and you have to repair it, and those, those repairs are relatively affordable.

Sure.

Um, but with having an actual technician on the property, you're, you're gonna have specific targeted treatments for what's going on in your property, and they're gonna be paying attention to the things that are happening. And the other thing that I like about it is with a misting system, you, the product that you put in there while it's suspended in water, once it's exposed to UV light, um, the, the product begins to deteriorate relatively quickly.

Mm-hmm.

It doesn't have a lot of residual, whereas the product that you put out when you fog, you're gonna put out something that has a much longer residual than that because you, I mean, you're really only doing it, I mean, some, some companies do it every month.

Hmm.

I mean, we, we tend to at At the shortest amount of time, recommend every 6 weeks or once every other month.

So how does that work? I mean, because fog dissipates, right?

It does, but what you need is you need a surfactant and you need something that has a little bit more durability out in the elements.

You just used a word that I had never heard.

Which one?

The surfactant.

Surfactant.

What is that?

That means it's something that allows it to adhere to surfaces. And so like what we use is actually dish soap. Soap is a great surfactant. And so it actually, it's a great surfactant for foliage.

Okay.

And so you mix that pesticide with soap, and then we also use an additive called, well, it's, I mean, like it doesn't matter what the chemical's called, but it's an IGR specifically for mosquitoes.

Okay.

And IGR stands for insect growth regulator. So, it's mosquito birth control.

Oh!

Yeah.

Perfect!

If you get it on— basically, it prevents adults from laying eggs. It prevents the immature from maturing. There's a whole life cycle involved with a mosquito. They have to go from that pupa in the water and emerge as a winged mosquito. So, there's the egg, the larva, the pupa, and then the adult. with the mosquitoes. So if you can interrupt that life cycle, you can really reduce the population in that area, especially over a 6-week period.

Sure. So, um, I, uh, I was trying to figure out— we had a bunch of mosquitoes, uh, when I lived in Arkansas, same, same as here, lots of water, lots of foliage, right? And, um, we were having some people over and I thought, man, I got to figure out a way to get rid of some mosquitoes. And I thought, okay, I'll just buy a bunch of citronella candles.

Right.

At the end of the day, I went and I went to, uh, I think it's Home Depot, and started looking. And they had a fogger.

Yeah.

That I could purchase. And it uses a butane tank, um, similar to like a, uh, like a propane tank.

Right.

It's a butane tank. You hook that thing up and you fire— you fire it up and you put chemical, you know, I think Black Flag was the brand. You put chemical in a little—

There's like a little container on it.

Container on it, a little basin basically. And man, that thing works really, really well as far as fogging. Now I, I haven't used it enough. I still own it, but I haven't used it enough to kind of figure out, okay, what are the long-term effects of this thing, right? But I mean, it seems like like for a good 3 to 5 hours.

Yeah.

We had good—

Yeah, and that's about the duration of the, the use you're gonna get out of that.

Okay, which is—

I think it's fine.

Yeah, it's really not bad. I mean, if you know you're having a party, I mean, your party's probably not gonna last more than around that time, I would think. Um, have a few people over, want them to be outside, listen, get one of those things and they're— it's pretty inexpensive now. It might be more cost-effective to, to call someone like you and say, hey, let's do this. And you know, that way you can have multiple parties and you're not having to continue. 'Cause I mean, really, you, you use quite a bit of that, that stuff whenever you're, you have to buy the chemical to put in there.

Yeah. You, I mean, like the only thing with that that you need to be careful of is you really only be, need to be using the products that they recommend for that.

Yeah, that's true.

Um, and because those are the only ones that are gonna work.

Yeah. Yeah.

Um, otherwise you, I mean, like, you know, you could be causing all kinds of weird problems. We actually use those, uh, for our bees.

Oh.

Um, one of the things that, I mean, I think a lot of people deal with this, um, the varroa mite.

Hmm.

Um, and one of the ways they found to combat it is to, uh, heat fog mineral oil into your hives.

Interesting.

And, and those, those Black Flag units in particular are really good at getting that that as a fog. Yeah, into your hive without hurting your bees.

Okay, so I guess there's multiple types of things that you can put in there.

Well, I think, I think that's just like a hack someone's come up with for those units. That's not what they were intended for. They just happen to work for it unintentionally.

Yeah, well, I've, I've been impressed with, with the product. Uh, you know, I've used it from time to time.

Yeah, and I think if you have a smaller backyard too, I mean, that might be a better solution for you. Or if you have a backyard that doesn't have a whole lot of foliage but you're going to be having people over And you kind of wanna clear the area, it wouldn't be bad to use. Um, one of the other things I didn't mention before to, to watch out for, and I think this is true with those kind of foggers, is you wanna walk— watch out for like your, your cooking surfaces.

Mm-hmm.

You know, cuz outdoor kitchens are huge now.

Yeah.

We run into 'em all the time and we have to really be careful about getting product on those areas. Mm-hmm. And, you know, and making sure that grills are closed and unexposed when we're treating areas and things like that. And so, you know, like a, like a heated fog like that is gonna be able to penetrate those kinds things a little bit easier and adhere to, like, you know, if people put different hard surfaces as cooking surfaces.

Yeah.

Outside, which, I mean, like, and if you, I mean, like, if you have an outdoor kitchen and you have pest control services come to your house at all, you know, I highly recommend wiping down all of your outdoor surfaces with, you know, Clorox wipes, bleach, you know, hot water, soap, anything, you know, just anything just to kind of, you know, remove the residual of any, you know, you know, blow over or drift. Right.

So, so those, but like what I've got, um, does, does that kill mosquitoes or does it repel mosquitoes?

I don't know with the Black Flag. I'd have to look at the products that they're using. I would imagine it does both.

Okay.

Um, but really any type of, uh, oil-based— back that up. Most pesticides are petroleum-based anyway. And with those heat foggers, typically they're gonna be using something a little bit denser and not mixed with water. They're gonna be mixed with oil. And I tell people this all the time, I mean, because people will be like, well, can I just use garlic oil or can I use peppermint oil? I heard that— or orange oil, I heard that really repels mosquitoes. None of that works. And the reason it works at any level is because they've probably seen somebody spray an oil on a bug and watched it die. And because that does work.

Yeah.

But I mean, like, you could do that with olive oil, right? And it's gonna kill the bug.

Sure.

And it's not because, you know, it doesn't like the smell of olive oil and it just curled up and died because the smell was so putrid. It's, it's because they— that's how they breathe. You know, it's sort of like, you know, if I, if I tied you down and held your nose and your mouth closed, I could probably kill you pretty efficiently.

Sure.

That's essentially what you're doing to a bug when you put oil on it.

Okay.

I mean, like, because they breathe through their entire body.

Yeah.

And so if you, if you close those orifices, they're they can't breathe. They literally just suffocate and die. Um, and so like you could do just as much good with Dawn and a bucket of water.

Yeah.

And, and, you know, and really, and it'll smell better.

Sure.

So I mean, uh, when, um, and this, this is not something that we do because we rescue the bees and save the bees, but one of the most efficient ways to kill a hive of bees would be a bucket of water in a sprayer with dishwashing soap.

Oh, interesting. I mean, but don't do that.

Don't do that.

Call, call Craig. He will remove them for you.

Yep, we will move them, relocate them, and give them a happy home.

That's right. Much, much better use of your time and those bees, which, yep, we need in this world. Well, what, what have we not touched on that you want to talk about as far as mosquitoes go?

Oh, one of my favorite things And this is just for fun. You know, back in the— I want to say it was in the '40s, Walt Disney got in the business of making propaganda films in order to prop up Disney Studios.

Yeah, that was a good way for him to— it was advertisement.

Yeah.

But he used a lot of different mediums through video to do that.

Right.

Like he used the war in a big way to do that.

Yeah, so one of the propaganda films that he made, and I'm probably getting the year wrong. You might be able to look this up. Um, but there was an outbreak of— oh, dadgummit, what was the disease? I can't think of it right now. Anyway.

Polio.

No, it wasn't polio. It was a disease you could contract from mosquitoes.

Okay.

But it wasn't West Nile or anything like that. It was, it was something else.

Lyme disease, something like that?

No, Lyme disease you get from ticks.

That's true. Um, That might be the reason that it wasn't that.

Specifically the Lone Star tick. I don't know if you can get the Lyme disease from any tick other than that, but I'd have to double-check. That's the only one I know of that you can get Lyme disease from.

Yeah.

Anyway, all that to say, there was a malaria. It was malaria.

Okay.

That's what it was.

Well, I found the episode.

Found the episode?

Yeah, it's in '43.

1943.

All right.

So called The Winged The Winged Scourge, yes. So we'll link this one up because it's a fantastic video. I've shared it with many, many, many people. They go through all the ways that you can control mosquitoes on your property and for yourself.

Really?

I recommend none of them. They're all terrible.

That's funny.

Other than getting rid of standing water. standing water, they're all terrible. I mean, like, they literally recommend pouring motor oil into water.

Oh, is that not—

It works.

Oh, okay.

Don't get me wrong, the mosquitoes will die.

Yeah.

Um, but it will have other consequences that none of us want.

No.

Um, and so, like, it's, it's just a really funny video to, to watch and go, like, what were they thinking?

Right.

Which, I'm sure people will be looking at instructional videos that we make now in 50 years going, what were they thinking?

Right. At some point, they're going to look back and go, that Elon Musk guy was the only one worth his salt.

That's right!

No doubt.

And even he didn't know. Even he didn't know!

He shot a rocket into the air without even thinking!

Yeah, so, but anyway, it's, it's a fun— it's a, it's a fun little trip down memory lane for America.

There you go.

Um, from our beloved animator Walt Disney.

Don't we love him?

Yep. So it's, it's a, it's a, it's a great piece of propaganda. It really, really is. I mean, like, I mean that in every sense of the word. I'm not like— like, not all propaganda is bad.

Sure.

Um, but it was definitely a propaganda film, and yeah, all the information in that one is pretty much bad. Yeah.

Well, man, I've, uh, I've learned a lot actually.

All right.

I didn't know what that one word was, and, uh, that was important for me.

Yeah.

So, well, man, we, uh—

Surfactant.

Surfactant. We're glad y'all downloaded today's episode. We hope you found it interesting as well. And, uh—

Surfactory.

Surfactory.

Hopefully it's stuck. I don't know.

Okay.

I could be, I could be totally misusing that, which would be par for the course for Craig.

So no, it's all good, um, supposedly. Uh, so, uh, we are going to wind this down because it's going downhill anyway. Um, we're glad you downloaded the episode. Thank you for supporting us. If you need anything from us, if you have any questions, comments, please send them over to us. You can find us at info@homewonershow.com. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, maybe, um, and other places. Yep. Share us with your friends. Leave us a like and a review on iTunes. We would absolutely love that as well. And, uh, I think that's it. Craig, anything else?

Yeah, I mean, like, if you're not an Apple user, you can always find us on Stitcher, or what are the other ones?

Well, Google has their own.

Google's releasing like their own podcast platform, aren't they?

That's right, it's called Google Podcasts. So it's gonna be very similar to Apple Podcasts, only it's gonna be Google. But, uh, you know, we actually— a lot of people that are Android users, um, I tell them to find us on Stitcher. Stitcher is great. I mean, it's a great platform.

Which, by the way, did you hear the craziness with Joe Rogan a couple weeks ago?

Yes, I did.

Dude, that is a game changer.

I, I think it changes everything. And if you haven't heard, Stitcher now has exclusive rights, exclusive rights to Joe Rogan, and not just his new stuff, like all of his library. He's pulling it of content. He's pulling from every other platform and only putting it on Stitcher.

It's crazy.

Yeah, and I don't, I don't have any idea what type of, um, or, or I don't know what that's worth. I don't know.

I mean, well, the big deal, the word on this, word on the street is, is the deal was $100 million.

That's a few.

A lot of people think that it's only for 2 years.

Man.

Like a 2-year deal at $100 million.

That's insane.

Here's the crazy thing though, man, is I watched a video on this, and I was watching the market when this stuff was going down. Essentially, Stitcher made a $100 million investment.

Right.

When that was announced, the next day, the amount their stock went up, the valuation of their stock That $100 million investment made them $5 billion.

That is absolutely insane.

So would you do that?

Every day.

Every day?

Every day.

I mean, like, brilliant move.

I don't— yeah, I wish I was smart.

Me too.

I wish I was smart. Well, I'll tell you what would be smart is supporting our show.

Absolutely.

Please do that. Um, go order a t-shirt.

Yeah, you can get them on Amazon.

Yeah, go to Amazon.

We can link that up in the show notes too, right?

Yes, we can.

We should be doing that.

We should be doing that.

What's wrong with us?

We're not smart, and that's life. But anyway, thank you. We are out for today. Until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.