We're being attacked at night while we sleep by small mosquitoes. The flat seems fairly well sealed up, so I'm wondering where they might be coming from. Any ideas on that? Could they be breeding in some unobvious place inside?

We have swarms of them outside, but I've glued netting over most of the windows, and burn a coil outside the door.
Not many get in.

Check the drains and exhaust fans in bathroom, kitchen, especially.

There is a small variety of mosquito, very sneaky and very fast, which seems to be prevalent at this time of the year - we have noted before that more get into the inner sanctums of the flat at this time of year than any other. As Alan suggests, make sure there is no stagnant water supply inside your apartment which might be generating the buggers. Aside from that, make sure the doors and windows to your bedroom are closed, especially from late afternoon onwards. You can buy plug-in insecticide stuff in the village which is cheap and effective, but we prefer not to inhale it - enough crap in the air as it is.

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Mosquito net- cheap and eco friendly.

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Well, second line of defence:

They may infiltrate the bedroom and be hiding in corners, under the bed, etc.
If you close the windows and doors of the bedroom and leave a mosquito coil burning for a few hours in the daytime it should kill them. Put the coil out a few hours before you go to bed (but leave the door closed) and the smoke will be gone.

A last resort: get a hanging mosquito net -- drill a hole in the ceiling and screw in a hook for it. These cost about $50 I think, tuck them in under the mattress. We used one of these in an old farmhouse impossible to make bug proof.

After another mosquito intruder last night, I'm tempted to give the mosquito net a try, despite the DIY hassles involved. Any ideas where I can buy one, preferably with hanging gadgetry included??

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I can't remember where we got ours. Perhaps the hardware shops here have them.

There are two basic types: one has a hoop suspended from a central hook. The other is box shaped with guys from the four corners, you can tie it to windows, doorframes, etc (easier to screw in a hook to a wooden frame or wardrobe than in the ceiling). The vertical walls also make it more roomy.

A mosquito net is the most practical and environmentally/personal health friendly solution. Tie it up during the day and let it down just before you go to bed making sure you haven't trapped one of the blighters inside the net. You can pick them up at most camping shops - Protrek in Wan Chai, or the camping shops lining Fa Yuen Street in Mong Kok. Some are impregnated with repellant or you can spray it yourself so that you don't get them buzzing around the outside all night trying to find a way in.

i got mine in IKEA, with loop for hanging.

I appreciate the replies/suggestions. Thanks!

Last night went better. We have a sliding inner door, which seals well, but not perfectly, and one of those metal outer doors. The metal door has openings at the top and bottom, and leads to the stairwell which has no door of its own. I sealed the openings in the metal door with the green mesh stuff. That seemed to do the trick. I also put mesh on the outtake fan in the bathroom even though it has its own built in cover. Don't trust that the cover seals completely.

A friend claims to have solved a Lamma mosquito problem by sealing off the exhaust tube to his cooker's hood with the mesh stuff. I bet that's one possible way in that people tend not to think of.

Yes, it was those small buggers that were terrorizing us, Marc Antony. They are VERY sneaky. Hunting them down was a real chore. The big striped ones are slow and usually easy to find and kill. But this other variety is truly sinister. I hope you solve your mosquito problem. I'm off to IKEA for the nets if we have another night like the night before last.

They also have mosquito nets at the China Products stores. I got a large one at the store next to the Jordan MTR for about $200.

There are several commercially produced Mozzie traps usually Ozzie , I will probably buy one. Anyone tried them??

http://www.mosquito.com.au/mosquito/server_unit.html

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a friend got me this marvellous bed net from mainland china.

no hanging gadgetry/hoop/hooks required so saves all the hassles of putting it up. stands on its own and fits any mattress. its foldable too so easy to store away or carry around.

got zippered "doors" on both sides to get in and out of.

friends says its modeled after the "mongolian camps". ingenious stuff.

Never got round to the mosquito net - a bit too much palaver. Wondering if anyone uses one of the bug zapper thingies - a sort of lamp with an electric coil? The electrical shop on the corner in the village sells them at $180 a pop - claims to use "black light" (!!) (not UV) to attract the bugs, including mosquitoes, then zap 'em. But do they work? And are they safe? Anyone know? If not, anyone know a store in town for buying reputable zapping devices?

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They don't work. They kill bugs all right, but mosquitoes aren't attracted to the light.

I tried one for a while. Waste of time and money.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/bug-zapper1.htm
"most species of mosquitoes are not attracted to ultraviolet light, and certain species only bite during the day. Tallamy claims that bug zappers are worthless for reducing biting flies, exact a heavy toll on non-target insects and are counterproductive to consumers and the ecosystem."


-- "Black light" is UV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light
"Black light (also Wood's light) is the common name for a lamp emitting electromagnetic radiation that is almost exclusively in the soft near ultraviolet range"


Screens are the best solution, and a "tennis racquet" style zapper to get the ones that get in.

Thanks Alan - as I suspected really. I agree that screens would work best but not keen on having them covering the windows, so we'll probably continue with our dodgy system of just trying to keep bedroom windows and doors closed as much as poss. And might resort to the net, one of these days...

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Why the resistance to screens? So cheap, almost fully transparent, bought by the metre on Main Street or made yourself from any thin, transparent cloth. They're also so easy to put up, just tape them to the inside window frame of only the windows you want to keep open. It's a one-time effort of a few minutes each and they'll protect you from ALL bugs entering your place for years, maintenance-free. No need anymore for bug zappers, sprays, chemicals, coils or bed nets at all.

I haven't been bitten by a mosquito in weeks, using only window screens, and there also haven't been any other bugs spotted in our flat, even though we keep windows open most of the time.

You'll only get the very rare single mosquito sneaking in when opening a flat door. And keep the bottom of the doors closed up tight to avoid any cockroaches, centipedes or other insects crawling in and you can enjoy an almost bug-free flat.

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The mosquitoes are back. Anyone found any effective system for eliminating the pesky blighters? I've rigged a mosquito net up but already decided I don't like it - too much hassle. We don't like screens either.

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Can't offer any extra advice on how to stop the devils getting in (although once when we had a problem I sealed off the bathroom floor drain so they could not get in from the septic tank and that worked) but IF you get bitten, good old calomine lotion works a treat to stop the itch

"The mosquitoes are back. Anyone found any effective system for eliminating the pesky blighters? I've rigged a mosquito net up but already decided I don't like it - too much hassle. We don't like screens either.@

Short of moving country or immersing your flat in DDT I don't think you've much hope. Surely a pesky net and screens is preferably to either of the above - and sleepless scratch-filled nights?