In the same way a sprinkler system’s spray times need to be adjusted seasonally to be most effective, it’s important to consider the best time to spray for mosquitoes. If you are treating your yard’s mosquito population with an automated mosquito misting system, you will get the best results by misting at the right moment. The best times to activate outdoor residential misting systems is when mosquitoes are active and people and pets are not.
Spray for mosquitoes when they are most active
For the most effective treatment of the adult mosquitoes, it’s important to target the spray when they are most active, which is at dawn and dusk.
For the most effective results, it’s best to set your mosquito misting system timer to spray before noon and after 6pm. We typically set our MOSQUITOMAX™ automated misting system to spray at 6am and 8pm in the summer, and then adjust according to each family’s lifestyle. If pets are out early in the morning or if you plan to eat dinner outside at the predicted spray time, we can simply adjust the system to spray a few minutes earlier.
Additionally, heat causes the insecticides to evaporate very quickly, so mid-day misting isn’t very effective.
Don’t spray when pets or people are outside
According to US Environmental Protection Agency, most insecticides only linger in the environment a short while after misting, so long-term exposure to humans is not expected. But like any other pesticide or mosquito repellent, it’s best to reduce the chances of inhaling or ingesting pesticides during misting. The EPA recommends operating mosquito misting systems when people and pets are likely to be indoors.