Mosquito Protection for your Dog

With summer comes many pesty insects. Summer is my favorite season of all but the bugs make it hard to enjoy, especially Mosquitos!  I have provided some tips that will help you and your dog enjoy your summer nights.

According to Wiki, “Mosquitos are small, midge-like flies in which the female mosquitos have tube-like mouthparts which pierce the hosts’ skin to consume blood. Though the loss of blood is small, the saliva of the mosquito often causes an irritating rash that can be extremely itchy and a major nuisance.”

It’s important to protect your dog from these little critters.  Although your dog’s fur may protect them from bites, their ears and nose are still exposed. Because dogs spend more time outside, they have a greater exposure time to being bitten by mosquitoes. They experience the same irritating itch humans feel from a bite, but mosquitoes also can carry harmful parasites and diseases. When it comes to mosquitoes, heartworm disease is the greatest concern. This disease is caused by a tiny worm that lives in animals’ hearts and veins. Heartworm disease spreads when a mosquito bites an infected animal and then bites a second animal. Heartworm offspring can be carried from one creature to the next. Once inside your dog, it can grow to a foot long. (Mosquito Magnet)

Mosquitos carry other nasty diseases one of them being the Zika virus. Fortunately, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there’s no evidence at this time that dogs can transmit or contract the Zika virus, and the disease doesn’t pose any known risks to animals in the United States.

Because mosquitos like to travel on pets, many of them can hitch a free ride inside your home. It’s important to use a repellent on your pet. I won’t get into which one to use and there are some tick repellents out there that repel mosquitos as well. You should use what you think is appropriate for your pet. You should also speak to your vet about putting your dog on heartworm medication.

If you do want to go the natural route you can apply Lemon Eucalyptus Oil which has been found to be safe for humans and pets.  There are recipes that include essential oils as well that are said to repel mosquitos as well.

This is a recipe from Scratch Mommy that is safe to use.

-30 drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil

-10 drops of Geranium Essential Oil

-1 Tbsp. Vegetable Glycerin

Once all of these have been added fill the rest of the bottle with distilled water and shake.   Apply as needed.

If you are spending time outside you can light up citronella candles which mosquitos seem to dislike. We have a fire pit that we light up at night and the smoke tends to keep the mosquitos away as well.

Some plants are known to repel mosquitos as well.  Some of those are citronella, peppermint, lemon balm, sage and marigolds to name a few. If you don’t have a garden you can certainly plant these in containers as well.

Other ways to keep mosquitos from getting inside your home is to remove all stagnant water from your property. You’d be surprised to find all the stagnant water  around your property when you’re actually looking for it.

Sometimes puddles also form on my street that just can’t be emptied so I purchase these mosquito dunks that you can just drop in. It does however, only kill the mosquito larvae. It is deemed organic by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  The good things about these Dunks is that they are harmless to beneficial insects, pets, birds, fish or wildlife.  Once placed in the water they will kill the larvae within hours and can last up to 30 days.

Lastly, you can install insect screens on your windows and doors and inspect them every so often to make sure there aren’t any large holes that will allow any other insects inside.

Please share any other ideas that you may have in the comment below.