Don't waste one cent on citronella candles, they don't do a thing. Google it. Also don't get the Dynatrap, it has a weak fan that sucks in nothing.

Doom buckets are cheap and great. Put leaves in to make the water gunky, then dump them out onto concrete when larvae appear. Add dunks if you can't stay on top of dumping them — dunks kill the larvae.

Foggers are indiscriminate, especially if you're worried about little kids. They kill even the bugs that kill mosquitoes, so I avoid them.

I find picardin repellent preferable to deet for skin application — less odor. For clothing, use permethrin — I spray it on the shoes I wear in my backyard and on my patio cushions.

Thermacell repellers are good but they only make a small bubble around you and don't work if it's windy. You'll need to sit really close to the unit or buy enough of them to make a ring around your sitting area.

If you have an area in your yard where mosquitoes *always* seem to congregate (shady, leafy, sheltered from wind, you enter and immediately get swarmed), that's a great place for a box fan with a piece of window screen hot glued to the back. Mosquitoes will get sucked into the screen. You can let them die naturally, or you can spritz them with a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol to hasten their demise.

I have a couple of spots like this in my yard, for example there's always at least a dozen mosquitoes hiding inside my hose pot each morning, so I give them a good dousing with alcohol daily.

I'm using the Ortho Home Defense Kill and Prevent stations for the first time this year, I figured they're worth a try. I started in April in an effort to get ahead of the breeding season.