We have a mosquito problem. It doesn’t matter the time of day you travel outside, those pesky insects are waiting to attack. Mosquito spray works for a while but it doesn’t deter them for very long. We live by a creek, so the problem is not likely to go away anytime soon. So, this has us checking into options to control the mosquito population.

There are a couple of natural enemies of mosquitoes. There might be more but the ones I’ve read about are bats and purple martins. I’m not sure I’m interested in attracting bats to my house, so purple martins sound like a better bet. One tip I read said the purple martins like to make their nests in gourds.

My parents usually grow some gourds, so I’m pretty sure I can get a few from them. Now once I have them I will need to make a gourd birdhouse that is the right size for purple martins. I will have to study up more on making a great environment for the purple martins if I want to really attract them to our yard. I can start right now with gourds since they certainly won’t be that interested if they don’t have a place that is their own.