Since I'm working with the yard, why not deal with the deck, too?
My deck is 12' x 40', using standard deck boards for the floor. The land underneath gently slopes away, so it has about 12" clearance on one end and maybe 3' on the other end. But it's on the North side of the house, so it's mostly shaded by the house.
The problem I'm having is
mosquitoes!! Those things love me for some reason. I go outside in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and in 15 minutes I'll come inside with 20+ bites all over my body
I've looked under the deck and there's no standing water, but it stays moist under there. Not muddy, just moist. I have citronella plants and lemon grass on the deck, I spray underneath with outdoor fogger and Off, and they all work for maybe 5 minutes. Even if they worked better, though, they would just be a Band-aid to the problem.
I have bird feeders and frogs, as well as a cool little Pitcher plant, but I haven't really noticed any decrease in mosquitoes. I would guess that they can eat a few dozen /day, and I'm dealing with thousands /day!
I'm limited on chemicals because my dogs go back here unattended (it's fenced in).
Any other suggestions on how to permanently get rid of these buggers?
My ideas so far:
1. I was planning to do a French drain at another section of the house, but that's waaay more expensive than anticipated. So while it might be a solution to help get rid of the moisture here, too, I don't have it in the budget.
2. I thought about a tin or plastic ceiling under there that would force water to runoff to a gutter, but the tiles I'm finding are $19 for 26" x 120" (plastic) or $16 for 26" x 96" (tin); that turns in to about $600 for tiles and gutters, so that's not much cheaper than a French drain.
3. My last thought... permanently mount two of these solar, outdoor fans under the deck:
In theory, the airflow should help keep it dry, and make it harder for mosquitoes to fly.
The cord from the solar panel to the fan is only 5', though, so I'd have to extend that to more like 50' and mount the panels on my roof. Or maybe set up a 12V transformer... it says that it takes 0.72A, and I have an extra 50W transformer laying around that should handle around 4A. So fans would be the cheapest option, but would take a little work.
