The problem
A Bed-Stuy backyard should be a summer cheat code: a rare patch of outdoor space in a dense city. Ours became unusable by June. Not from some distant swamp — from a dozen tiny water sources across a row of adjoining fenced yards, each one quietly hatching the next wave of tiger mosquitoes that don't travel more than a block.
The usual advice was either useless (citronella candles, zappers) or treated the symptom instead of the source (spray, get bitten again in two weeks). The stuff that actually worked — killing standing water, Bti, gravid traps — worked way better when the neighbors did it too. That's the insight the whole site is built on.
The mission
Make mosquito prevention clear, honest, and collective. Three commitments:
- Free first. Most of what works costs nothing. Our biggest guides tell you how to win without spending a dollar, and our DIY trap guide has no buy button.
- Honest gear. When we recommend a product, we list the downsides too. Affiliate links keep the lights on, but they never decide what we recommend — see our affiliate disclosure.
- Neighborhood scale. A lone clean yard is a side quest. A coordinated block is the main campaign. The pilot is our experiment to prove it.
Where we get our facts
We're enthusiasts, not entomologists — so we lean on the people who are. Our guidance is grounded in guidance from the CDC, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the EPA, and the American Mosquito Control Association. When we make a factual claim, we cite it. When something is our opinion, we say so. This is educational content, not medical advice.
The campy villain thing
Yes, we made the mosquito a pixel-art boss and the whole site look like a lost NES cartridge. Prevention advice is usually delivered like a government pamphlet, and nobody reads government pamphlets. If treating the mosquito like a beatable video-game boss gets one more block to dump their standing water, the aesthetic is doing its job.