It’s a warm Saturday evening. You’ve had a long week. You poured a drink, walked out to the back patio, sat down for about ninety seconds, and got bitten three times before the ice settled in the glass. By the time you swat the fourth one and stand up, you’ve given up on the patio for the night. You go back inside.
If that’s your story, you’ve probably spent money trying to fix it already. The citronella candles. The mosquito-repelling plants from the nursery. The bug zapper from the hardware store. The monthly yard spray. And the mosquitoes are still winning.
The fixes that last are physical: get rid of the water, move the air, put a screen between you and the bugs. Some of that you can do this weekend. Some of it belongs to another trade. And some of it is what we build: covered patios, pergolas and screened porches. Here’s what works in a Fort Worth backyard, what doesn’t, and the order to do it in.
Two Kinds of Mosquitoes, Two Different Schedules
Fort Worth’s backyard mosquitoes come in two groups that keep different hours: Culex from dusk to dawn, Aedes mostly in the daytime. Tarrant County Public Health’s weekly reports count both in its traps.
Aedes mosquitoes, including the Asian tiger mosquito, bite mostly in the daytime. They lay their eggs on the inside walls of containers with water, and CDC says they only need a small amount. Buckets, planters and flowerpot saucers all count, and so does a tarp that catches a puddle.
Culex mosquitoes are the ones that ruin your evenings. CDC says they’re most active from dusk to dawn, they can spread West Nile virus, and they prefer permanent standing water, like a pond or an unmaintained swimming pool. Texas A&M AgriLife’s 2016 backyard guide adds clogged gutters, birdbaths and old tires to the list of good breeding sites.
Tarrant County Public Health calls April through November mosquito season. Most cities in the county keep traps, and the county sorts what they catch into batches and tests Culex mosquitoes for West Nile virus. Its report for the week of October 18, 2026 counted 177 batches positive for West Nile so far that year, with 43 listed for Fort Worth. By May 30, the count was already 10.
What the Usual Fixes Do and Don’t Do
Citronella, plants and yard sprays each help some, within limits. The bug zapper is the one to skip.
Citronella candles can be helpful, Purdue entomologist Ralph Williams said in 2002, but how much depends on their size and where they sit, and they won’t help in the wind. They smell nice.
Plants like citronella, lavender and lemongrass have been shown to repel mosquitoes. But Texas A&M AgriLife entomologist Sonja Swiger said in 2024 that how many you have and where they sit limit how much of a space they protect. The plant in the pot is not creating a force field.
Texas A&M AgriLife’s guide says bug zappers attract and kill many beneficial insects and do not control the females of biting species, and the females are the ones that bite. Purdue’s Williams pointed to research at Notre Dame showing zappers don’t reduce biting and may make your mosquito problem worse.
The yard sprays do work, for a window. Texas A&M says residual sprays can suppress mosquito activity for up to a month. The catch is that they don’t deal with the water mosquitoes breed in, they can also kill butterflies and pollinators, and repeated use can leave some mosquitoes resistant to them. A pest-control company can tell you what your yard needs.
A misting system, the nozzles around a patio that release insecticide on a timer, is pest-control work too. Texas A&M calls these systems expensive and controversial, says continual use may help create insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, and recommends a certified or licensed applicator for the install.
How to Get Rid of Backyard Mosquitoes, Starting With the Water
Start with the water, because it’s the one fix that stops mosquitoes from hatching in your yard. Texas A&M’s guide calls finding and getting rid of breeding sites the first step in any mosquito control effort.
Fix 1: Empty what holds water. A Culex egg takes 7 to 10 days to become an adult, and Texas A&M says mosquitoes breed in standing water, especially water that stands for at least 7 days. CDC’s advice is weekly: once a week, empty and scrub, turn over, cover or throw out anything that holds water. Buckets, planters, toys, birdbaths, tarps, flowerpot saucers. Clear the gutters too. If you have water you can’t dump or drain, Texas A&M points to Bti, made from bacteria that kill mosquito larvae and sold as donuts, briquettes or granules. It says Bti is safe to use around pets and works for up to 30 days, so you reapply it through the season.
Your neighbors’ water counts too: the Asian tiger mosquito tends to live and bite within 200 to 300 yards of where it breeds.
Fix 2: Fix what keeps holding water. Fill holes and low areas with sand or gravel. If a bed or a low spot stays wet after every rain, or a downspout empties into one, the fix is grading and drainage. On its own, that belongs to a drainage or landscape contractor who does it every day and will price it better than we would. If you’re adding a patio or other hardscape anyway, plan it so it solves the drainage instead of hiding it.
Fix 3: Keep water features moving. Mosquito larvae need stagnant water, which is why they usually don’t breed in a maintained swimming pool. A pool nobody is maintaining is a problem. So is a fountain with a broken pump or a pond with no circulation. A birdbath goes on the weekly list.
Fix 4: Move the air. Moving air makes it harder for mosquitoes to find you. In a 2003 study in the Journal of Medical Entomology, fan-generated wind strongly reduced the mosquitoes caught in traps in a Michigan wetland. The researchers concluded that wind works mainly by diluting the attractants that lead mosquitoes in, and that fans are worth pursuing as a practical way to protect people. The simple version is an outdoor-rated fan pointed at where you sit. The version that stays is a ceiling fan, and a ceiling fan needs a roof to hang from. If you already have a covered patio, an electrician can add one rated for outdoor use. If you don’t, a roof gives you shade and somewhere to hang a fan and lights. Here’s how we design covered patios and pergolas.
Fix 5: Screen it in. This is the fix that keeps working on a still night, because it puts a screen between you and the mosquito. CDC tells homeowners to use screens and repair the holes in them to keep mosquitoes outdoors, and the American Mosquito Control Association includes porches. If you have a covered patio or a porch, screening it in turns the space you give up on after sunset into a room you can use. If all it needs is screens, that’s a job for a screen contractor. If it needs more than screens, a screened porch conversion is one of the remodels we do, and a new one means structure, roof and screens together. We built one into a Ryan Place addition, with a wood-burning fireplace, a grill, a griddle and a fridge.
If you’re starting with no cover at all, our outdoor work runs $35,000 to $400,000, and a patio cover sits near the bottom of that range. That’s a range, not a quote: construction plus our fee, before permits and contingency.
