Earlier this month, the raspberry bushes on our property exploded with berries, thanks to the season’s big rains. Unfortunately, the backyard puddles that had harbored bug larvae exploded with life, too, so our berry harvest exacted a high price in mosquito bites.

I’ve never much feared West Nile virus or even Lyme disease, despite our location in deer-thick Connecticut woods not far from Lyme. But with mosquitoes stalking the berry pickers, and with ticks infecting three friends recently with Lyme disease, it seemed a good time to make my yard less bug-friendly.

I asked several entomologists for tips, including Dr. Roxanne Connelly, president of the American Mosquito Control Association; Lee Mitchell, the Toledo (Ohio) Area Sanitary District’s staff biologist; Ary Farajollahi, superintendent of the Mercer County (N.J.) Mosquito Control department; and Dr. Kirby Stafford, a deer-tick specialist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Their counsel: Forget the shotgun strategy of checking your gutters or birdbaths for stagnant water. Fighting the newer mosquito breeds is a small-bore affair (read: labor-intensive) that leaves no bottle cap unturned. To control ticks, meanwhile, think about strategic landscaping and pay closer attention to mice, not deer.

Research on West Nile virus and Lyme disease suggests that mosquitoes are less a health threat than ticks in the United States, but with this year’s record rains, mosquitoes have become an extreme nuisance for many.

In addition to keeping gutters free of clogs, Connelly said, homeowners should scan their property weekly, looking for the smallest rainwater collections. “You have to think beyond cups and bowls and pet dishes,” she said. “Think about cryptic habitats, like the little saucer beneath a plant.”

Dump that water, she said. If you own rain barrels or other catchment systems, or if you live near sewer drains with stagnant water, Connelly suggested using larvicide. Products like Mosquito Dunks, which are made from granules packed into doughnut shapes, kill larvae with bacteria that are harmless to humans and animals.

Following her advice, two weeks ago I spent an hour inspecting my yard and discovered that my property had become a major mosquito hatchery. Rain (and larvae) had filled two wheelbarrows, an empty garbage can, crevices in the tarp covering our woodpile and the seat of a toy car behind our shed. I dumped them all, sprayed the remnants with DEET-based repellent, then dropped a Mosquito Dunk into the sewer basin near my mailbox. While walking the dogs, I also snooped for obvious mosquito farms on neighbors’ properties and found none.

Take aim at ticks; make it tough on mice

Next, I turned my attention to ticks. Stafford, the deer-tick specialist, said deer-proof fencing helps, since female ticks feed on deer before laying eggs. But mice often transmit Lyme disease to ticks in the first place, he said, so he suggested cleaning leaves and brush from woodpiles, stone walls and other areas that he deemed “mouse hotels,” to make such places less inviting.

“Clean up the yard to reduce coverage, and have the landscaping a little more manicured right near the house,” he said.

He also said homeowners should place children’s play sets on the lawn instead of in the woods and that any pathways in the woods should be widened generously to minimize the chance that a tick might latch on as you walk by.

I followed his advice, including his suggestion to put my clothes in the dryer for an hour immediately after yard work, even if I didn’t have time to clean them. “Ticks can survive the wash, but not the dryer,” he said.

Knowing that my yard would always host at least some ticks and mosquitoes, I turned my attention to repellents.

First, though, I checked the results of my larvae-killing activities two weeks earlier. During two 30-minute walks around my property in windless conditions at noon and dusk, I was bit three times in all. Previously, we had been swarmed.

Meanwhile, there was no way to determine if my landscaping work had helped with ticks, but I’ll take it on faith that it did.

With fewer bugs to fend off at home, I traveled to a mosquito- and tick-infested marsh to test several repellents that Connelly suggested. DEET’s effectiveness is rarely questioned, but the chemical still makes some people uncomfortable, so I concentrated on DEET-free options.

Mosquito tech

At dusk on a windless evening, I stepped into the marsh area and was instantly buzzed by mosquitoes, so I turned on a ThermaCell bug-repellent lamp. The device covers a 15- by 15-foot area with a chemical vapor (d-cis/trans allethrin 21.97 percent) that is the same used in the Off! PowerPad Lamp. The ThermaCell repelled mosquitoes, but it can’t be used around food or drinks. As its label warned, the vapor bothered my eyes slightly.

Slightly less effective was the Off! Clip-On mosquito repellent, which emits a Metofluthrin vapor. This, too, is only for stationary, non-meal activities. The label’s precautions advised, among other things, to “avoid breathing vapor” and to “avoid contact with clothing.” But I found these precautions difficult to heed, given that the product clipped to my clothes and diffused a vapor that surrounded me.

I next tried Permethrin-based repellents that are applied to clothing and gear, like Sawyer’s Premium insect repellent, which comes in a 24-ounce trigger-spray bottle and a 9-ounce aerosol spray for $9. After one’s clothing is coated with the (odorless) spray and left to dry, the clothes remain repellent to mosquitoes, ticks and other insects through six washes.

Sawyer recommended using 3 ounces per garment, but the trigger-spray bottle was, for me, gloriously ineffective. The applicator distributed an uneven spray, and the applicator head dripped Permethrin so liberally that it ran off the pump and onto my hands. (Obeying the warning label, I rinsed with water for at least 15 minutes.)

I used at least 13 ounces of spray on a long-sleeve shirt, pants and socks, leaving me with enough Permethrin to recoat the outfit once more if I applied it perfectly.

That outfit repelled mosquitoes and, presumably, ticks. But if I worked in the woods regularly or were headed to, say, Alaska, I would use the spray only for camping gear. For clothing, I would buy Permethrin-based garments from Insect Shield. The Permethrin never washes out, and in my tests I found the clothes fit well and repelled bugs completely.

For a more natural choice, Connelly recommended lemon eucalyptus oil instead of citronella. Her advice worked great when my wife and I dined with friends at an outdoor barbecue restaurant that’s notorious for mosquitoes. We relied on Bug Me Not, by Herb Garden Naturals, which was recommended by a clerk at a local health-food store, and we were unmolested for two solid hours.

My panelists were largely dubious about mosquito traps like the Mosquito Magnet. “One in your backyard won’t make a difference,” Connelly said, “and if you’re out there with the trap, you’ll still be way more attractive to the mosquitoes.”