New Englanders know that like baseball and days at the lake, mosquitoes are a traditional part of summer. We’re lucky this year: the dryer, hotter weather has made them less prevalent and less bothersome. But it will change eventually.

“Mosquitoes typically start in March and go right through Halloween,” said Joe Hyland, General Manager of Modern Pest’s Katahdin branch. He said there are a variety of species in Maine, and while we hear about West Nile virus, malaria, dengue fever and other public health threats, “Right now, mostly we just can’t enjoy our own backyards.”

(Not our dog friends, though. Mosquitoes are the source of heartworm for dogs. Talk to your veterinarian about how to protect your best friend from a costly and potentially deadly disease.)

The mosquitoes we are most familiar with are Culex pipiens, the common house mosquito. You may know from experience that they are mostly nocturnal, making their biggest moves at dusk.  They avoid the midday sun because it can dehydrate and kill them. If you’ve been on a day hike, you’ll notice they hang in the cooler, shadier, wetter areas.

Now, Hyland was sort of joking about not being able to enjoy our own backyards because there are ways to keep mosquitoes at bay and enjoy the summer evening. You can try retail spray repellant, smelly citronella candles or questionable bug-zapping devices, but they all treat the symptoms not the root causes.

Here are two must-do steps that everyone with grounds to manage should take as summer approaches:

• Eliminate all sources of standing water where mosquitoes thrive and lay eggs. Hyland said to think about kiddie pools, tarps after a storm, a pet’s water bowl, a stagnant bird bath, an upright canoe or kayak and so on.

• Trim excess, hanging foliage, especially around the perimeter or near your sitting areas. Mosquitoes aren’t interested in the lawn or dry, open spaces.

If modifying your habitat on your own proves ineffective, Modern Pest will visit and do a site inspection. Once the service technician has determined there’s no resting water, a targeted pesticide spray is applied like an upside-down fan to reach the underside of the branches and leaves where they hide during the day.

According to Hyland, this is a monthly process throughout the season. While Modern Pest can’t promise a one hundred percent elimination of mosquitoes, they can produce a meaningful reduction of the buzzing pests. After all, you’ve got to swat a few mosquitos every summer. It’s tradition.