At 2221

This post may be too late by the time it's posted to have any relevance in 2008's summer, however, it's still good to know in general 'how to keep ants and mosquitoes away' with common ingredients that's available in an American home.


Keeping Ants away___
Flour/Cinnamon - Spread solid lines of flour or cinnamon on any paths ants travel across. Ants don't like flour or cinnamon, and they will not cross through it.

Keeping Mosquitoes away___

Dishwashing liquid - Add a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid per gallon of water, then pour the mixture into a rain barrel or other pools of water around your yard. This will destroy developing mosquito larvae.
Hot water - If there's tons of mosquitoes already in your backyard, somehow, make a pool of hot water and leave it nearby the mosquitoes. Leave the hot water out until the water no longer is hot. This should also kill off most of the mosquitoes, then use the dishwashing liquid to drive them off.

--Hong