You lay in bed at night. It's been a long day. Just as you start to relax, you hear that nightmarish noise. Yes, the buzzing of a mosquito in the room. So much for your restful night of sleep!

As we move into spring and summer, the world comes alive. Unfortunately, this can also mean an infestation of mosquitoes if you are not careful. Fortunately, there is a secret to preventing mosquitoes.

Water is the giver of life. A human being can survive up to 60 days or longer without food. Without water? You wouldn't make it a week. Water is, in fact, the critical component that has to be present for nearly all life forms. It is particularly important to mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes need water for a few reasons. Obviously, consuming it is critical, but there is a second reason that comes in a close second. Water is part of the breeding process for mosquitoes. They lay their eggs in or on the edge of standing water. Where there is lots of humidity, you tend to find lots of mosquitoes and disease.

As you can probably imagine, the secret to preventing mosquitoes is to deprive them of water. You probably don't realize it, but there is standing water all around you. You might find it located around hose hookups on the side of your home, the bottom of planters, backed up gutters and so on. Take some time to do a walk around your home looking for locations where water can sit. When you find them, dump them out and reposition them so they can't hold water.

More and more people seem to be fascinated with fishing ponds these days. These are also known as mosquito heaven since the water tends to be calm and plants overhang it. If you must have one of these, stock it with fish that eat mosquito larva. Grass carp are often considered the best for clearing out mosquito eggs and larva, but even these hungry fish will not eat them all.

Mosquitoes drive a lot of people nuts, myself included. Fortunately, you can take some simple steps to keep them from being a total nightmare. Get rid of standing water and you'll be way ahead of the game.