I live less than 1000' from the water's edge, so mosquitoes are ever present for about 9 months of the year. I've tried citronella candles when out BBQing, watching my children play in the lawn, etc. I don't like dousing myself in chemicals, so I don't spray myself with deet, etc. They are a nuisance for which there is little to be done other than avoidance.
Deet is benign to humans. Lots of studies on it since it was invented to protect those building the Panama Canal.
You can also build bat houses. Bats feed almost exclusively on mosquitos. They eat more than their own body weight in them.
There is a great story behind this and I dug deep into the research and history dozens of links long but this might inspire you
I used to burn leaves with a magnifying glass in the sun as a kid. Once, I hovered the infernal dot over an ant and watched his abdomen pop. I then observed, in zoomed-in horror, as the poor thing kept trying to feel its missing abdomen and then clean its own juices off its antennae. Other ants would come and inspect the dying ant and their antennae would tap each other's. The fallen ant was then carried back to the hive, and I felt so bad that I spent the afternoon clearing a path for the highway of ants.
To this day, I feel bad killing ants and will try to avoid it, like blowing them off my patio table before scrubbing it. It gets a brow-crinkle from my friends, though.