Topic: Mosquito larvae

[Pinkwellies]

Anyone know what eats mosquito larvae???  We have a very new garden pond that doesn't have much established wildlife in it, and we're not planning to have fish as we want a wildlife pond and also don't want the trouble of a pump, etc.  At the moment it's rampant with tiny black wriggling larvae, and we were hoping someone could suggest something that might eat them so we don't in turn get eaten during the summer.... :o

[Bryan]

Pinkwellies,
i have heard that goldfish in water butts will eat the mosquito larvae, but as you are not planning on putting any fish in your pond, with some luck someone will have the answer for you.

[Barnowl]

Frogs and dragonfly nymphs (seriously scary looking)

[froglets]

Same problem here - my first plants for my wildlife puddle are in the post to me as I type -  Frogs are already in residence ( It's what made me dig it in the first place) but how do I get hold of some dragonfly nymphs  :D

[Ishard]

Drgon fly walk down a plant stalk to dip their abdomen into the water to lay eggs on the plant stalk so that the nymphs actually hatch out into the water.

So unless you have a plant that they can crawl down into the water to lay their eggs you aren't gong to get the nymphs.

Dragon fly nymphs are voracious predators and will eat anything including small fish and froglets

[froglets]

oh - oh  :o

[jjt]

Some dragon flies lay their eggs while hovering . The nymphs are great if you can ever see them. They can move unbelievably fast.

[saddad]

A small amount of oil... veg will break the surface tension and get rid of them quickly...
 :-X

[wetandcold]

Oil on the surface might mess things up for any pond skaters etc. though...

[tonybloke]

we use sticklebacks, no need for a pump, and its a small pond. ;)

[star]

I use a small net just skimming the surface of the water. Get loads of the blighters that way ;D

[froglets]

Tried both the veg oil and the washing up liquid - made no difference.  The frogs were moisturised then cleaned & are still there, but so are the larvae.

Bought two carniverous plants from Morrisons yesterday for £1.99 each to put in the boggy end of the pond.    Plan C!

[OllieC]

I use a net & feed them to my tropical fish - they love 'em!

[GrannieAnnie]

I take very seriously trying to create an environment with NO standing water since some mosquitos can go through their whole life cycle in under a week, some in 2 weeks and some up to a month. One mosquito lays hundreds of eggs. Unless one is there scooping the pond daily and effectively getting around all the rocks and plants I don't understand how that works efficiently come vacation, illness, stretches of bad weather etc.

[star]

I can understand completely why you do that GA, specially in the US. Am I right in thinking your mozzies are more of a problem than here in the UK?

Though I suspect it will only be a matter of time before we get real nasty ones here with global warming creeping up on us.

[GrannieAnnie]

I can understand completely why you do that GA, specially in the US. Am I right in thinking your mozzies are more of a problem than here in the UK?

Though I suspect it will only be a matter of time before we get real nasty ones here with global warming creeping up on us.

We've had a resurgence of vector-borne diseases, West Nile for example. Mosquitos never seem to share nice presents!