Mosquitos and dragonflies

[Spartamets]

Hi, all. Now that pond season is about to begin, I'm looking forward to really getting my pond up and running. Which brings me to bugs. Like every other human on the planet, I despise mosquitos. But I do like dragonflies, in part because they eat mosquitos. I would like to breed dragonflies, but I am concerned that the process for breeding dragonflies also creates the conditions for breeding mosquitos.

I've been scrutinizing my stream and pond area very carefully and can tell there are areas amongst the rocks lining both of the above where mosquitos can get a foothold. Knowing that they can breed in an overturned bottle cap means that if there is any place that is reasonably undisturbed and that the fish can't easily get to, then the mosquitos will find it and lay their eggs there. They always seem to find a way. So I am putting mosquito dunks in those spots. My concern is that the mechanism that dunks and the like use to kill mosquito larvae will also kill dragonfly larvae (if I can find any to "seed" my pond with). Is there a workaround that will let me kill the mosquito larvae but not the dragonfly larvae?

 

[CometKeith]

Hmmm... I never liked using any kind of chemical with my pond and prefer more natural methods. Mosquitos don't like moving water and will only lay eggs in stagnant water so that might be an idea to keep your water moving and avoid dead spots in your pond or stream. Also do you have fish or tadpoles? They will eat mosquitoes. I think one of the most interesting times I spent by my pond a few years back was watching a damsalfly catch mosquitoes. It kept going back to it's perch on top of a water lilly and I saw her catch dozens of mosquitoes in a pretty short period of time. I don't know if you can really breed dragonflies. They just show up if the conditions are right and to me that's a sign of a healthy pond. One thing I learned is not to disturb any muck and algae that might build up in corners of your pond as that will provide a good condition for them to lay eggs.

 

[addy1]

I have a bunch of ponds, zero issues with mosquito's they don't have a chance with all the birds, frogs, dragon flies etc that are around.

 

[Tula]

I had a banner year for dragonflies and damselflies last Summer. I noticed they liked landing on lily pads that shot above the water and some grasses. They would also rest on lily pads.....I'm hoping they return this year !

 

[Spartamets]

I admire everyone's optimism, but mosquitos are always a problem in my backyard. Always. I want to avoid making it worse. It sounds like I can't "seed" dragonflies and just have to hope for the best, but last year we had quite the blizzard of dragonflies and damselflies in mid to late summer. Maybe I'll get lucky this year, too, and some will choose to reproduce in my pond. But will mosquito dunks, which I intend to use as of now, kill their larvae? If so, I might not use them. There are definitely dead spots where the waterfalls don't create enough water movement to deter mosquitos, I'm afraid. We have those Asian tiger mosquitos, which are a real nightmare.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Mosquito Dunks are formulated to target only mosquitoes. They are harmless to other animal species.
A side note on Dragonfly/Damselfly larvae: They are a favorite snack of fish, especially Carp/Koi.

 

[adavisus]

Skeeters are air breathing, they stay close to the surface. Dragonfly larvae are gill breathing, so foliage of submerse plants, roots and cover in deeper water will encourage those to thrive

Where are the skeeters coming from... A permanent freshwater pond is usually a deathtrap for them, when it has a diverse range of skeeter predators, water beetles, small fish, dragonflies, pondskaters, small amphibians make short work of anything that touch the water surface

 

[Spartamets]

I'm glad that the dunks won't kill dragonfly nymphs, should I be so fortunate as to have some take root in the pond. I plan to get tadpoles, too. I would like natural mosquito predators to solve the problem. Even more, I would like my pond to become something like a mosquito eraser for my yard.

I live in a city, so the mosquitos come from everywhere. That's the case everywhere, I suppose. They breed quickly in tiny pools of water, and I find myself dumping "containers" of water constantly after every rain in the summer. All you need is one neighbor to not be vigilant, though, and a new batch appears. My pond is new; it will be the thing that gets me enjoying my backyard for the first time in a decade this year. That's when the tiger mosquitos moved into this area and chased me indoors in the summers. Mosquitos are the consideration that almost prevented me from building my pond in the first place.

 

[adavisus]

A dragonfly might swat 100 skeeters a day, ploughing the air with their spiky forearms extended to snatch them

If you can bug catch pond skaters, water beetles, whirligigs, find some small native fish that will escalate the skeeters casualty rates

Simple things can cut down on skeeter bites, any equivalent to listerine will discourage bites, burning citronella lamps upwind... that little bit of smoke spooks them

 

[budgenator]

I can't prove it but it always seemed like we had less mosquitoes after putting in a pond than we did before. A lot of mosquito predators are attracted to ponds, toads, frogs, dragonflies, even bats clean them out of the air, and there are a lot of aquatic predators in the water to feast on the larva. I think of my pond as more of a mosquito death-trap! The mosquito dunks work too.

You'll never get rid of them, they have been around for millions of years, but we can keep the numbers down enough to enjoy our yards. Anything with a lemony smell disrupts the mosquitoes senses. I've heard that drier sheets taped to your chair helps, but haven't tried myself.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Hardly scientific support for @budgenator's comment, but at my previous residence the backyard was enclosed with a 6 foot privacy fence. The pond was located within this enclosed backyard. During the months of warm weather, a mosquito could not be found anywhere within this fenced area which measured about 50' x 70' that was also landscaped. One step beyond this fencing and one would be literally eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Water does certainly attract the females searching for water to breed in, but the Dragonflies and Damselflies that had taken up residence quickly dispatched those that came past the fence line.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

It has been my experience that mosquito dunks do have an effect on dragonfly larvae. I seldom use them, but when I have it has been my experience that dragonfly and other types of larvae populations reduce when using dunks.
This seems to support that.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/content/part/JAMCA/MN_V41_N3_P476-484.pdf

However, the good news is that mosquito are very easy to control with small fish even in a lightly stocked pond. Fish love snacking on insect larva of all types. And as Meyer indicated dragonfly larvae love them too.