Mosquitos. Darn!

[keikoasmom]

We have tried almost everything, and my son, a biologist/geologist/marine biologist/entymologist.....says that mosquitoes can not
lay eggs in moving water. Yet, our yard is FILLED with the little vampires, and I have used:

Mosquito Dunks (which I suspect caused the demise of our leopard frogs, tadpoles and fish eggs)

Bug Zapper (which I stopped using when it was impossible to keep it from zapping "good" bugs, butterflies and moths, bees and other beneficials

Bug Bomb, kills everything

Garlic granules, the mosquitos laughed!

Bat House, still unoccupied after 2 years

Mosquito fish, quite happy and healthy, but no visible change

More mosquito dunks, no change


What can we do? Everyoine blames our pond, although we live 2 miles from Cherry Creek Lake and spillway.
But we can't use our yard (and it is GORGEOUS!) except early morning.


We have 2 skimmers, are they breeding in there? The water is moving.....

I also have a tiny, 60 gallon "bird bath" pond on the other side of the yard, plants only, used Mosquito Dunks and a small fountain pump.....

What the heck??

signed,
Confused in Colorado
(Linda)

 

[ellisr63]

I read somewhere not to use Mosquito dunks as the mosquitos can become immune to it.

 

[j.w]

How about putting some mosquito fish in the containers where the water is at? Wouldn't a skimmer just suck them down? Or on the things that you can cover you can buy those rolls of fiberglass screen door replacements at Lowes or H-depot. They are cheap and if you cover the spots totally they either can't get in to lay their eggs or can't get out to fly away. Course if you do that on the bird bath then what's the point of having a bird bath? I don't know if the birds would eat the skeeter fish in the bird bath either or if they would cook in there if it gets too hot. Well I'm trying here. Maybe somebody else has a better answer.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Do you actually see mosquito larva in your pond water?
I have plenty of mosquitos around our yard, enough that it gets uncomfortable in the garden sometimes, but I know for a fact they are not breeding in my pond (used dunks, no larva, all gone), so my mosquitos must be coming from another source.

 

[addy1]

I had them only in my pot bog, a little too much water, so now let the water dry up before more water is added. I have seen none in the stream or stream ponds, the water there runs 3 times a day, if they are laying baby blood suckers they are washing down the stream to the hungry fish.

 

[buckry]

We are in a drought here and the mosquitos have LITERALLY no where to lay eggs. I put some water into a play table thing for the kids, 24 hours later it had larvae in it. The pond none. Although, seeing larvae in 5 gallons is a whole different ball game then 3400, but they usually stay at the surface, and I just don't see any, the pond has been filled for over 2 weeks, the mosquitos have definitely found it, they just can't use it. That being said, I don't have crazy amounts of current, the moving water is all under the surface, parts of my pond are very still, and others are even stiller. Only near the waterfall where the water crashes down is it moving significantly.

 

[j.w]

The fish would eat up any that are in the pond before they get to hatch.

 

[lovinglife]

I agree with J.W. I don't think your problem is coming form your pond. My pond often has still water, but there have never been larvae in it, and I do not have a mosquito problem. All I have is fish.

 

[keikoasmom]

Thank you!!!
The people who say its my pond, know nothing about ponds, but I was starting to wonder. I am
good at second-guessing myself.

I think the mosquitos are coming from the lake and spillway, and the spillway is only 1/2 a mi. away.
Back in the "Olden Days", 40 years ago, before any of these houses were here, we would come out to drive across the dam road and the
mosquitos were horrendous sometimes.

I guess we just use mosquito coils on the patio and repellent spray otherwise. I like the Avon stuff, lol!

Thank you for your posts, nice to find an active forum!

 

[don't ask]

welcome
keikoasmom, I agree with the others posts, not just your yard and pond where they are coming from.. but is possible some are breeding in your pond. i would say look along the edges during the daytime as the fish may not patrol those areas as much. also any other areas of course where their is standing or water that doesn't have much agitation, just be sure to look real close as a first or quick glance you may not see anything..and check with the local authorities and ask if skeeters are unusually high this year or if you had a wet springtime. the lake and spillway may be a huge cause as well as other neighbors, if you have a lush lawn the skeeters may be roosting there at night, i just as others are throwing things out there, not saying it's all fact.

 

[keikoasmom]

Oh, I was so hoping it wasn't me! I appreciate all of the posts, but I forwarded to my youngest son who is not a fish guy, but
is very smart and as a property manager knows a lot about construction, landscapiong and so on.

He came by yesterday and showed me that some areas of the pond, where there are LOTs of plants, have very slow water movement.
I tried to argue with him (my dad was Irish, isn';t that a trait?) but he dropped a twig in different areas....and although the undercurrent is fine, the surface is like a lazy river (burst into song here.)

So I pulled some plants out this A.M. (see free plants) but even so, I think I have a haven for all things loving water and warm (102 today) temps and
unless I can create more flow (just like the saltwater tanks we formerly created) the skeeters are going to have a happy home.

I also have Virgina Creeper which seems to be a daytime haven to the little suckers.

 

[Rivermist]

I use dunks and I must say that in the big pond with the fountain there is not a single mosquito.

In the other ponds, with the waterfall that is leaking, and so turned off most of the time, there are quite a lot...

I use a very thin net and get as many larvas as i can whenever i clear the surface of the ponds from debris... I hate killing those nasty stuff but it's either them or us.

I think also that when we had fish in these é ponds it helped a lot in the control. We still have not put fish back in there so mosquitos are really having a good time

 

[keikoasmom]

Thank you!
I was thinking that a couple of fountains might help, although my dog loves splashing water, so it might encourage her to jump in again.
Good thoughts, though!

One other thing, my other son reminded me that we used to bring in a lot of minnows for the snakes, and we haven't done that this year.

 

[pecan]

I think we have more bugs of every kind then ever this year. Likely due to the mild winter not killing off enough of them. With mosquito fish I don't think mosquitoes could survive even in the still parts of the pond around the plants. I have noticed the mosquito fish tend to stay in the shallower stiller areas so they would be destroying any eggs there.

A +1 on not thinking it is your pond.

We have a canal behind our house that leaves standing water in our yard when it is running high. But I also have about 20 tiki torches with citronella oil. We have not noticed the mosquitoes likely due to the torches. I am swimming in other bugs though and yellow jackets are out of control and they don't seem to like the yellow jacket traps I have this year.

 

[don't ask]

not disrespecting your son in any way but i would think the plants in the pond are going to harbor few as compared to grass, especially if it cools down good after being hot, tend to get quite a bit of moisture/condensation/dew on the grass and shrubs and trees which in adult life is where they are going to be.. i think i recall standing water is just for egg laying and the immature stage until they fly.. but i may be mistaken