A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 mosquitoes in pond

i have a small pond in my backyard that is full of mosquitoes and i would like to get rid of them, anyone know how to do it without hurting the trees around it? thanks.

Davida 1st I have to ask you, are there are any fish in the pond.
If not, then yes there are some things that you can utilize if it is a small pond. I really don't know if there is anything for a large body of water that non professional could use though.
If there are no fish, introducing them may help out with the population of skeeters, but you may need to check with your local DNR or DEC to find out if you are allowed to do that and which types are you allowed to bring in. They may also be able to help you with which types would be the best for munching on the larva.

I hope this helps!

Do you have a fountain in it?
Mosquitoes don't like moving water as much as stagnant, and I find that my small fountain helps a great deal.

There is an item on the market that is biologically safe. They are called Mosquito dunks, and they work very well. Just put Mosquito Dunks into the google search engine and you will have them come up. One of our Local pet stores sells them here.

Good Luck
Shirl

Shirl is correct. The mosquito dunks work very well.
In fact, all of the above information is very good. Mosquito larva don't survive well in moving water, fish eat most of the larva.
The mosquito dunks will not harm fish or wildlife of any kind except mosquito larva. I buy the dunks at my local Ace hardware store.

Mosquito Dunks???


Cool! I have never heard of them. I will have to check out around here to see if they are sold locally.
Any idea on how much of an area they cover?

Mosquito Dunks 100 sq feet of water!

Actually, our county offers the dunks for free for pond and swimming pool owners at the beginning of the spring season. I think the size of the pond/pool determines if you can get them for free, but it's a great offer since there is great concern for West Nile virus around here.

You might want to check with either your county health dept., or your local Cornell Cooperative Extension for the dunks.

Mike...the dunks are a type of bacillus thurengiensis. I just did a brief Google search and found that there is also a product called Mosqito Bits that works faster but is only effective for 48 hours as opposed to 30 days for the dunks. New stuff out there every day!

check to see if you have vector control in your county. Our old county had a special division for mosquito abatement and they routinely put little fish in owners ponds, sprayed, public awareness on mosquitos and did all sorts of things. We lived in a riparian area and it was thick with mosquito and ticks.

Having birds on your property will also help with your mosquito problem. If you make your yard "interesting" and "inviting" to the birds, they will move in You said you had trees near your pond, well why not put a bird feeder there or some bird houses. Just a thought. But fish would do wonders on the mosquitos. I would recommend goldfish, yes even they will eat bugs. And, they can survive freezing. They go into a dormancy and usually revive when the water thaws. It's weird. But I had a tank of them to freeze once (my heat went out...all my fish tanks froze) and I thought that we had lost all the fish. Truth was, that the oscars did die from their tank freezing. But when the water in the goldfish tank thawed...they revived and seemed rather happy. Had those fish for a LONG time. But, basically, the most "ecofriendly" solution to your problem is going to be birds and fish. Although, the mosquito dunks do sound interesting. Adding a small fountain to your pond will help you out a lot too, especially if you decide to add fish.

You might also want to try barley straw. Many garden centres sell the stuff as balls ... they float around in your pond and are designed specifically to control mosquito larvae.

I've also seen a new product advertised on television; I dunno what it is made of exactly, but it somehow reduces water tension -- so when mosquitoes land on the water, they sink and drown instead of striding along the surface. It's supposed to be safe for fish and all wildlife.