Mosquito Larvae control
August 3, 2010 2:05 pm
I love your website and am a huge insect fan and I know that you are against the kill of insects but I am not sure how you feel about mosquitos. We have storm drains in our backyard to prevent flooding of our yard and basement. we just returned from a trip to Florida and I have noticed there are mosquito larvae in the storm drains in some water in the drains. I am curious, is there a natural way to dispose of the larvae without polluting the water in the storm drains or hurting killing other insects in the area? Would dish detergent added to water then dumped in the drains do the trick or are more drastic measures needed? any info you can provide me with is greatly apprecatiated and please keep up the great work. i try to preach to friends and family not to squish every bug the see but I feel like I am fighting a losing battle
Ryan Hoffman
Hi Ryan,
Your situation poses some interesting challenges. In warm weather, Mosquitoes can mature in a very short span of time. Obviously, draining the water is the ideal solution because without the stagnant water habitat, they will not proliferate. Mosquito Fish are used as vector control in many places where there are ponds and other bodies of standing water, but your storm drains do not sound like they would be conducive to supporting vertebrate life. In lieu of not having any natural predators that can eliminate the infestation, we believe your idea to use a mild dish detergent solution should help the situation. As an aside, we are including a photo we recently took of Mosquito Larvae captured in our bird bath. We feed them to our freshwater aquarium fish who gobble them up eagerly, but they must be netted at the source for that to be of any benefit.
Host specific Bacteria to target Mosquito Larvae
mosquito dunks…
Hi Daniel,
Just FYI for the person wanting to kill the mosquito larva…there are mosquito dunks that have a host specific bacteria in them (bti) that feeds on the larva of mosquitoes, but not other beneficial insects. They can be used in ponds as well to keep the mosquito population under control.
From the Valent BioSciences Corp website…
VectoBac®/Bactimos® – VectoBac and Bactimos, naturally occurring larvicides based on Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, control certain pests from the order diptera. Around the world, VectoBac and Bactimos are routinely used to control populations of mosquito and black fly larvae, which are primarily nuisances in the U.S., but also transmit life-threatening diseases like encephalitis, malaria, dengue and onchocerciasis (river blindness) in other parts of the world. VectoBac and Bactimos have the ability to eliminate 95-100% of all black fly and mosquito larvae – quickly and effectively.
VectoBac and Bactimos are Bti larvicides sold by Valent BioSciences Corporation. Biological testing has shown VectoBac and Bactimos to be two of the most ecologically friendly insecticides in use today. These products kill larvae of mosquitoes but do not adversely affect other wildlife or beneficial insects, or more importantly, people or pets.
Liz