skip to main |
skip to sidebar
In honor of what has been dubbed “World Malaria Day” by the Malaria No More Foundation, I thought that I would take the opportunity to talk about mosquitoes with relation to the garden. Where I live, I am not worried about a disease like malaria, but mosquitoes are an ideal carrier for many infectious diseases. Female mosquitoes search out mammals to bite because they need
the hemoglobin from the blood in order to successful reproduce. The resulting bite is itchy and miserable.
I have somewhat of a personal vendetta against mosquitoes. Mosquitoes happen to think that I am particularly delicious. Once, while traveling in South America, I fell asleep with my feet outside of my mosquitoes net. My feet were so covered in bites that I could not even begin to count them all. They were so swollen that I no longer had a distinguishable arch in my foot, nor could I wiggle my toes. Every step itched the bites that were on the bottoms of my feet, exacerbating the situation. I spent the rest of the weekend awake, with m y feet in a bucket of cold water. Anyways… to help us all avoid 
irritating bites, and help prevent the spread of infectious disease, there are a few things that everybody can do reduce mosquito populations.
Mosquitoes hatch into still water, so the main line of defense is to get rid of any still water that you may have. Remember to dump out empty pots and check bird baths and fountains for the squiggly, tadpole-ish, larvae. To check for larvae, give any still water a stir and check for the larvae to be frantically wriggling about. The simple way to get rid of mosquito larvae is to dup out the standing water, but there are other options.
There are chemical options which I would discourage because of the possible repercussions. Chemicals will broadly kill everything in the water including algae, and in turn any plants that it then comes in contact with. during battles in the southwest of the United States, the desert 
water sources were often poisoned to put the Apache at a disadvantage. The way to tell if a water source had been contaminated was to check for life in the water, the idea being that if something, such as algae or a frog, can survive in the water, it is safe to drink, aka: not poisoned. Chlorine works wonders on mosquito larvae and any algae that may be growing in the still water, but it does this by poisoning all of the life in the water. Basically this is not good for a garden or area where you are trying to promote life.
If you have some sort of water feature, or rainwater catchment system, or other form of still water that you would like to keep around and not treat with chemicals, I have a fabulous recommendation. Fill it with fish. My sister actually turned me on to this idea. She would buy
feeder fish from the pet store and dump them in our fountain that no longer works. When she moved out, she also proceeded to use the same method to rid a non-functioning hot tub of mosquito larvae. The fish eat the mosquito larvae and other outdoor bugs. There is no need to feed the fish and also no need to regularly add chemicals to the standing water. You will find that the standing water will have a carrying capacity. For example: the non functioning fountain has enough space and food for 3 fish. Carrying capacity will find itself, that is to say, dump in a bunch of fish and see how many survive. One word of caution, raccoons love to eat goldfish.
At last the sun has decided to come out on a regular basis, a good indication to me that I should start, or should I say restart, my attempts at barrel gardening.
When we first moved to our apartment I brought over 2 half wine barrels for planting. I filled one with dirt and planted it with winter seeds. My little garden was quickly flooded because I did not drill any holes in the bottom of the barrel to allow for drainage. When the second empty barrel filled with rainwater I thought it might be an efficient and resourceful way to water my plants come spring. Unfortunately I could not keep the mosquito larvae out of the tempting still water. This weekend I decided to start from scratch and dump the water and drill holes in both barrels by transferring the waterlogged dirt accordingly. Immediately the soil began to drain.
To fill the barrels I put 4 bags of EarthGro Topsoil and 1 bag of EarthGro steer manure and mixed them well. EarthGro also makes garden soil and chicken manure which are probably better options for starting a garden. The steer manure can be harsh and burn the roots of your plants. Even if you do not get the same (cheap) soil/fertilizers I did, I recommend not getting soil that already has ‘stuff’ in it, like the special slow release water soil or pre-fertilized soil. I personally do not distinguish between ‘organic’ and ‘certified organic’ because the requirements for certification are very strict. The idea of a home garden, in my opinion, is to avoid synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and all of the stuff that you don’t really know what it is.
www.Craigslsit.org is a good place to look for all kinds of garden supplies. Occasionally Boy Scout troops will be selling the half barrels for a fundraiser. If you live near a winery or other barrel using industry, they also sell off barrels from time to time.
Another FABULOUS tip: A friend told me that some libraries rent out garden tools, which is a perfect way to save some money on supplies.
Earth day was designed as a day of celebration and awareness of the world we live in. Beyond eating local veggies, riding your bike, refilling your water bottle, or whatever else it is that you do to lower your personal impact on the environment, I think that it is important to take the time on earth day to ‘enlarge our world’. This year I heard about a product that I thought would be a very cool way to enlarge our world and celebrate earth day. The product is called PUR. It is a little packet of powder that can remove dirt, 99.9% of intestinal bacteria, intestinal viruses, and protozoa from 10 liters of water at a time (P&G 2009). Basically it can take water that is completely brown and full of everything from dead animal juices to fecal matter to invisible parasites, and make it good to drink. I recommend watching the little clip on the PUR website. http://www.csdw.org/csdw/index.htmlTo raise money to send PUR packets to areas of the word that need it most I have designed t-shirts that I am selling. All of the proceeds are donated to buy PUR water purification packets
Other examples of ways to raise money for good causes can be found at Malaria No More. Malaria No More is an organization that sends treated mosquito nets to places where they are needed, and also provides education about malaria to the recipients of the nets. http://www.malarianomore.org/These organizations focus on issues that I happen to be interested in, but we all have our passions. Think about what it is that you love and see how you can help others share your passion.
Another thought…On earth day Disney is coming out with a movie from the same director as ‘Planet Earth.’ The movie is creatively called ‘EARTH.’ It would be fun to go see as a group (perhaps in matching earth day shirts?). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G06r7eKKjkI
the hemoglobin from the blood in order to successful reproduce. The resulting bite is itchy and miserable.
irritating bites, and help prevent the spread of infectious disease, there are a few things that everybody can do reduce mosquito populations.
water sources were often poisoned to put the Apache at a disadvantage. The way to tell if a water source had been contaminated was to check for life in the water, the idea being that if something, such as algae or a frog, can survive in the water, it is safe to drink, aka: not poisoned. Chlorine works wonders on mosquito larvae and any algae that may be growing in the still water, but it does this by poisoning all of the life in the water. Basically this is not good for a garden or area where you are trying to promote life.
feeder fish from the pet store and dump them in our fountain that no longer works. When she moved out, she also proceeded to use the same method to rid a non-functioning hot tub of mosquito larvae. The fish eat the mosquito larvae and other outdoor bugs. There is no need to feed the fish and also no need to regularly add chemicals to the standing water. You will find that the standing water will have a carrying capacity. For example: the non functioning fountain has enough space and food for 3 fish. Carrying capacity will find itself, that is to say, dump in a bunch of fish and see how many survive. One word of caution, raccoons love to eat goldfish.
