Mosquito Larvae

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.