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gardendawgie

Mosquito Free Outdoors

gardendawgie
14 years ago

Here is how I keep my area mosquito free. I built an above ground pond. I used 3/4 inch plywood sliced 2 ft by 8 ft. I make the pond 16 ft by 8 ft. I run 2 by 6 the long length and 2 by 4 the short sides. One along the top and bottom. I put a rubber roofing inside the mold. That gives me about 2000 gallons. I fill that with rain water for the garden and get a dozen feeder goldfish for a dollar at the pet store.

Now all the local mosquitos lay their eggs in the pond and not one singe egg will have a chance to become an adult. all will be eaten by the fish.

Now you know how Broiler Chickens grow fast and big on little food. Well goldfish grow even faster on less food. Now never feed the goldfish. Not a drop. NOTHING. NO FOOD for the gold fish all summer long. They will be huge at the end of the summer.

I am zone 5 and they live through the winter for me. But if they die just spend another dollar to get another dozen in the spring. no expense.

The wild mosquitos will find a place to lay eggs in the wild and grow into new adults. But this pond is a big lure that sucks down the mosquitos to lay their eggs where they have no chance to adulthood.

The pond also attracts lots of dragon flys that eat only mosquitos on the fly. Mosquitos have no chance with a pond trap with dragon flys on patrol.

Another trick I put some 5 gal buckets under the house roof. when it rains it fills with water then later the mosquitos hatch out and I dump the water on the ground and they die. I usually carry the water to the garden and put 5 gallons of water on the tomatoes and the mosquitos die.

One last item. Mosquitos live off chickens and other animals. There is a place in SE Asia. Vietnam or somewhere around there. They have a big chicken house and a pond next to the chicken house. They collect mosquito larvae from the pond. They sell the larvae by the kilo. They collect tons of mosquito larvae a year. Really almost unbelieveable amounts of mosquito larvae. They feed off the chickens and lay the eggs right there. They export the frozen larvae to tropical fish fanciers as natural high quality food.

I mentioned that to show that mosquitos really feed off chickens. So if you have chickens and a place for mosquitos to multiply, you can try the pond trap method. It works if you work it correctly.

Comments (11)

  • laturcotte1
    14 years ago

    {{gwi:42388}}
    I have a 7000 gallon pond filled with gold fish, the little buggers breed like rabbits. I can't even give them away, we have 4 koi in there somewhere.

    I don't see the reduction of mosquitoes, I must be doing something wrong, I can tell you this, the mosquitoes are big, yikes.

    Each year, just about this time mid June, the baby dragonflies are born. This is a beautiful site, they are everywhere. They stay in the yard for about 3 days then their gone. I had a picture of them by the pond but can't find it.

    The hardest part is keeping the water moving, still water draws the mosquitoes. We even drop mosquitoe dunks in the water but doesn't deter them. Guess the fish just aren't doing their job.

    Our pond was actually build to house our turtles, but somehow they escaped or were taken. The sides were built up much higher when we had them. Had much less fish too :).

    Good luck with your mosquitoe trap.

  • msmitoagain
    14 years ago

    laturcotte1 - wow, nice pond. Love it.

    Is that water hyacyth(sp.), doesn't it try to take over? It killed some of the fish in our small pond cause it smothered them.

    Wonder if with that much water, there is just too much for them to eat to keep all the mosquitos eaten.

    Great backyard too. It's really nice.

    Ramona

    Here is a link that might be useful: MY BLOG

  • laturcotte1
    14 years ago

    The hyacyth does take over by the end of the summer it completely covers both ponds. We have another small 700 gallons in the front. By the end of July we are begging people to take both plants and fish. But we have pretty big koi so we need the cover for them, and it's in direct sun so it helps (slightly) with the algae out breaks.

    Can you believe 3 yrs ago this pond was built for a 4 year old red eared slider. Two weeks after we put her in the pond she either climbed out or something took her. Broke my heart. The sides were built up much higher than in the picture, they are excellent escape artists.

    You may be right because the fish love eating the plants. I wish I could harvest the hyacyth during the winter months, imagine how many I throw away in November.

  • caavonldy
    14 years ago

    We built a pond for our red eared slider also. She was always trying to escape. She would hibernate in the winter. One spring, she never showed up. We could not find any sign of her in the pond, so we think she just wandered off to find a mate and a nice place to lay her eggs. We really missed her.

  • gardendawgie
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    laturcotte1

    What a super pond. WOW. I would die for a pond like that. Can I ask what state you are in. I am in Massachusetts. Gets kind of cold here in winter.

    You might try getting rid of all the goldfish. You can keep the good big Koi. then put in a few dollars of rosy red feeder minnows. They will multiply, stay real small and get those mosquitos. The koi might eat some baby minows but enough should escape. You want to wind up with thousands of minnnows to eat the mosquito larvae.

    The rosy red are those red minnows sold as feeder fish in the pet stores.

  • laturcotte1
    14 years ago

    gardendawgie
    We live in Monson, MA.
    My son bought me for Mothers a few years ago, what the pet store told him were 4 Koi, turned out to be 1 Koi and 3 Comets, the rodents of the aqua world. They started to breed and never stopped I have to have over 100 fish. Everytime I pull some out to dump in the compost pile I feel so badly I put them back. I can't even give them away, the pet stores don't want them nor do farm supply places with ponds, we give them to the kids for their fish tanks but that doesn't make a dent. And let me tell you they winterize really well. When the ice melts we pray for half and get double.

    My goal for the end of fall is all the gold fish go. I spoke to this guy that specializes in ponds and koi he said when the bomb hits there will be two things left in the world cockroaches and goldfish :) Some of them are beautiful though, the 3 originals are huge I wish I could keep them but obviously they are the breeders.

    Caavonldy: Red Eared Sliders are native to the south and should never be hybernated outside in the winter. We always took ours back in the house at the beginning of Sept back out end of May, painters can be wintered outside. The pet stores like Petco will tell you they live outdoors year round but this is untrue. They will get pneuomina and die.

    If you decided to get another turtle check out redearslider form they are really cool people to talk to. I'm always tempted to get a few more but boy are they a lot of work.

  • gardenlover25
    14 years ago

    wow! that is so cute.

  • caavonldy
    14 years ago

    We live in CA. Our pond never froze. Cookie, our slider lived in that pond for about 5 years before she disappeared. I love that big beautiful pond. Ours was only 4'x8'x2'deep. Now that we have moved out in the country, we have room to build a larger pond. Where we live, sliders live in the creeks. Every once in a while, we will see one walking around the countryside. In the spring, the females go looking for a nice soft sandy place to lay their eggs.

  • gardendawgie
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    laturcotte1

    You are not too far. I a in Worcester County.

    I forgot that what is critical is to never put any food into the pond. I am sure you feed your fish. Hard to not feed the koi.

    I had some very expensive Koi, A friend in Pepperel has them. He is a member of the local koi club closer to Springfield. I used to bring the koi indoors all winter. It was like 8 months indoors and 4 months outdoors and that seemed silly so I gave up on it all.

    I like the rosy reds. They are really intersting. they breed like rabbits. faster. and you can put a dozen into an aquarium indoors and they are nice indoors.

    I had bred the koi but they are more work to breed and keep alive all winter. If your pond is good they can maybe live over the winter outdoors. But as they get bigger they are in more danger of dieing in the winter.

    What kills the fish in the winter is the build up of toxic gas from decay on the floor. The gas can not excape if there is ice on the surface. The bigger fish die fast the tiny fish live longer. so the minnows do well.

    Do you have chickens also. Chickens seem popular around here. I want to get some. I had them years ago.

    Egg layers are OK but I love Roosters. Let them cock a doole doo all day. I love it.

  • laturcotte1
    14 years ago

    We have one rescued a rooster see "rooster with no toes" posted here and the chicks are just a couple weeks old. I am on vacation this week so they will be going in with the big guy tomorrow. I'll try Velvets "meet and greet", but he should love them they are both hens, at least that's what they told me. I understand the Black Rocks are hardy birds and do well in the colder climates. We have two Roman Tufted Geese, 3 Nubian wethered goats, 1 39 year old blind pony, 1 cockteil, 5 dogs all rescues.

    Lee Ann

  • gardendawgie
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    WOW I did not know a pony or horse could live so long.

    I want to get some chicks. Too many nice chicks to make up my mind. They all seem to be so nice. The serama seem nice because they are so small. the dark cornish seem nice because they are so big. And everything in between.

    I am also tempted to raise a meat cornish cross to see how big I can grow it. Or a turkey. Someone around here reported a 53 pound turkey all dressed out. I wonder if it would fit in the oven. But such a big turkey would be the talk of the town.

    I also love to incubate eggs and I want to make a better incubator then I have in the past. or get a used one. Then maybe get some eggs to hatch.

    Another fascinating idea is to get all birds that give up colored eggs. I find that very interesting. I never had a colored egg.

    For now I am having fun dreaming and planning for next year.

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