I live in New England and up here, the mosquitoes are thick. One of the things recommended to keep the population in your yard down is to not have standing water. How would you keep a pond from becoming a mosquito breeding ground?
I don't think you can really. I mean you can use citronella candles but I don't think they work very well. Standing water or really any water at all attracts mosquitoes and other bugs. We actually took our pond out because of the bugs (and snakes).
Sure, there are ways of preventing mosquitos in a pond. One is adding a fountain. It will unsettle the water, so the female can't lay eggs. Another way is to add mosquito fish that eat mosquitos. They can be aggressive, and if they are, switch to minnows, guppies or goldfish. Adding Bti is a natural bacteria that kill mosquito and fly larvae. It's a chemical that's not harmful to fish, pets, wildlife or humans. Hope that helps!
There are things you can get at Lowes or Wal Mart called mosquito dunks. They are smallish cakes that you just throw in the pond. So many per size of pond. They prevent mosquito larvae from developing to adult mosquitoes, I think. Definitely worth it, and not very expensive either.
I've used the mosquito dunks before and they are quite effective. We've also found that having ducks reduces our mosquito problems.
I was just about to ask if adding a few ducks wouldn't help. Great idea! We have a huge mosquito problem here and I'm not keen on adding anything chemical to the water. I prefer more natural ways of dealing with things
Our local county gives away tens of thousands of free "mosquito fish" to encourage homeowners to help keep mosquito populations down. From what I understand they work fantastically well and IMO, would be less hazardous than chemicals and less messy than ducks.
Wow, that's great! No chance of that happening here though LOL I think I'll go with ducks and put up with the mess.
Besides ducks, which are a great idea, you could encourage other insect eating birds like swallows and bluebirds and flycatchers. Build some bluebird boxes, give small birds some cover by planting shrubs or just allowing some hedge to grow (dont keep everything neatly mowed). How big is your pond?
I haven't build a pond yet, I'm still in the planning stage, but mosquitoes are a concern for me. We really don't need more of them here! And the little pests adore me, of course. We do have an abundance of birds here, I'll look into ways of encouraging them to hang around.
