Our pond is beautiful at night, but it is difficult to sit in the yard and enjoy it because of bites from mosquitos. (A South Jersey variety of these critters uses the Texas variety for appetizers!) I'm afraid to spray for fear that some of the mist will drift to the pond and kill the plants and fish. Is there any mosquito repellent that is pond and fish safe?
Jim
Merchantville, NJ
Mosquito repellent for yard
The local county government regularly sprays with Malathion for mosquitos. In seven years of ponding I have never encountered any problems as a result.
There is a product called Summit that kills mosquito larvae when applied to ponds or standing water. It dissolves and settles on the bottom and is suppose to be non-toxic to other creatures. I have found it at Walmart in 8-paks of donut shaped cakes for about $8. One donut treats 100 square feet of pond. I usually break off little chunks to use in bird baths and rain water collectors. I have seen it available in granular form in a catalog. It works great and the cats haven't died from drinking out of the bird bath. Although I can keep the mosquitos from reproducing on my property, there is still no shortage of them.
Still looking for a SAFE mosquito repellent for the YARD. Previous suggestions were for treating larvae etc on the water or in the pond. This is not the problem. The problem is the grass area and flower beds around the pond and in the backyard. What is needed is some sort of foam or spray for the yard.
Google turned up a plethora of sprays. One in particular, Cutter Bug Free Backyard, got rave reviews from everyone who had tried it. It comes in a spray bottle that is attached to the garden hose. Went to Home Depot and bought a large spray bottle of the stuff. The directions for use are on the back of a peel-off label. Got home, peeled off the label and read (to my dismay): "Extremely toxic to fish" and later down in the fine print "Very toxic to pets." Now what the heck kind of product is that!!! Especially since you dont know about these warnings until you buy it and peel off the label ???
So back to base one -- Does anybody have a yard spray that is safe for use around fish and ponds?
Jim (K2JXW)
in Merchantville
The malathion spraying I referred to is done for YARD (all open land areas) mosquito control. It is done with trucks that drive up one side of the street, turn around and drive back down the opposite side of the street and fog both sides with malathion. The fog drifts. I have two ponds well within the chemical drift area that have never suffered an adverse event as a result of a malathion fog. Is this plain enough for you?
I use Citronella oil (natural oil made from a plant base not chemical base) spray which is safe to spray on anything. I spray my house,doors,animals,yard, outside furniture..etc...it is a repellant to skeeters,horseflies,and biting flies or whatever...I found the oil at the Tractor Supply here in Liberty but ask a feedstore person about it..I buy mine by the gallon since I have a large yard(5 acres) and animals.
This message was edited Jul 2, 2008 7:40 PM
Wish our dumpy town would spray. They do absolutely nothing here....except take our tax $$$
I have a mosquito magnet and have had it a few years and am happy with the results. However it did have it share of problems after the first year and I had to have it repaired. They are built a little fussier than I would like it to be and positioning them in the right location is key to their success but they do work. Oh, and they are expensive (mine was about $500.00 for coverage of 1/2 acre). The company either went out of business or was bought out and restructured. There are new products like mosquito magnet on the market they use the same technology for about $35.00. Look them up on Amazon.com and read the reviews. I was thinking of buying a few an placing them around the yard for better coverage (if the reviews were good). There's nothing more satisfying then emptying the mosquito magnet a few days after start up and seeing countless mosquito bodies and no-see-ums. I'm talking hundreds in a few days. After about two weeks the cycle is broken and you don't see of catch many bugs - just a few.
Maybe you should look into building a small screened enclosure to sit in, rather than spray poison all over because there probably isn't anything that isn't going to be poison to other life forms.
This message was edited Jul 2, 2008 4:54 PM
As for poison and mosquioto control, here the threat is West Nile virus, a mosquito born disease which can be fatal.
As chairman for the local Board of Health in this small town, I can state two certainties:
1) There is absolutely no money in this borough's budget to do malathion spraying as you suggest. It's more or less up to the individual to scratch and bear it.
2) West Nile Virus is a major concern here, along with lyme disease; however there have been no reported cases of either within the last three years, and only one lyme case four years ago.
Found a malathion spray at Home Depot, but label says "Toxic to animals" (and by extension probably to fish).
Tried citronella candles, but Consumers Reports claims them to be ineffective, and that is borne out by my experience. Perhaps the citronella spray will be more effective.
Jim
Merchantville
I have a pond and have been spraying Cutter spray for years. However, I am very careful and make sure there is absolutely no wind. I also dont spray too near the pond, in case of run off. Never had any deaths or problems.
Put up some Bat houses....bats consume LARGE numbers of mosquitos (primarily just as the sun is going down)
There's also a citronella smelling plant....like a fancy leaved geranium that you can plant along bushes. It's suppose to distract mosquitos from wanting to land in the area. Mosquitos hang out on the under side of leaves.
Different body chemistries also attract mosquitos differently. The more you wave your arms to shoo them away, the most scent you are releasing. Uric acid, cholesteral, and steroids found on your skin, all attract mosquitos the most.
Eliminate any standing water....use the dunks on anything that doesn't have fish to eat the larvae...and carefully spray any part of the yard that doesn't drip near the pond. Use a coarser spray, so you don't have any drifting toward your pond.
Choose carefully...just because somethings "natural" doesn't mean it's not toxic. Remember, Oleader bushes are natural!
weidner - I made a mistake. The chemical controls used locally are sumithrin (a synthetic pyrethroid) and chlorpyrifos (Dursban). I apologise to anyone who I misinformed. As a councilwoman of 12 years it is my job to present accurate information and I failed to do that here. (They switched from malathion quite some time ago.)
I did not suggest that your locality fund or adopt a mosquito contol program. I tried to give you information that there are effective chemical sprays that do not "drift to the pond and kill the plants and fish".
The link below is to our local program which has been operating since 1946, is effective and well received by the public. The section on environment is very informative.
http://www.tasd-mosquitos.org/faq.htm
Hey Jim, I would suggest trying some if not all these suggestions, many we have used too and had good
success with. If you have a pond your going to want to be outside alott,(for years to come) if your outside alott you're going to be constantly battling mosquitos and bugs as we are down here in the swampy Florida sub tropics where
mosquitos love to breed! (and bite!) I know your looking for imediate releaf but start thinking of next years pond time too. Look into putting up some bat houses, check into the "Mosquito Magnets",(seriously) we had one a few years ago and for the first year it worked great!! (worth the big bucks) Thanks MotherMole for the repair info and early problems
correction information!! The two things that work best for us now (with no ill effects on fish) are the mosquito dunks
in anything that can hold water, potted water gardens, plastic saucers under pots, watering cans, bird baths, ect...
Ok now our favorite new mosquito weapon is the Black Flag Mosquito Yard Fogger, they run about 60 to 70 bucks
and can be found at home depots down here. There are two kinds, the propane type which we have and the electric one which requires a long extention cord. Now we got one of these two years ago and have been fogging off and on since, everywhere around the yard, ponds, and gardens with no, No fish problems! Now up untill a few months ago I did my best to not fog right next to the pond or not to fog so close that the fog would drift over the pond. But, it would sometimes anyway(!!) and I would worry...but no problems! So now I even fog right over the pond in the small trees where the mosquitos like to hide, also around the back and sides...no problems. It's such a fine fog or mist and most of it seems to blow up and away after a few seconds but when it;s not windy at all i guess it stays around just lond enough to effect the mosquitos and bugs because it does really help!! The fogging doesn't last very long, (it's just a fogging) your neighbors mosquitos can fly over later and be fine, simply fog again, that's the beauty of this thing it's
refillable so your not spending 7 or 8 bucks on cans of cutter or yard guard everyday! The refill jug runs about 10$ and can last weeks depebding how often you need to fog. Whenever we are going to be working outside or having people over I go out early in the morning and fog about for 30 minutes and it can cut down the misquitos by 80 to 90%!!!
So, just though I'd pass all this along, these are our methods and what works for us, hope this helps.
Happy Gardening, and Ponding, Terry.
Terry, your pond is fabulous.
How about mosquito minnows in the pond? That's what we did last year and this year we have about a gazillion of them but virtually no mosquitos anywhere. And I'm always the fresh meat for the things so that must be working.
Kathy
fiberholic - those mosquito fish will eat mosquito larvae in the pond but don't help much with mosquitos coming from standing water in other areas, like my neighbors junk pile behind his garage that has old buckets filled with rain water and anythig else that catches and hold rain. Do you have any idea how to control the population explosion of the mosquito fish? They breed prodigiously here even with our frozen winters. My pond is about overrun with them and I need a plan to get them out that won't upset the koi. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I haven't had a problem yet with being over run so I can't answer that. And a) our nearest neighbor is a couple blocks away and b) standing water isn't much of a problem here is SE Arizona except for a couple days after a thunderstorm so we don't have that to contend with either. Sorry, I guess I'm not much help there.
Kathy
I have had good success with garlic spray. Here's a couple of links:
http://www.garlicbarrier.com/
http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/facts.html
I used the second one, Mosqito Barrier.
Good luck, hope this helps.
Mosquito Fogger: I have one of these also, they work great,,,but don't be surprised if a neighbor calls the fire dept. thinking your house is on fire. lol,,,mine did..
I wanted to add a note here, that not all places up north sell these items because they don't 'see' the need to carry them,,,but they are available on line and WELL worth the initial cost...In the long run you will save money. Just my 2 cents worth
Misquito magnets?? I have never heard of such a thing. Definately worth looking into! Thanks for the info everybody. I get eaten alive by the little beasts. They always manage to find a place to breed no matter what I do.
Unfortunately, we've had a natural mosquito repellant going on up here, drought. Six weeks without a drop of rain. No mosquitos and a big water bill.
Hey Ann,
Don't waste your money on the Mosquito Magnets/Mosquito Vac's(!!) they are very problematic and don't last more than 6 months to a year (if your lucky) and they're very very expensive ($400-$500)!!!! Mine is in my brother-in laws
garage, he has been trying to fix it for about a year now....very fustraiting! It's a real shame too because when they are working they're fantastic(!!) Google them and check out some of the blogs, everybody is having problems with them and are fed up too. Maybe one day they'll get the bugs worked out of 'um...("bugs" ha ha ) We'll see.
Now the Mosquito Foggers put out by Blackflag are awesome and do work great(!!) really worth looking into!!
Happy ponding, try not to get bit! Terry.
Thanks Terry! My budget is pretty tight. I have to worry about those boring things like house payments and utilities which leaves very little for the important stuff like my pond and garden. I will have to look at the misquito foggers then.
Maybe I will revisit the idea when as you say they "get the bugs worked out of them" too funny!
Hey Ann!! yeah we here ya budget wise...I blew a good bit of last years tax refund on that hunk a junk! oh, if you look into the foggers the propane one is much better than the electric in my opinion, no extention cords needed.
Oh, back to that "budget" thing....didn't you forget- home equity loan, credit card, gas card, cable/internet, cellphone,
car payment, car insurance, oh and some food...which sometimes I can go without when I really need a plant!! lol!!!
Have a great Labor Day, thanks, Terry.
One more thing about the Mosquito magnets. We had our repaired last year June and haven't had any issues with it since. It does a fine job when it is working but like rose said they are problematic but anything with a propane tank to throw out the carbon dioxide(?) should work. I like to look at Amazon.com for reviews on stuff like this.
We "drown" ourselves with a VERY GOOD grade of Peppermint essential oil mixed with water when we go out. We normally don't have a problem but this year our neighbors bought a kiddy pool and after one use just let it set and "breed" and am sure that's what has us plagued.
Also, you must have electricity for the pond pump so plug in a rotating fan. The wind keeps them away quite well.
Good luck
I toss a mosquito dunk over the fence at night into my neighbor's mosquito breeding pond. He has a small preformed with no pump or filter. It just sits there and stagnates. So, once a month my DH keeps watch and I wind up my pitching arm.
Mare, I LOVE that pond. It is just perfect! Ya know how you never know quite what to do with a particular spot but know it when you see it?? Eureka moment... THAT is the pond that I want. And here I thought I was doing so well.......
This message was edited Sep 3, 2008 8:15 PM
