Hint: crumble the dunks and spread them around the water for better coverage.” “Drop a Bti mosquito dunk in a pond or rainbarrel and it will kill larvae with a natural bacillus that targets mosquitoes, not fish, pets or people. There is also a related species, Gambusia holbrooki, the eastern mosquitofish, which is sometimes used for mosquito control too. They’re not always successful at controlling mosquitoes, with unpredictable results. These little fish are controversial because they’re aggressive, also eating the eggs, larvae and young of native fish and amphibians and competing with them for other food. The gambusia fish ( Gambusia affinis), also called the western mosquitofish, eats mosquito larvae. Two natural predators which attack mosquito larvae in the water are mosquitofish and dragonflies: Mosquito-eating Fish One of the most effective natural enemies is Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis or Bti, a bacterium that only targets mosquito larvae plus a few very closely related species, without affecting fish, frogs or other desirable species, including people. Fish, insects and other creatures that feed on larvae are another possible form of control, though still only effective in certain circumstances. Mosquitoes make up only a small part of their diet. Maybe purple martins and bats won’t eat anything, but their choice of bugs is large enough that mosquitoes make up only a small part of their diet.īats, birds and dragonflies which kill adult mosquitoes are some of the most obvious predators, but the least effective, according to the book Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Some predators eat enough to noticeably reduce the population, while others get rid of so few that one can barely tell any difference.Ī lot of the predators that you actually see out catching bugs are the least useful, specifically, when it comes to mosquitoes. Scientists have studied what eats them in the wild, in hopes of finding enemies that can be introduced to get rid of mosquito problems near where people live. Mosquitoes have a variety of natural predators, from bats to fish to dragonflies. Gambusia fish swimming among mosquito larvae.
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