Bloodsucking, Immigrants or Visitors?

[MartinL]

So, the Channel Islands may have the Asian hornets.
What other (Warm Climate) insects can we expect?

Reason being we have, or have been bitten by some proper Mosquitos.
Not the good old British brown/grey Gnat, but something more than twice the size & Black.
Quite a reaction, to the bites too (something else for the Anaphylactic Valetudinarians no doubt)!

Thing is, I recon some are emanating from our pond. Is there somewhere in UK I can obtain, (willing to pay if I have to) Dragon fly nymphs or similar to stock the pond as a biological containment?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

So, the Channel Islands may have the Asian hornets.
What other (Warm Climate) insects can we expect?

Reason being we have, or have been bitten by some proper Mosquitos.
Not the good old British brown/grey Gnat, but something more than twice the size & Black.
Quite a reaction, to the bites too (something else for the Anaphylactic Valetudinarians no doubt)!

Thing is, I recon some are emanating from our pond. Is there somewhere in UK I can obtain, (willing to pay if I have to) Dragon fly nymphs or similar to stock the pond as a biological containment?

Try a thin layer of oil on all exposed water, same as used to eradicate the problem when the Panama Canal was being built. (and before the emergence of environment activists )

 

[Goran]

So, the Channel Islands may have the Asian hornets.
What other (Warm Climate) insects can we expect?

Reason being we have, or have been bitten by some proper Mosquitos.
Not the good old British brown/grey Gnat, but something more than twice the size & Black.
Quite a reaction, to the bites too (something else for the Anaphylactic Valetudinarians no doubt)!

Thing is, I recon some are emanating from our pond. Is there somewhere in UK I can obtain, (willing to pay if I have to) Dragon fly nymphs or similar to stock the pond as a biological containment?

Aedes albopictus

Recent years seen in higher number. Before wasn't here. It is said most of it came with car tires. So... blame UK importers and ask them for money

Being such bigger than ordinary mosquito, we say like it eat bricks to be so big..

 

[Millet]

So, the Channel Islands may have the Asian hornets.
What other (Warm Climate) insects can we expect?

Reason being we have, or have been bitten by some proper Mosquitos.
Not the good old British brown/grey Gnat, but something more than twice the size & Black.
Quite a reaction, to the bites too (something else for the Anaphylactic Valetudinarians no doubt)!

Thing is, I recon some are emanating from our pond. Is there somewhere in UK I can obtain, (willing to pay if I have to) Dragon fly nymphs or similar to stock the pond as a biological containment?

Don't forget Dragon fly or Great Diving beetle Nymphs do not just eat small things, tadpoles being a favorite, have you got a pond pump in there to get the water moving as they prefare stagnant water, also do you have fish in there as they will eat a lot more larvae than anything else.

 

[Swarm]

And if it's a half decent pond it should already be populated with all sorts by now.

 

[Zante]

You might consider this to be bonkers, but I'm planning to keep some stagnating water to have mosquitoes lay their eggs.

The fish in my aquariums will love fresh live food!
Also all the eggs laid in the tank I'll set up for this won't be laid elsewhere and will be eaten. Maybe it won't make much of a dent in the mosquito population, but every little helps...

 

[Millet]

You might consider this to be bonkers, but I'm planning to keep some stagnating water to have mosquitoes lay their eggs.

The fish in my aquariums will love fresh live food!
Also all the eggs laid in the tank I'll set up for this won't be laid elsewhere and will be eaten. Maybe it won't make much of a dent in the mosquito population, but every little helps...

A recipe for disaster , if you excel plenty of Co2 be prepared to be savaged at some point, order some skin so soft as it might help.

 

[MartinL]

Don't forget Dragon fly or Great Diving beetle Nymphs do not just eat small things, tadpoles being a favorite, have you got a pond pump in there to get the water moving as they prefare stagnant water, also do you have fish in there as they will eat a lot more larvae than anything else.

We have deliberately avoided fish as they eat everything and pass it all as Nitrate rich you know what!

Plants do well, all sorts of water beetled water skater & boatmen. have seen dragonflies around the edges & mayflies too but the mosquitoes are, (to be honest) getting on my tits!

I'd rather not have a Panama oil-slick either as it would suffocate everything else too.

Really after a source for some predator to keep their numbers down as apposed to removing them from the ecosystem that's taken 8 years to build.

One other point is that the frogs disappeared 2 years ago too?

 

[For want of a better word]

DDT is about the only thing that will kill them dead!

You could buy some guppies.. thy love mozzie larvae!!

Nos da

 

[MartinL]

A recipe for disaster , if you excel plenty of Co2 be prepared to be savaged at some point, order some skin so soft as it might help.

Best prophylactic so far has been Vie patches, (ran out last week)!

Have light bulbs to dispel mosquitoes but they're screw fit not bayonet and only have one lamp they can fit.

Burning the nations supply of citronella + applying Jungle formula, (smell of which gives auto suggestion of my Army days).

 

[Zante]

A recipe for disaster , if you excel plenty of Co2 be prepared to be savaged at some point, order some skin so soft as it might help.

None of the larvae will make it to adulthood. They will be harvested and eaten before they get a chance.

If you're thinking of laying adults attracted by the water, then it won't make much difference. I get savaged anyway when I'm there in summer. Mosquitoes would fly past my brother and over an ultrasonic buzzer to come and feast on my blood.

 

[Zante]

DDT is about the only thing that will kill them dead!

You could buy some guppies.. thy love mozzie larvae!!

Nos da

If it's an isolated pond and the fish can't escape in the wild, a few gambusia would be better than guppies.

 

[Millet]

None of the larvae will make it to adulthood. They will be harvested and eaten before they get a chance.

If you're thinking of laying adults attracted by the water, then it won't make much difference. I get savaged anyway when I'm there in summer. Mosquitoes would fly past my brother and over an ultrasonic buzzer to come and feast on my blood.

Stop breathing, that will fettle the problem..

 

[Zante]

Stop breathing, that will fettle the problem..

Hmm.. Maybe I'll give that a try

 

[Millet]

We have deliberately avoided fish as they eat everything and pass it all as Nitrate rich you know what!

Plants do well, all sorts of water beetled water skater & boatmen. have seen dragonflies around the edges & mayflies too but the mosquitoes are, (to be honest) getting on my tits!

I'd rather not have a Panama oil-slick either as it would suffocate everything else too.

Really after a source for some predator to keep their numbers down as apposed to removing them from the ecosystem that's taken 8 years to build.

One other point is that the frogs disappeared 2 years ago too?

It sounds like the water condition are unfavorable for frogs, or you already have dragon fly/ or great diving beetle nymph eating all the tadpoles, what about rigging a filter system up and getting that water moving, there is not really many other options apart from placing buckets of water about the area in the hope that they flies lay there eggs in them, which can easily be disposed of once you spot the mozzie larvae in there.

 

[Swarm]

Get the water circulating. All those Diving beetle, Dragonfly larvae and more will already be there. It sounds like there are shallow areas if there are that many mozzies, so a decent pump and a home made biological filter is the best idea.

 

[Al-In-Italy]

None of the larvae will make it to adulthood. They will be harvested and eaten before they get a chance...

I assume you're thinking of using some sort of container of stagnant water rather than a natural water feature. Can't imagine how you'd possibly ensure that all of the mosquito larvae were removed from a pond, but it might be possible to remove at least most of them from a bucket or barrel if you were netting very frequently.

Since you'll be doing this in Italy, you won't need a big container. The voracious Tiger Mosquito, which is now endemic to Italy, has been known to happily breed in very small volumes of water (the dishes under potted plants, for example). We had problems due to small amounts of standing water in our house's gutters.

Your fish may find the larvae tasty and I note what you say about how you'd be taking a few mosquitos out of circulation, but deliberately breeding these nasty creatures seems to me questionable, particularly since Tiger Mosquitos are known to transmit diseases to humans and they have been responsible for a few outbreaks of mosquito-borne illness in Italy.

 

[Zante]

I assume you're thinking of using some sort of container of stagnant water rather than a natural water feature. Can't imagine how you'd possibly ensure that all of the mosquito larvae were removed from a pond, but it might be possible to remove at least most of them from a bucket or barrel if you were netting very frequently.

That is correct, I'd be using one of the smaller aquariums, in essence a glass box. Nowhere to hide.

I'm planning to keep it on hand, no need to take it anywhere, so frequency isn't an issue, it could be as often as twice a day: scoop from the culture drop in front of the fish... Gone.

I have bought enough live food to know how quickly they will vanish, and also enough to recognise larvae developed enough to be close to metamorphosis days before they do turn into mosquitoes.

I'll be moving fairly close to a river, with plenty of pools and puddles, so trust me, they won't need any help from me in breeding. My main aim is to get good food for the fish.

 

[MartinL]

Stop breathing, that will fettle the problem..

I'll run a test experiment;

I can be the control/placebo, SWMBO the real trial??

 

[MartinL]

Get the water circulating. All those Diving beetle, Dragonfly larvae and more will already be there. It sounds like there are shallow areas if there are that many mozzies, so a decent pump and a home made biological filter is the best idea.

mmm,
so the bog garden was a bad idea then?


Next door installed a pond last year but it has moving water & fish.

Well at least the ones remaining after the Heron Netting went up!