Nontoxic Pest Control: Ways to Control Mosquito Larvae in a Pond

The sound of summer is often the sound of the mosquito. The annoying buzzing noise of these creatures means only one thing: they want to suck your blood. Not only do mosquitoes make you itchy, they are also vectors for disease. Mosquitoes are carriers of malaria, dengue fever, West Nile Virus, and some encephalitis viruses. However, these animals are also an important food source for animals such as bats, and their habitats are some of the most sensitive and wildlife-rich environments in the world. If you have a small pond or wetland in or around your home, how do you balance concerns about mosquitoes with concerns for their habitat?

Why Use Nontoxic Ways to Control or Exterminate Mosquitoes?

By creating a pond, you have made an environment that is rich in wildlife habitat. Frogs, salamanders, fish, and other water insects live in and around the pond, and wider-ranging animals such as birds and bats visit the pond regularly. Using pesticides to control animals in the pond may seem like a quick fix mosquito repellant, but it throws the ecological balance into disarray. The mosquitoes’ natural predators like bats and birds can also ingest these pesticides, and in the long term, you may damage their ability to control mosquito populations naturally. Using nontoxic pest control keeps your pest control allies happy.

Change the Pond, Control the Mosquito Larvae

If you would like to control or repel mosquitoes, the first stop is the nursery. Mosquitoes breed exceptionally well in standing water. If your pond is very still, you may find that it breeds abundant quantities of mosquitoes. Change the nature of the water, and you have fewer mosquitoes. Add water features that move the water in the pond, or add a waterfall to move the pond into a small creek. Creating poor mosquito habitat is an easy, natural, and nontoxic way to control mosquitoes.

Nontoxic Exterminators and Repellents

One of the best ways to exterminate mosquito larvae is to make it difficult for them to breathe. Baby mosquitoes breathe at the surface of the water. If the water’s surface is covered with a nontoxic substance that makes it hard for the mosquito larvae to breathe, this will suffocate them. Add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil or summer horticultural oil for every few feet of pond surface. The oil will form a slick at the surface. Depending on the species of mosquito, it may take a week or two to see the effects.

Control Mosquito Pests By Searching for Other Standing Water

Often it is not the pond that is the problem. Search for other sources of standing water near your home. Old tires, open rain barrels, garden equipment and children’s toys are all places where mosquito larvae can be abundant.

Mosquitoes can be a nuisance in the wetland or pond garden. Through careful and nontoxic mosquito management, you can continue to support bird, bat and frog populations while controlling mosquitoes and their larvae in the pond garden.