Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Mosquito control

Hi all newbie alert here....Long story short I have a prettg good size pond that consists of a lower pond and an upper pond with a short river conecting the 2 together. Last night my kid found a bunnch of what would appear to be mosquito larve in my river. I mean ALOT! I bought some of those doughnut looking deals in the past,but if I recall right the larvae have to eat those for them to work??? I was thinking maybe some chelated copper??? Any sugestions here?? Thanks in advance... Kreg

Hello Kreg and welcome to Pond Boss. Hang on for some expert opinions.

What are the sivzes of your pond and river? Several pounds of fathead minnows may be a cheaper alternative.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm guessing 5000-7000 gal. The upper pond is about 20% of the lower pond. I'll try to stick a pic up, is there somewhere to upload the photos here or do I need do use photobucket? I have a ton of mosquito fish, but they(the fish) can't get to them if they(larvae) are (and they are) in my river/waterfall.

You'll need to upload them to a place like photobucket. Look in the archives, there is a thread on how to post pictures here. It's really easy with photobucket.

Lets see if I can pull off a photo here. I left my camera at work last night so I don't have a pic of the larvae yet but hopefully here is a shot of the pond.

Mosquito Dunks are a form of Bacillus thuringiensis v. israelensis in a solid form. As they float in the water where you put them they slowly release the BT on the water surface. The BT then gradually settles to the bottom where the mosquito larva eat it and die. Mosquito Dunks are 2 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick, with a small hole in the center. The Dunks float on top of the water and will be effective for approximately 30 days. While floating, they slowly release the larvicide that settles in the water where it is eaten by mosquito larvae. Alternate wetting and drying will not reduce their effectiveness. The center hole can be used to anchor the dunks in place with a string or stake. Recommended application rates are 1/4 dunk for 1-5 square feet of water surface area and one dunk for 25-100 square feet of water surface area regardless of the water depth.

The mosquito dunk treatment has no toxic effect to fish or waterfowl and are EPA registered.

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/ingredients/factsheets/factsheet_006476.htm

So you think by putting these "dunks" in my pond it will be effective on the larvae in the waterfall/river?????? What are the odds these are some kind of knat larvae. I'll put up a pic tonite, maybe even a short vid so you can see em twisting around.
When I googled some images last night 9 out of 10 of the images looked bigger and more hairy. But a couple of them looked like exactly what I have....

I would suggest a 4-6 pounds of fathead minnows in 5-7000 gallons of water. Mosquitos won't produce in flowing water, so removing "stagnant" areas in your stream will eliminate those breeding grounds.

If mosquito larvae cant handle aeration I must have something else. There are no stagnate areas in my waterfall/river. Not sure what's up with my camera here the fox tails look red.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV1mcI5hgx0]

I guess I can't do a vid. I'll try a pic but I'm afraid it will just be too small, if any one can blow this up for me that would be great. I turned off my river last night, I think I have a leak and I'm trying to figure out what pond it is. This is under one of the rocks at the top of the river

Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here guys. I figured out how to post the pic bigger. Can anyone tell me what these are???? I'm still not convinced they are not mosquitos.
[img]http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss230/H20MOFO/Lukesnewbeardeddragon035.jpg?t=1252516568[/img]
Awww crap why didn't that work.

Fixed for ya.

I don't know what they are, but I know they aren't mosquitoes. Mosquito larva float just below the surface tension of the water, breathing thru it. They will squirm down towards the safety of the bottom when disturbed, but they come right back up.
Those look like they live on those submerged rocks.

They look like caddisfly larve to me, if you look close you can see some of the cases they make attached to the rock. The adults don't bite/sting if thats what you are worried about. They are mostly nocturnal, so they shouldn't be a bother during daylight hours.

Those are good for the fish, and usually indicate good water quality.

Once they turn into adults and fly away, the various caddis/stone/may flies only live a day or 2, and don't even eat.

Thanks...you guys rock. I hate skeeters. Btw if any one is in the Slc Utah area I'm about to get rid of a whole bunch of cattails.

Thanks Kreg, but most of us shy away from the cattail critters!