Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Pest Control around Pond

I would like to spray some pest control around my pond but am not sure if there are any safe pest control chemicals that would not kill my fish. I am mostly worried about ants, mosquitos, flees and ticks since we bring out our dogs. Does anyone know of any pest control chemicals that would be safe around a pond?

Thank you for any help!

Different pests need different pesticides. The key is to not allow any of the spray to get into the water (if possible) and to not over spray. Mosquitoes/fleas/ticks I treat the dog because anywhere they run in the yard/property they are susceptible to them. I don't know about ants, we don't have that problem up here.

I use a spray that you need an applicators license to get, so that won't help you much unless you have the license. I pay attention to what way the wind is blowing and don't spray where the wind can blow it into the pond. I use a permethrin based spray, and am very careful not to spray it near any flowering plants either close to the pond or away from the pond - it's deadly to bees.

Go natural when possible.
A pond full of bluegills or sunfish, will take care of mosquitoes.
Consider getting free ranging chickens, or hens, to do the dirty work on the creepy crawlys.

Have you experimented with any innovative pest control methods? Let's swap stories and ideas! After all, a problem shared is a problem halved, right?

One thing I stay away from now is anything that was used in old-school garden sprays like Dacthal. That stuff was around for decades before they banned it, and it turns out it caused a lot of damage, especially to kids and pregnant women

As noted by Journeyman, if there are fish in the pond there will be no mosquitos coming from the pond. Mosquitos are a favorite easy catch food of small fish. If you don't have fish in the pond get some mosquito fish. If you have fish and mosquito problems they are hatching from other all sorts of water gathering / collection sources that do not have fish. Mosquitos travel 1-3 miles and with wind can move up to 30 miles from their hatching location. If you are encountering small clouds of tiny mosquito sized winged bug-insects around the pond, they will be midges not mosquitos. Most all midges do not bite for blood. Midges do not have a biting proboscis. There are a lot of winged insects that do originate in the pond but almost always they are not people/animal biting insects. Very large or huge looking mosquito like winged insects around the pond are Crane Flies; the adults do not eat or sometimes they eat flower nectar.

Ants should not be a problem on the shoreline pond banks - Are they fire ants? Regular ants should not bother dogs. Check with the University Extension office for ant control methods.

Ticks primarily inhabit brushy, weedy areas. Keep the dense brush areas from growing, keep grass mowed around the pond and you will not have ticks around the pond. Let the dogs run into the tree. shrub, and maybe tall grassy areas and that is where the dogs and people are encountering ticks.

For fleas, they are everywhere outside. You will not even come close to killing most of the fleas in a normal outdoor grass lawn area. I would use flea collars for the dogs and cats.

One thing I stay away from now is anything that was used in old-school garden sprays like Dacthal. That stuff was around for decades before they banned it, and it turns out it caused a lot of damage, especially to kids and pregnant women. If you’re curious what kind of health problems it’s tied to, this explains it well: https://federal-lawyer.com/injury-lawsuit/dacthal-pesticide/side-effects/