AusBonsai

Last Autum i started to grow a swamp cypress in a large plastic contain filled with water, the tree has just exploded with growth and roots are coming out everywhere from top and bottom. After a lot of rain over the last week today i noticed quite a few wrigglers dancing around in the water, i knew this was going to become a problem coming back into the warmer months. Is there anything you can put in the water to kill wrigglers and stop mosquitoes from laying eggs without damaging the tree. Fish wont work for me but i have heard of oil being used to stop them not sure on that one.

Hi Magzy
Oil does work, but not in this situation. Oil stops the oxygen entering the water.
The best situation is wash out the old water with hose or tip out and refresh with fresh water. thats what i do.

mick

Hi Magzi,

Up here in the tropics mosquitoes can be a real pest, but we need water trays for a few plants. I fill the water trays with small pebbles or diatomite. They still hold water, but the mozzies can't breed in the water.

Glenda

You should consider encouraging native micro-bats to the area buy building a roost box. There are numerous illustrations on the web about it. Micro-bats are known to eat approximately 600 mosquitoes/hour.

Joel

Thanks for the reply's and suggestions, forgot to mention i'm in a unit block on 2nd floor.I did have a hose up here for awhile but i think the lady downstairs wasn't to happy with all the run off dripping down there so i'm back to my water pump.Anyway i searched on internet and asked some pond people and most of the answers i got was fish. Today i came up with a piece of shade cloth and some screws, so now i can enjoy a few cold ones in the coming summer afternoons without a swarm of mozzies. Here's a photo of my swampy and its new cover. Thanks again,
Mark.

grow carnivorous plants. that might solve the problems of insects...

but i think they have a smelly scents.

http://www.capalabanurseries.com.au/Pla ... urous.html

Always want one of them when i was a kid, thanks.

They don't smell unless you have a large Nepenthes that has recently eaten a mouse or something else that is large. They do not eat many insects though, it is more of an interesting adaptive idea than anything else. Still cool though!

Joel

Go down to your local river, creek or lake and get catch some tadpoles. Put them in a pond in your backyard and the pond will attract the mosquitoes, the tadpoles and later frogs will do the rest.

Cheers,
Mojo