A Controllable and Safer Way To Raise Mosquitoes
by Scott Davis
SouthWestern Michigan Aquarium Society. From SWAM, July/August 2003 Issue
Aquarticles
Raising mosquitoes without limits is bad P.R. for the hobby. Legally it's a little
dicey for the individual involved, and possibly dangerous to others. It's a great live
food for our fish, but some people just raise big vats of them, not bothering with any
control on how many mossies they raise which get loose. Hopefully this information will
help everyone, so they can raise the mosquitoes without creating a health hazard for the
rest of the community.
Dedicate at least two reasonably clean buckets to the cause of raising the mosquitoes.
Fill one with safe aquarium water on a change out. Pull those large grass plants and
dandelions (full of vitamins and minerals) from the edge of the yard or garden and place
them in the first bucket of water. We also put the shucks from corn on the cob there, too.
Obviously don't pull plants where herbicides or pesticides have been used. Leave that
bucket where the sun will hit it a little, but if you are on a hill, be discreet, to avoid
questions of your uphill neighbors. It will get pretty funky. The
scent…whooo-weeee!!! But, it will draw the mosquitoes, who will lay their eggs in
these buckets.
You can eye-ball the whole culture. If you haven't decided to harvest it before the
first pupa appears, do so then. Take a large sized, fine meshed net and dump ALL the water
through it into the second bucket. Empty the new catch into a jar of clean water and
return the mash water to the first bucket-or keep it as it is. That way you get all of the
baby mosquitoes, except maybe for a few really tiny ones. You can catch them with the next
batch.
You may need to rinse those harvested ones a couple of times. The grass mash can be
pretty potent! If you can devise some sort of sieve set, you can size them pretty easily.
I wonder if a regular net would let the small ones slip through and hold back the larger
ones. I have gotten the fine mesh nets from Jonah's Aquarium, and also that site that
changed its name to Dr. somebody and somebody, because their old name was quite similar to
that guy who was suing a list of people. I wish a Chicago area store carried those nets.
I'd go there first. There should be several Net sites…sorry about the pun-sorta.
Once you have harvested the mossies, you can repeat the cycle with the water returned
to the bucket. One could put a couple of buckets into service, but please make sure that
you can keep up with the harvests. If you fall behind, dump out one of the buckets. This
ain't brine shrimp that you're playing with. By harvesting mosquitoes and causing them to
lay their eggs in a controlled culture, you are effectively keeping those winged varmints
from laying eggs elsewhere and causing all sorts of trouble.
If you live in a town, be careful not to violate local ordinances against open water
containers. Some have those rules and take them, in this age of dog heartworm, St Louis
Encephalitis and West Nile Virus, pretty seriously. This all said, good luck with those
mossies!
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