This article discusses other fish which also eat mosquitoes. The popular and ornamental Koi fish are too large to feed on tiny mosquito larvae, but smaller guppies, killifish or common goldfish will live alongside Koi and eat them. Other fish also eat mosquito larvae, so gambusia aren’t the only choice. In certain limited circumstances, they may work, but in others they may not work, or do more harm than good. If you’re interested in the possibility of using them for mosquito control in your area, contact your state’s fish and game or wildlife department to find out restrictions and recommendations. Gambusia are best used in isolated, artificial bodies of water with little to no surface vegetation. Gambusia may also overwhelm local native species, including dragonflies, killifishes or topminnows, which also control mosquitoes, so there may be no actual improvement in the problem, just a change from one kind of fish to another. ![]() ![]() The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries suggests the fish are “somewhat effective” in ponds, drainage ditches or containers, but also cautions they must not be able to escape through an outlet into other water. If there was vegetation on the surface, such as might be found in an ornamental lily pond, the Anopheles larvae used it to hide and the gambusia fish couldn’t control them.Ī mosquitofish snacks on a mosquito larva. The fish ate all the larvae of Culex and Aedes mosquitoes, and also ate Anopheles mosquito larvae if there was no floating vegetation. In an unused swimming pool, they stocked 35 fish each spring, since freezing of the water’s surface caused them to die off in the winter. The Rutgers Center for Vector Biology reported on several tests of mosquitofish in various situations. Due to the harm to native wildlife, mosquitofish are regulated in many states, where they may only be stocked in enclosed ponds or pools that have no outlet to streams or rivers, so the fish can’t escape into the wild. People have tried stocking gambusia to control mosquitoes in various areas of the United States since the early 1900s, with varying success. Hint: crumble the dunks and spread them around the water for better coverage.” “Drop a Bti mosquito dunk in a pond or rainbarrel and it will kill larvae with a natural bacillus that targets mosquitoes, not fish, pets or people. There is also a related species, Gambusia holbrooki, the eastern mosquitofish, which is sometimes used for mosquito control too. They’re not always successful at controlling mosquitoes, with unpredictable results. These little fish are controversial because they’re aggressive, also eating the eggs, larvae and young of native fish and amphibians and competing with them for other food. The gambusia fish ( Gambusia affinis), also called the western mosquitofish, eats mosquito larvae. Two natural predators which attack mosquito larvae in the water are mosquitofish and dragonflies: Mosquito-eating Fish One of the most effective natural enemies is Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis or Bti, a bacterium that only targets mosquito larvae plus a few very closely related species, without affecting fish, frogs or other desirable species, including people. Fish, insects and other creatures that feed on larvae are another possible form of control, though still only effective in certain circumstances. Mosquitoes make up only a small part of their diet. Maybe purple martins and bats won’t eat anything, but their choice of bugs is large enough that mosquitoes make up only a small part of their diet.īats, birds and dragonflies which kill adult mosquitoes are some of the most obvious predators, but the least effective, according to the book Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Some predators eat enough to noticeably reduce the population, while others get rid of so few that one can barely tell any difference.Ī lot of the predators that you actually see out catching bugs are the least useful, specifically, when it comes to mosquitoes. Scientists have studied what eats them in the wild, in hopes of finding enemies that can be introduced to get rid of mosquito problems near where people live. Mosquitoes have a variety of natural predators, from bats to fish to dragonflies. Gambusia fish swimming among mosquito larvae.
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