Get rid of mosquito larvae in my water tank?

[Uller]

Subject says it all really - my water tank is full following recent rain (yay!) but also now has a lot of mozzie larvae in it (boo!). How can I get rid of it?

[MuddyWitch]

Can you cover the tank, to exclude light? The larvae eat the micro plants that would die in the dark...ie starve them to death.

MW

[Millymollymandy]

One of my butts was full of what I imagine are mozzies and all of mine have lids. Every time I lifted to lid to see how much water was left a cloud of insects flew out. The dark didn't kill them!

[Odsox]

A not particularly green way, but 100% guaranteed way is to put a few drops of paraffin or petrol on the surface of the water.
Thinking about it, it might work with washing up liquid or soap, but I've never tried it.
The idea is to destroy the surface tension of the water which in turn means the larvae can't attach themselves to the underside of the surface, which in turn means they suffocate and die.
Soap is probably a very short term solution where paraffin is more certain ... only needs a drop or two

[Derry]

any oil would work i suppose, if you wanna disrupt the surface tension

we have goldfish in one our water butts, im not too sure if its made much difference
we also get mozzie larvae in our frog pool, and the frogpoles dont even eat them..

[Odsox]

any oil would work i suppose, if you wanna disrupt the surface tension

we have goldfish in one our water butts, im not too sure if its made much difference
we also get mozzie larvae in our frog pool, and the frogpoles dont even eat them..

Guppies are bred to eat mozzie larvae in warmer climes to try to control Malaria.
I have Guppies and they LOVE them, they act a bit like you see in those films of Piranhas eating meat
Don't think they would appreciate living in an outdoor water butt though.

[Thomzo]

Put a short coil of copper wire in the water butt. It's supposed to put them off. It does seem to work.

Zoe

[pumpy]

Subject says it all really - my water tank is full following recent rain (yay!) but also now has a lot of mozzie larvae in it (boo!). How can I get rid of it?

Are they those wriggely things (usually red, & about 3mm long) that we are seeing in our butts this year?

[Uller]

Subject says it all really - my water tank is full following recent rain (yay!) but also now has a lot of mozzie larvae in it (boo!). How can I get rid of it?

Are they those wriggely things (usually red, & about 3mm long) that we are seeing in our butts this year?

Ours are black, about the same length and very wriggly. There are hundreds of them, going several inches deep in the water. I had assumed that they were mozzie larvae, but am not really sure - any ideas from anyone?

[Odsox]

Yeah, all the ones I've seen are black, or at least a dark colour.
They wriggle about like mad when disturbed, but if you wait a few minutes they will rise to the surface and hang upside down to breathe.
Now there's a thought, how many other species are there that breathe through their bum.

[MuddyWitch]

Now there's a thought, how many other species are there that breathe through their bum

Dunno but I know a few people who talk through theirs! ;)

MW

[2ndRateMind]

On the Guppie theme, ordinary sticklebacks do the job. When I was a kid, I had a fish tank, and we used to hunt for fish in the local drainage ditches, and then keep them in the tank. I did my 'O' level biology project on it. And we'd fish out mozzie larvae as a special treat for them. If you have access to kids, get them fishing nets and wellies and send them for a forage. They'll love it.

Best wishes, 2RM.

[frozenthunderbolt]

chlorination may do the trick. we occasionaly treat out tanks with chlorine tablets. 50,000 gallons though and are fairly well sealed to exclude in the first place which i think is the easiest solution . . . sorry!

[Penny Lane]

On a gardeners world episode a while back the girly said to empty the butt completely, refill it and put a layer of veg oil on the top.

I remember mumbling something about wasting water and not having a tap nearby to refill my waterbutt but apparently you put the oil on before the mozzies get to it.

Maybe if you over filled it so the larvae spilled out then put the oil on? Or perhaps I'm talking through my butt?

[bantamlady]

A very thin layer of oil on the top works, the larva breath through their tails, when they come up through the oil tail gets coated so they suffocate. Oil is also Eco friendly.