Keeping Your Fish Pond From Becoming a Mosquito Breeding Ground

We've had a pond for a number of years.  Each year we change the look of the pond by planting different plants or arranging the house plants differently.

Our goldfish pond in 2013

A pond can help you relax at the end of the day by listening to the waterfall or watching the fish swim around. It can be a calming place that helps your senses slow down from a hectic day. Your pond doesn't have to be huge to help. It can be a small pond with a couple of fish. In other words, size doesn't matter.

No matter what size pond you have, you have to take into consideration that a pond takes work. To us, it is hard to CALL it WORK because it is something we enjoy doing. Trimming the plants to keep the view appeasing to the eyes, finding the perfect balance for clear water and making sure the water is healthy for the fish can all take time.

Got food??

Ma experiments with different ways to improve the pond water. Our pond is a natural pond which means chemicals are not used. The only thing that is a chemical that is used is the Mosquito Dunk floating tabs. 

The thing with the Mosquito Dunk is it doesn't kill mosquitoes that lay eggs in your water. It kills the larvae. The eggs hatch and the larvae feeds on the Dunks. It stops them from becoming full adults. With any mosquito repellants, it won't kill ALL those hatchlings.

Over the years fellow ponders have told ma those larvaes are tasty treats for the fishies and not to worry about it. Depending on how many fish you have, how big they are and the layout of your pond will determine if they can reach the larvaes to eat. 

When we went to Phoenix for Blogpaws, we were gone for 4 days. Ma cleaned the filters before we left. Owensboro had 100 degree weather with 99% humidity and thunderstorms which is perfect breeding weather for mosquitoes. After coming home and unpacking, doing the things that had to be done, ma didn't go out to the pond until the next night. When she pulled out the pond filter to wash, she seen this.........

Mosquito eggs in pond filter

Yes those are strings of mosquito eggs!! The whole filter box was encased in them. Now can you imagine if ALL those eggs hatched?? We have 7 large goldfish in the pond.

Needless to say, ma broke that filter down and scrubbed with scratch pads until it was egg free. 

Mosquito facts- Eggs will hatch into larvae within 48 hours. In seven to 10 days, larvae enter the pupal stage. Mosquitoes can lay over 100 eggs at a time!! 

Keeping our pond from being a mosquito nursery is a top priority for us. One of the best thing that you can do is to keep your water moving. Waterfalls ,spray heads and aerators help. 

Keep the water moving with decrease mosquitoes

We use an aquarium aerator with 2 ports to aerate the water. One bubbler on each end to get the areas that have still water moving. We encase the aerator in rocks to protect it from the weather. The fish really like swimming through the bubbles. It also helps to keep the water cool in these high temps. 

Having a backyard pond can be a wonderful if you are willing to put the work into it. 

Don't allow your pond to be a mosquito nursery. Get that water moving. 

Do you have a pond? If so, how do you keep mosquitoes from breeding in the water??