12-22-2015, 09:41 AM
I saw a documentary many years ago that showed a rural village somewhere that had eliminated their mosquito problem by disturbing the water every seven days. They did this by flushing it with fresh water. The reasoning was that mosquitoes need 10 days of standing water to breed.
I was looking for verification and found this on the State of Virginia's website:
Q:How long can water stand in puddles or containers before it poses a problem?
A:If the water stands for less than a week it will not breed mosquitoes. Only one species of mosquito (the dark rice-field mosquito) can complete its aquatic life cycle in less than seven days. It is not a common mosquito, and it would probably not lay eggs in a puddle that would dry up so quickly. Most mosquito species require standing water for a minimum of 10 to 14 days to complete their development. Puddles that stand for less than a week are not worthy of concern.
For those of us who have ponds, using a hose to spray water into it and disturb the "still water" areas would probably prevent breeding.
I wonder if frequent rain showers would be enough "disturbance" to affect areas where they breed.
I was looking for verification and found this on the State of Virginia's website:
Q:How long can water stand in puddles or containers before it poses a problem?
A:If the water stands for less than a week it will not breed mosquitoes. Only one species of mosquito (the dark rice-field mosquito) can complete its aquatic life cycle in less than seven days. It is not a common mosquito, and it would probably not lay eggs in a puddle that would dry up so quickly. Most mosquito species require standing water for a minimum of 10 to 14 days to complete their development. Puddles that stand for less than a week are not worthy of concern.
For those of us who have ponds, using a hose to spray water into it and disturb the "still water" areas would probably prevent breeding.
I wonder if frequent rain showers would be enough "disturbance" to affect areas where they breed.