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Creating a truly mosquito free pond

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  • BluejaywayBluejayway Posts: 391
    Mosquito dunks seem to be working for us in our inherited pond :)
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,575
    I can see the oil working in a water butt where I don't really want or need anything living and there's a reasonably quick turnover of the contents, but in a pond I would be concerned about it affecting the other creatures. I don't have a pond (or space for one) so it's purely a theory. Will try it in the butts though.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Mozzie larvae are the bottom of the food chain, food for larger creatures in the pond and once they emerge, food for flying insects and Bats



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • SalixGoldSalixGold Posts: 450
    edited August 2023
    For some it's a choice in the garden between no mosquitoes or no pond - if you get a big reaction to the bites. It's likely that the most people get equally bitten by mosquitoes but only those allergic to the saliva realise they have been bitten.
  • WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 342
    Place your pond somewhere in the garden you do not go to very often but can see it from wherever you sit.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Never had them in any pond  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited August 2023
    Pete.8 said:
    If you add any oil at all it will will spread and cover the entire surface of the pond and prevent CO2/O2 exchange, so would be very bad for a wildlife pond.
    Shaky science!  C02 and O2 will go straight through a thin film of vegetable oil.

     I would aslo suggest experimeting with soap/dishwashr emulsifier.  Try for the thinnest film possible.  Add it very carefully.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    bédé said:
    Pete.8 said:
    If you add any oil at all it will will spread and cover the entire surface of the pond and prevent CO2/O2 exchange, so would be very bad for a wildlife pond.
    Shaky science!  C02 and O2 will go straight through a thin film of vegetable oil.

    Really? - how interesting - please explain.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Not keen on a pond with oil floating on the surface!
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • janetfossjanetfoss Posts: 303
    edited August 2023
    Me neither!

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