Mosquito larva

[Arnie]

Hi everyone

what is the best way to get rid of mosquito larva from my water butt they keep blocking the rose on my watering can.

Regards

Arnie

[Kleftiwallah]

The larva hang upside down from the surface tension (or skin) of the water leaving a breathing tube above, adding a few drops of washing up liquid will break this skin and the larva will sink and be unable to breath. That is for the future.

This year I should get a kid's fishing net (or the foot off a pair of tights)and collect what you can in there.

Cheers, Tony.

[Johnboy]

Hi Arnie,
A few drops of vegetable based cooking oil works wonders onto the water surface of the water butt giving it a bit of a stir.
Does exactly what Kleftiwallah's washing-up liqid does but W-U L is a chemical.
Do the oil treatment today and the larvae will be dead by tomorrow.
JB.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Bob Flowerdew puts a couple of goldfish in his waterbutts to eat the larvae, you can't have a lid on it though, but if you get the larvae I suppose you don't put a lid on anyway. I've always wondered if he just puts them in for the summer and returns them back to a nice pond for the winter.

I've put lids on all mine so the cat can't fall in so they can't lay their eggs in the first place.

[Jude]

Dear Plumpudding, don't think you really need to worry, cats don't lay eggs

[PLUMPUDDING]

Slightly ungrammatical I agree!