Mosquito Larvae
It’s a fact that all mosquitoes need water in which to pass their early life stages. Adult flying mosquitoes frequently rest in grass, shrubbery or other foliage, but they never develop there.
Some mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water where they hatch in a day or two. Other mosquitoes lay their eggs in old tires, tin cans or other water holding containers in which they may remain unhatched for weeks or months until they are covered with water. With both types of mosquitoes, the wigglers (pictured above) grow quickly into tumblers or pupae. Soon the skin of the tumbler splits open and out climbs another hungry mosquito.
If there are any places around your home where water collects, such as tires, kiddie pools, clogged gutters, wheelbarrows, buckets, clogged roof gutters, ornamental ponds, birdbaths, etc. you may be breeding mosquitoes. Remove these breeding areas and eliminate standing water.
Things that don’t work well against mosquitoes:
Electronic Bug Zappers
These are only useful against insects that are readily attracted to light. Most kinds of mosquitoes are not attracted to lights enough to be controlled in this manner. Also, many non-pest insects are needlessly killed because they are attracted to light.
Purple Martins and dragonflies
Much information has been circulated about the idea of using these insect predators for mosquito control. Neither will noticeably reduce the level of mosquito biting for a variety of ecological reasons. The most basic reason is that insect-feeding birds and insects fly during daylight while most mosquitoes fly predominantly during semi-dark to dark periods.
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