Mosquito Larvae Cultures

[BoBzz]

Im planning on setting up several Mosquito Larvae cultures this summer but I'm not sure about the best way to go about it.

Last summer I accidentally left a bucket from some native fish collection out under a tree for a week or so and BOOM tons of the lil bastards, ... But it ran dry fast.
I realize theres only a small window of time i'll actually be able to keep it going but I would like to maximize it!

Yes I am aware of the possibilty of diseases, which is something I hope to reduce the risk of.


Any ideas, suggestions, tips?

Thanks,
Sam

 

[farm41]

Keep it out of view of the neighbors.

 

[ACIDKEEPER]

i have raised those damn biting insects in the past for a lab project and can be done indoors with very fine mesh netting and you have to be very careful not to break the netting or else. disease is a big problem now since the outbreak of west nile, and the trickiest part is the feeding of the females so they can lay the eggs. it's better not to keep or raise them, they pose a great danger, itches also of course. i understand it is very good conditioning food but some things are just not worth all the trouble.
hope this helps to convince you not to do it but if you do, just be careful and take care.

Joe

 

[Discus Man]

in the water you put out, drop an apple cut in half in there. It avoids mosquitos and attracts bloodworms.

Better yet, white worm cultures... no biting there!

P.S. BoBzz, its good to see you around. The once little hot head :wink: is now keeping apistos, chocolate cichlids, taking good care of them too!
Pretty cool... always good to see a young aquarist get converted to S.A. cichlids!!!!

 

[M0oN]

When I was a kid we had a wading pool that was probably about 8 inches long, just those cheapy plastic things you buy at Toys R Us or whatever.

I remember after leaving the water stagnant for a few weeks and letting leaves and such decay on their own in there mosquito larvae were showing up in the hundreds if not thousands...

I'd assume that as long as you keep birds from crapp'n in the water you shouldn't have a disease problem...

 

[John7]

Mosquito larvae...

MoOn,
I think the disease poosibility they are talking about is when the female bites a bird infected with the West Nile Virus there is a possibility that it could be transferred to the mosquito eggs and then larvae which become adults which could bite you or your pets or family. I agree, it would not be worth the possible danger to try them. Long ago and far away '60's I fed them to my fish all the time. The only problem then was that some would always end up becoming adults in the house and my mother would have fits about it.
John

 

[P. sacrimontis]

Well, I just emptied out a mosquito/bloodworm culture today at the command of my parents. It looked like blackwater and smelled pretty bad(even I was paranoid about dumping it!). I have a ton of mozzies in my room right now(don't tell my mom!). A couple egg rafts are floating in the het tank.

The recipe was a little too much yeast and dead hair algae which crashed a daphnia culture.

D-man: I'll have to try that! Any ways of keeping smell down and making it look less objectional?

 

[John7]

When I was a kid we had a wading pool that was probably about 8 inches long,

Wow! You must have had really small feet.
:lol: John