• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Agriculture / Fish may be answer to controlling mosquitoes

Fish may be answer to controlling mosquitoes

May 27, 2003 By admin

If you worry about the return of West Nile Virus with summer mosquitoes, or just hate the biting bug, there’s a control method that doesn’t involve any chemicals. Livestock producers who don’t want to put pesticides in animal watering tanks are trying fish — tiny minnows they hope will eat immature mosquitoes so they don’t reproduce in the water. Iowa State University entomologist Donald Lewis isn’t convinced, however.He says it sounds like “a simple solution to a complex problem,” but he says it looks a lot like wishful thinking. Lewis says “minnow” is a generic term that can refer to any small fish, or the young of many other kinds. Most minnows are herbivores — vegetarians — so he says they eat water plants and won’t be seeking out living food like mosquito larvae. Dr. Lewis says minnows won’t eat enough to fight the mosquito problem anyway: Mosquitoes won’t be a big enough part of a minnow’s diet to make much impact. There’s another alternative, he says, that’s already in use. Farmers stock bluegill and bass in farm ponds, and those aggressively eat bugs, including mosquitoes. Lewis says stock tanks generally are probably not a source of many mosquitoes since the water doesn’t stand undisturbed for long periods of time. A tiny tropical fish called Gambusia is nicknamed “mosquito fish” and has been stocked in waters from New Jersey to Nebraska for ten or twenty years to eat the larva of the mosquito after it hatches in water.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Agriculture, Outdoors

Featured Stories

Iowa State Patrol tactical team leader killed in Grundy Center stand-off

Finalists chosen for the state’s top burger

Paintings by Clinton woman gain a following in Europe

Iowa deadline for individual income taxpayers moved to June 1

Dialing rules changing for two area codes in Iowa

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Drake elevates Pohlman to head women’s basketball coach

New title sponsor for Des Moines Marathon

Iowa State adds Minnesota transfer

Cedar Rapids preparing for big return of sports events

Iowa Games returning with full slate of sports

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC