Mosquito Larvae

I noticed the other day that my 30 gallon outdoor daphnia tank had mosquito egg rafts - surprised me because the tank is generally covered - and now I have mosquito larvae, which is fine. Just wondering how long they stay that way before they are ready to take flight? I'll scoop them out for the guppies and swords in my "pond" barrell, but if I were to feed the larvae to the fish in tanks, and they missed a few, how long until I had mosquitos in my fishroom?

Sue

About two weeks is what I've read.

This once happened to me. I had a Cyperus plant in a pot of water. We had mosquitos in the house well past a frost that killed them all. Likely someone was bitten in the house and the mosquito used the water in the pot to lay her eggs there.

This was an off campus house where the door was open quite a bit. The same plant was also once attacked by caterpillers.

Just make sure all them eggs are eaten. Don't want you fishroom visitors all eaten up do ya!

paisleydals wrote:

30 gallon outdoor daphnia tank had mosquito egg rafts

When the neighbors call the cops for breeding disease carrying organims, tell them it is a science project.

Here is how to convince them it is safe.
Place a screen below the water line. Female mosquitos can land on water and lay eggs. Eggs fall through screen. Larva remain trapped below the screen and cannot reach water surface. Larva that cannot reach water surface never become adults.

IME, the fish are more than capable of preventing any indoor mosquito issue. Even if the fish failed, new hatched skeeters are not carrying disease.

P.S.

Another data point. Years back, I had a sun room which I did not heat. The temperature pretty stayed below 60, but above 45-50 from November to March. In April I had some early mosqiutoes (same Cyperus plant, different house) after the room warmed up. So, mosquito eggs may go dormant with cooler temperatures.