"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
"kay" wrote in message
...

'Jill Bell[_2_ Wrote:
;889884']I've recently made a small pond from half an old whisky
barrel. One
small water lily, couple of good clumps of oxygenating weed and an
iris. Once the water cleared I tried introducing a couple of fish, but
they clearly weren't happy (permanently drunk and hungover,
possibly?) and have been successfully rehomed in a friend's pond.
However, although the fish weren't happy, the mozzie larvae
obviously are - there are thousands of them, and I can see that
when they fledge into grown-up mozzies I'm going to have a house
full of the little blighters.
Any suggestions how I can get rid of them safely - both dog and cat
are partial to a drink from the barrel?



Will they cause a problem for the dog or cat?

Frogs and newts would see to the mozzie larvae, but if the water
conditions aren't yet right for the fish they might not be OK for frogs
and newts. If on the other hand it's just the particular fish
that you tried which aren't happy, you could always try something
like sticklebacks.

I would agree with finding yourself some sticklebacks - they will
polish mozzie larva off, quick time. When they've done that, you can
put them back where you got them from.
When I was a child I had a pet female stickleback for a while and I
fed her on mozzie larva all the time - until I put her back into her
pond eventually.
Tina

I have no knowledge of the subject, but it occurs to me that a tub would
tend to get too warm for fish in warm weather, and perhaps too cold in the
very worst winters. I may add that we had a water-butt split by freezing
in one particularly bad British winter.

--
please note that I said "I put her back in the pond" after she'd eaten all
the mozzie larvae - and very good at eating them she was, too ;-)

T