Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:50:45 GMT, "Bulldog"
wrote:

Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.











I don't see that any article published would have anything to do with
your particular pond.

If it gets really serious I would have local authorities come out,
check the pond, and tell the neighbors that all is well.

public health, vector control, something like that.


--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

Rather than beat the neighbor over the head with a hose, (as I would
have done), explain to him that you have a species of small fish,
gambuia, commonly known as mosquito eaters in the pond (you do, don't
you?). These eat the mosquito larvae. No larvae = birth control for
mosquitoes.

As far as rats, the only rat you will find in pond is a muskrat.

Of course, a proactive approach, contacting the local authorities
FIRST isn't a bad idea.

PlainBill

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:50:45 GMT, "Bulldog"
wrote:

Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.

This site has info on managing ponds to reduce/ eliminate mosquito
populations.
http://www.mosquitoes.org/fish_pond_page.htm

Colin

"PlainBill" wrote in message
news
Rather than beat the neighbor over the head with a hose, (as I would
have done), explain to him that you have a species of small fish,
gambuia, commonly known as mosquito eaters in the pond (you do, don't
you?). These eat the mosquito larvae. No larvae = birth control for
mosquitoes.

As far as rats, the only rat you will find in pond is a muskrat.

Of course, a proactive approach, contacting the local authorities
FIRST isn't a bad idea.

PlainBill

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:50:45 GMT, "Bulldog"
wrote:

Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats.
Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is
that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.












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Charles wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:50:45 GMT, "Bulldog"
wrote:

Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.











I don't see that any article published would have anything to do with
your particular pond.

If it gets really serious I would have local authorities come out,
check the pond, and tell the neighbors that all is well.

public health, vector control, something like that.

My yard has a lot of pine trees and mosquitoes will lay eggs in drops
of water trapped on branches. Three years ago we couldn't stay outside
long. I have goldfish who are always skimming the top of the pond for
insects.Good luck.

A) Make sure you're taking necessary steps to prevent mosquito infestation
such as fish and even BT.

B) Tell your neighbors to pound salt.

There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of ponds in residential
communities throughout the US. As long as you are caring for your pond
properly, there's no issue. They can complain all they want but it's no
different than complaining that you are responsible for the alien abductions
in the neighborhood. (It's not you, right?)

He is making a false and malicious complaint. Demand what evidence he
bases his allegation upon, perhaps remind him it is a felony to
trespass, slander and make false and malicious allegations aka 'mind
your own business'

You are under no obligation or owe him any reason or explanation for
his subnormal intelligence levels

Whether you WANT rats or mosquito's on your property, or not, it is
NONE of his business. for all you know, he is a thief intending to pry
upon your property with the intention of theft or some other ulterior
motive

If it's your property, or you rent it as such, you keep it private and
you tell him so. You could have a word with your local police to
discuss the situation, if you detect this malicious person could
escalate a neighbourly dispute.

Quite possibly the neighbour resents a 'nice feature' or maybe a few
frogs hopping around and just intends to be plain nasty to spoil your
enjoyment of your pond for spite

In reality, a well balanced pond reduces mosquito populations, that is
well known and have absolutely no influence on rat populations.

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html

"Bulldog" wrote in message ...
Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.

you need to read up on the idea of those gas powered mosquito machines. it takes
weeks because what they are doing is by removing 1 mosquito they are removing all the
later generation from that one. so they attract the mosquitoes to the machine to
start. same with a pond with fish in it. my friend the Pond Lady's land is low and
swampy anyway, but she has lots of ponds not to mention the ponds in the greenhouse
for water plants. and she has no mosquitoes. she got a gazillion frogs however.
Ingrid

"Bulldog" wrote:

Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.












~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Bulldog wrote:
Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.


As others have noted, as long as you are stocking the proper kind of fish,
mosquitos will not be an issue because the fish will eat the larva. To
convince your neighbor of this, see if your local mosquito control agency
(also called vector control in some areas) has pamphlets describing the
use of mosquito fish to control mosquito populations in waterways and give
that to your neighbor. Or search the web for other mosquito districts that
might have such pamphlets/info pages online. The use of fish is a very
common and effective control of mosquitos. So much so that many mosquito
control districts will seed a pond with mosquito fish for free or a small
fee if the owner requests it.

As for the rats, perhaps a gentle reminder that rats require a supply of
food would be in order. I doubt rats are very good at catching fish or
that the pond would be the big attraction as far as a food source (but
then again, I don't know what your pond area looks like). Still, I bet
there's an easily accessible food source nearby, like garbage, feed grain,
pet food, etc. Again, search the web for pest control agencies and find
pamphlets on rat control. They'll probably recommend things like trapping
the current rats then removing the potential sources of food and sealing
up any entries into the house (assuming their presence in the house is
what is alarming your neighbor, if it's just them outside, well, that's a
problem with nature.... animals don't know the meaning of property lines).

Do you have a pump in your pond? My understanding is that mosquitoes need
*still* water for the eggs to hatch. (Some of the worst offenders are
things like flowerpot saucers, tarps where water can collect, underused
birdbaths, etc. where water can stand -- often unnoticed.)

I don't know how to address the "rat" issues, since I can't imagine why
anyone would think that a pond would contribute to the rat population
anyway.

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC




"Bulldog" wrote in message
...
Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats.
Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.

Xref: kermit rec.ponds:143306

Anne Lurie wrote:

Do you have a pump in your pond? My understanding is that mosquitoes need
*still* water for the eggs to hatch.

It doesn't have to be totally still.

Minnows are a good thing.

I had some brief issues with things like that when I first set up our
pond. The neighbor came over complaining that it was stinking up her
yard. Funny, because I sit in my chair at the side of the pond most
nights and never noticed any smell expect for when I was adding water
and could catch a whiff of the product we use to neutralize chloramines.
Turns out, it was a fly catcher she had hung on her property that was
full of rotting flies. I suspect some people, even if truth smacked 'em
upside the head, would not believe it. I also wonder if her complaint
was in retaliation for my polite request to keep her dog from using our
yard as his personal bathroom. *sigh*

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu

Susan H. Simko wrote:
I had some brief issues with things like that when I first set up our
pond. The neighbor came over complaining that it was stinking up her
yard. Funny, because I sit in my chair at the side of the pond most
nights and never noticed any smell expect for when I was adding water
and could catch a whiff of the product we use to neutralize chloramines.
Turns out, it was a fly catcher she had hung on her property that was
full of rotting flies. I suspect some people, even if truth smacked 'em
upside the head, would not believe it. I also wonder if her complaint
was in retaliation for my polite request to keep her dog from using our
yard as his personal bathroom. *sigh*

Yeah, sometimes neighbors come up with completely unfounded accusations
when the real problem is something more psychological in nature, such as a
minor form of revenge or some sort of fear. I think many are not even
consciously aware they're doing this, just that somehow in their minds,
something has happened that makes them think you're the source of all evil
in the neighborhood. My parents had to deal with such when a cat-phobic
person moved in a couple houses down. Rather than come out and admit he
was scared of cats (which was my working theory on his problem), he came
over and made wild claims like "the cat food is attracting hornets into my
yard". In actuality, it was all the flowering plants attracting large
bumble bees into his yard, but he wouldn't believe it.

When that didn't work, suddenly the city was getting all sorts of
complaints about minor code issues (such as a large empty wooden wire
spool my dad was using as a work bench on the side of the house for half a
decade, the neighbor and city considered it to be "junk" and my dad had to
tear it down and throw it away). Complaints that stopped when that
neighbor moved out. Of course, there was no city ordinance against feeding
feral cats (which my dad does to tame/trap them and their kittens to get
them fixed and/or adopted), so the neighbor was out of luck in the cat
department. Funny thing that, isn't it.

Some people arent happy unless they are busy making other people crazy. Ingrid

Cichlidiot wrote:
Yeah, sometimes neighbors come up with completely unfounded accusations
when the real problem is something more psychological in nature,


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

wrote:
Some people arent happy unless they are busy making other people crazy.

Definite agreement. This particular neighbor didn't seem to realize
that there were many things I could have done about the dog especially
since we have leash laws but chose to politely (and I stress *politely*)
ask her to keep the dog from using our yard as his personal bathroom.
Like many other ponders, I am also a gardener. It had gotten to the
point where I could not work on one particular bed in the fron of our
yard without stepping in dog excrement. (Nor was the smell at all
enticing.) To me, that was excessive.

Ever since then, relationships have been a bit frosty and unpleasant. I
still want to ask her if she would have preferred for me to call animal
control instead? All I wanted to do was be able to weed my flower bed
without first having to scoop her dog's waste.... *sigh* I can just
imagine what she would do if our four cats were allowed outdoors (they
aren't) and used her gradnchild's sandbox as a litterbox.....

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu