Had a well doh moment yesterday. I went to clean the screen of the city
bought rain barrel and the darn barrel was full of mosquitoes and
larva. I don't know why I assumed that the screen would keep the
dreaded vampire bugs out, but it sure did not. Obviously a mosquito
dunk is in order here. Talked to the city this morning and they seemed
unconcerned and said that a dunk would handle it and not everybody had
the problem. I thought that I would send a heads up to any of you who
have these barrels. My barrel has been drained and washed out and it
sitting in the sun awaiting our next rain so that I can put in a
mosquito dunk. I hate the thought of thousands of these darn things
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

Cea

Celeste Evans wrote:
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

I need to get one to provide fresh food for my fish!

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

We drop a minnow in each of the water receptacles around here and that works
perfectly!
With hope and heart,
Kathleen

--
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper
He should sweep streets
Even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music,
or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well
that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say,
Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr


Had a well doh moment yesterday. I went to clean the screen of the city
bought rain barrel and the darn barrel was full of mosquitoes and
larva. I don't know why I assumed that the screen would keep the
dreaded vampire bugs out, but it sure did not. Obviously a mosquito
dunk is in order here. Talked to the city this morning and they seemed
unconcerned and said that a dunk would handle it and not everybody had
the problem. I thought that I would send a heads up to any of you who
have these barrels. My barrel has been drained and washed out and it
sitting in the sun awaiting our next rain so that I can put in a
mosquito dunk. I hate the thought of thousands of these darn things
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

Cea

Kathleen wrote:
How long does a minnow live in one of those barrels?


We drop a minnow in each of the water receptacles around here and that works
perfectly!
With hope and heart,
Kathleen

--
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper
He should sweep streets
Even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music,
or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well
that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say,
Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr



Had a well doh moment yesterday. I went to clean the screen of the city
bought rain barrel and the darn barrel was full of mosquitoes and
larva. I don't know why I assumed that the screen would keep the
dreaded vampire bugs out, but it sure did not. Obviously a mosquito
dunk is in order here. Talked to the city this morning and they seemed
unconcerned and said that a dunk would handle it and not everybody had
the problem. I thought that I would send a heads up to any of you who
have these barrels. My barrel has been drained and washed out and it
sitting in the sun awaiting our next rain so that I can put in a
mosquito dunk. I hate the thought of thousands of these darn things
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

Cea

all summer! DH fishes, so we have a minnow vat out back full of them. He
will drop one or two in the dog water troughs (5 gallon bucket like the kind
they use for pickles) and then we have another (about-2-gallon) container
that we keep next to the water spigot. There are smaller trays out front
and out back for the wildlife but they get emptied daily (so the larvae
don't live). Then when the weather starts cooling down DH will take his
minnows back.
With hope and heart,
Kathleen


Kathleen wrote:
How long does a minnow live in one of those barrels?


We drop a minnow in each of the water receptacles around here and that
works
perfectly!
With hope and heart,
Kathleen

--
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper
He should sweep streets
Even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music,
or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well
that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say,
Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr



Had a well doh moment yesterday. I went to clean the screen of the city
bought rain barrel and the darn barrel was full of mosquitoes and
larva. I don't know why I assumed that the screen would keep the
dreaded vampire bugs out, but it sure did not. Obviously a mosquito
dunk is in order here. Talked to the city this morning and they seemed
unconcerned and said that a dunk would handle it and not everybody had
the problem. I thought that I would send a heads up to any of you who
have these barrels. My barrel has been drained and washed out and it
sitting in the sun awaiting our next rain so that I can put in a
mosquito dunk. I hate the thought of thousands of these darn things
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

Cea

A capful of chlorine (laundry) bleach will also kill all those larvae in
short order.

TR

"Celeste Evans" wrote in message
...
Had a well doh moment yesterday. I went to clean the screen of the city
bought rain barrel and the darn barrel was full of mosquitoes and
larva. I don't know why I assumed that the screen would keep the
dreaded vampire bugs out, but it sure did not. Obviously a mosquito
dunk is in order here. Talked to the city this morning and they seemed
unconcerned and said that a dunk would handle it and not everybody had
the problem. I thought that I would send a heads up to any of you who
have these barrels. My barrel has been drained and washed out and it
sitting in the sun awaiting our next rain so that I can put in a
mosquito dunk. I hate the thought of thousands of these darn things
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

Cea

Window Screen rubber-roped over the top is enough. Even if the water is high
and they do lay eggs, the screen keeps the adults from being able to fly
away.

John


"Celeste Evans" wrote in message
...
Had a well doh moment yesterday. I went to clean the screen of the city
bought rain barrel and the darn barrel was full of mosquitoes and
larva. I don't know why I assumed that the screen would keep the
dreaded vampire bugs out, but it sure did not. Obviously a mosquito
dunk is in order here. Talked to the city this morning and they seemed
unconcerned and said that a dunk would handle it and not everybody had
the problem. I thought that I would send a heads up to any of you who
have these barrels. My barrel has been drained and washed out and it
sitting in the sun awaiting our next rain so that I can put in a
mosquito dunk. I hate the thought of thousands of these darn things
breeding mosquitoes all over the city. Sheesh the city is selling
mosquito breeders. Yeah, I should have known better.

Cea

TLR wrote:
A capful of chlorine (laundry) bleach will also kill all those larvae in
short order.

Yeah, but one of the reasons for collecting rainwater for gardening is
watering *without* chemicals.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:06:56 GMT, Victor Martinez
wrote:

TLR wrote:
A capful of chlorine (laundry) bleach will also kill all those larvae in
short order.

Yeah, but one of the reasons for collecting rainwater for gardening is
watering *without* chemicals.

Back in southeast Texas, I used a fairly benign mosquito larva
control, a tablespoon of peanut oil in the barrel. The oil floats on
top of the water in a thin layer and prevents the larvae from
"attaching" to the surface layer. They cannot breathe and die.

However, I really like the notion of fish in the barrel. Minnows are a
type of chub or sucker (family Cyprinidae). Most are primarily
vegetarian. Carp are members of the same fish family. However, there
are several species of native Texas mosquito fish. These are hardy
little fish that look like guppies. They are voracious predators and
love mosquito larvae. Slurp.

Elliot Richmond
PhD Candidate in Science Education
UT Austin

Elliot Richmond wrote:
little fish that look like guppies. They are voracious predators and
love mosquito larvae. Slurp.

So do my angel fish.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

You probably did buy five female swordtails, but swordtails have the
abiltity to change sex if their are not enough males present. I suspect
that a few of your females became males and then the breeding began.

What color are your swordtails? Do any of them have black spots?

- John Eric

"Bourne Identity" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 01:17:27 GMT, Victor Martinez opined:

Elliot Richmond wrote:
little fish that look like guppies. They are voracious predators and
love mosquito larvae. Slurp.

So do my angel fish.

You don't put your angelfish in the rain barrels, do you? I can't get
them to
live in a tank, let alone a hot, yunky rain barrel.

We bought 5 swordtails a few years ago. Supposedly all females. NOT. We
just
sold a ton of them to Gallery of Pets and have tons more. No more mollies
for
us!

LOL
V

Bourne Identity wrote:
When we bought them they were young and the sword or the projectile
wasn't present and all appeared female. I never read anywhere that a
female can become a male. Anyway, we sold 25 of them to Gallery of
Pets. They are all orange with black swords.

V

From:
http://www.fishtanksandponds.net/res...ping-myths.htm


The livebearers sex change myth
In the absence of any males, female livebearers can change sex.

Some female livebearers like Swordtails take on the appearance of a male
once their reproductive days are coming to an end. This could be natures way
of making sure that only young fertile females are courted and bred. Simply
seeing the once female Swordtail develop a sword is enough to convince some
people but imagine this scenario -
There is a community tank of various small fish, among those fish are 4
female swordtails and no males, infact there has never been a male in the
tank at all, then one day the tanks owner notices that one of the female
Swordtails is developing a sword and over a few weeks the transition takes
place until a full sword is developed.
Then a few weeks later one of the unchanged females produces a brood of fry,
this to most novice fishkeepers would prove beyond any doubt that the fish
had changed sex and become a fully functioning male. And by the time it came
to be written in various forums and slightly "altered" Chinese whispers
style, a new myth is born.
There are two possible explanations -
The female is which changed is actually still a female even though she
appears more like a male. Internally she still has only female reproductive
parts and is incapable of fertilizing another female. The fry can easily be
explained because it is well known that Xiphophorus will store sperm and
they can produce six or more broods from a single mating so unless the
females have been kept in isolation from males from a very early age the
chances are that most female Livebearers are pregnant almost all the time.
Broods can even be delayed until conditions are favourable.
The other possibility especially with Swordtails is that the fish actually
is a male but a slow developing one. Unlike most fish male Swordtails don't
all start to develop their swords at a certain age, some develop quite
quickly whilst they are still relatively small but others don't develop
until the fish is full adult size. Incidentally the people who breed
Swordtails seriously for showing ect always say that the later developing
males are far superior fish yet if you watch people buying them in the LFS
the young fish with the largest sword is always the one that they want.
I have several really good books about Livebearers and this phenomenon has
been very closely studied many times by many different scientist and they
all state that not a single example of proven sex change has taken place
which can be scientifically confirmed.

--
The Krane