According to me, B.T was lethal to most insects, and the thing isn’t to get rid completely with mosquitoes, if the population is controlled there would be no problem, and anyway if you have enough predators or at least some circulation, mosquitoes aren’t very likely to come.
I’ve seen that little ponds with lots of tadpoles and aquatic insects have few to no mosquito larva, but when tadpoles disappear, mosquito larva arrive.
You are confusing Bti with other Bt subspecies used to control other types of insects. For example Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki will kill most caterpillars while leaving other leaf eating insects unharmed. Bacillus thuringiensis San Diego and Bacillus thuringiensis tenebrionis are used to control specific types of beetle larvae. There are thousands of BT strains out there and most of them only affect very specific insect species so it is important know what insect you are targeting and which strain will work.
So you mean Bti exclusively?
Yes. Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis only affects mosquito, blackfly and fungus gnat larvae which is why it is commonly used in ponds for mosquito control.
Yeah. They are.
I use the Bt dunks in my little wetland’s pools if i see mosquito larvae (which is rare but come to think of it this is the time of year they might be there so i should check). I think they are pretty specific but i am not sure if they may kill other things. In reality my tiny wetland probably does little either way to influence number of mosquitos but i don’t want to piss off the neighbors, etc. Tiny isolated pools like those in old tires, forgotten buckets, rain gutters, etc, are a bigger issue. But yeah i think the Bt is pretty specific… i’d rather not kill any other insects in my wetland.
I live in continental southern Italy, in a temperate climate with very warm summers.
I have a three years old wildlife pond with still water, no fish and no BTI, and it’s actually a huge deterrent for mosquitoes.
During the first few months the water was dark and teeming with mosquito larvae, but as the ecosystem evolved and became suitable for predatory animals like water beetles, backswimmers and dragonflies mosquitoes completely disappeared, and I see less of them in the general area too.
If I try to manually introduce mosquito larvae into the pond it takes less than a minute for them to be caught and devoured by the backswimmers.
If you want a mosquito-less pond just introduce lots of native aquatic plants and be patient as the water matures. It is very easy and rewarding.
If you add a native toad, it will devour the mosquito eggs and larvae. This happened in my tiny pond.
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