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I live on a delta surrounded by swamp/
marsh and mosquitos are a big problem
here (although i've been bitten so many
times i'm quite immune). Mosquitos lay
their eggs in small pools of stagnant
water. It is impossible to irradicate all
small pools of water as even leaves can
hold larvae.
This is my idea:
Create the perfect mosquito larvae
incubator. Build a large, shallow, shaded
stagnant pool of water in a non-windy
environment and let the mosquitos lay
their eggs there.
periodically, before larvae can develop into
adults, empty the water onto the ground,
killing the larvae. fill back up, hopefully
you will get less mosquitos.
For [21Quest] and [MoreCowbell]
http://education.ya...nary/entry/mongoose [jurist, Nov 12 2006]
Copper in Car Tires
Copper_20coated_20car_20tires Mosquito larvae & Copper by [bungston] [Zimmy, Nov 13 2006]
Eastern Phoebe
http://www.utahbird...sternPhoebeJBa1.jpg Capture some of these, then release in the area [phundug, Nov 13 2006]
[link]
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That is an option which has already
happened. Tilopia was introduced to
control a mosquito population, but was
only effective in streams, not isolated
pools. There have also been some
tragic introductions here anyway. The
mongoose was introduced to deal with
a rat problem in sugarcane fields.
apparantly, rats are nocturnal, and
mongoose are not. instead, the
mongoose's ate all the native birds. |
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ok, don't empty it onto the ground,
maybe into a box of sand, porous to the
water drain but keeps the larvae out to
dry. |
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what does "sp: irradiate." mean? |
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i didn't mean to spell irradiate. i meant to
spell eradicate. oh well, still wrong
spelling. could have used a better word
too, like "get rid of". |
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This brings to mind my uncle. He keeps turtles in a pond in the back yard. However, when he first dug the pond, he had a trememdous problem with mosquitoes. Being a naturalist, he added goldfish. The goldfish eat the mosquito larvae, the turtles eat the goldfish. problem solved. |
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I think Mr. Tindale blanked on "al". |
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but then you might have a gold fish or
turtle problem after introduction. What
eats the turtles? how do you expect to get
rid of them? |
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i am just tempted to riddle my comments
with typos. |
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am i really getting bones because of my
poor english? Wat bra, nevah heard of da
kine pidgin english. bra you lose money. |
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// sp: mongooses // sp: mongeese |
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// Plural is mongoose as well as singular. // There you go confusing the HB with reality again.. |
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This is a good idea. Consider: a female
mosquito does not randomly lay her
eggs. She wants a little pool of water -
low flow, few predators, etc. Probably
there are attributes of the perfect pool. |
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If one could mimic those attributes, you
could lure the mosquito into wasting
her eggs. It would be like the mosquito
magnet, but for eggs. |
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I have given some thought about how
this might be done. Mosquitoes are all
about olfaction. I think mosquitoes
probably detect anaerobic rotting
materiea like leaves - an anaerobic pool
is likely to have no flow, and be unable
to support water breathing predators.
If you could figure out the volatiles
produced by leaves (it might be
something as simple as methane or
hydrogen) you could use this as your
pool's attractant. The pool could
contain a hormone briquet or copper or
something similar so you would not
have to visit it to tip it out. |
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thanx bunxton for not turning this into
a
grammar/spelling-fest. I wonder if
mosquitoes are attracted to the rotting
plant matter all around me. it makes
sense. I'm sure there's a special blend
of
anaerobic bacteria in my backyard that i
can sell on ebay. |
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i don't know what brae is. |
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if i like spell da kine ah hammajang i
going. (depending on where you live,
this either makes complete sense, or no
sense at all) |
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I suppose presentation does make a large
difference... Sorry people, I've honestly
never recieved higher than a C in English,
even in college. |
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I do now notice that people capitalize their
sentences. I did catch some bad spelling,
but under closer observation, it was my
own comment that was in error. |
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Mosquitoes don't like snow. Neither do mongai. Cover them in snow. Job done. Snow is great. |
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[twitch] sp: received. Sorry, I can't help it, I'm a pedant. |
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Presumably the mosquitos were resident in the area before the humans. Ergo, the humans are the invasive species that needs to be eradicated before they kill off all the native wildlife. |
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Was it in HHGTTG where aliens were convinced not to invade due to the mosquito being an endangered species? |
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Sounds like a plot-line that calum could work with. |
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Humans brought the mosquitoes here. |
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This is a non-chemical solution (like
DEET). |
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Humans as invasive species? One
difference between us and invasive
animals and plants: We choose how we live
and what resources we use. If we chose to
live being more environmentally
conscious, that is also our choice. |
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Just as it is may be possible to bait a pond with attractants to make it appealing to gravid mosquitoes, it may be possible to lace a nondeadly pond with a repellant - making the mosquitoes more likely to choose your deadly pond. Dragonflies can detect the chemical signatures of bluegill, and avoid laying eggs in those ponds. I bet mosquito moms have means of predator detection as well. |
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Some farmers buy bags of eastern phoebes and set them loose in the farm and around ponds. Helps control the bug population. |
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< 6:50 am and my first laugh/smirk of the
day > that is quite ironic yes it is. |
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No need to dump out the water, just spray a little WD-40 on it. A thin film of oil suffocates the larva. |
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[ldishler], this idea was meant to be used
over and over again. using WD-40 would
then discourage them to come back. |
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maybe i could use a screen sunk into the
water. when the larvae are laid and ready
to be killed, just lift the screen up and let
them dry, then put it back in, leaving them
to rot and attract more mosquitoes (oh
great, mosquitoes eating mosquitoes). |
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Mad Mosquito Disease. Not good. |
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Here is an experiment for you, [twitch]. Or for you to farm out to any handy middle school students. Buckets of water: some with dead leaves and some without. Peridodically dump onto mosquito netting and count larvae. Are there more when there are dead leaves? |
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that does sound like a decent idea: will
something on HB finally come to fruition?! |
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Many engineers, political theorists, public health officials and corporate schemers lurk silently on the HB, making off with the wonderful ideas here and parlaying them into fabulous wealth. I am certain of it. |
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Are there stats about how many users are
guests? have there been actual cases of an
idea here being used? |
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I can think of at least a couple. A good example is the litter box ramp. (unless you mean mass produced, then there might have been some sort of light idea that went into production, but I can't find it). |
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[bungston], political theorists? Oh my. |
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It was mentioned in the Fish Matrix idea that mosquitoes live everywhere on the planet, except Antartica. Thus bringing me back to my earlier suggestion; cover the bastards in snow. |
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Irradicate is a real word, just maybe not the one intended: |
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ir`rad´i`cate
v. t. 1. To root deeply. |
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This is quite effective in the form of a goldfish pond; you have to change the water from time to time by hand, instead of using a pump (so that the stillness of the water attracts a higher proportion of the mozzies). You don't have to feed the goldfish. |
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you still have to check back every now and
then to make sure they're still allive. And
i'm not adding another foreign species to
hawaii anyway. |
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Fair enough, but aren't there any little native Hawaiian fish that could do the job? |
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No, because mosquitoes aren't native here,
they have no efficient native predators.
There's tilapia, but they were introduced to
control the invasive mosquitoes. This is a
mosquito control solution that does not
introduce anothere species of fish or
anything. |
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Hawaii has Koi. They'll eat anything. |
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// It was mentioned in the Fish Matrix idea that mosquitoes live everywhere on the planet, except Antartica. Thus bringing me back to my earlier suggestion; cover the bastards in snow. |
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The eskimos must have no words for mosquito, then. Innit?// |
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Unfortunately, there are no eskimos in antarctica. Wrong pole. |
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Eskimos, Polar Bears, reindeer moss, and Santa's Reindeer are all on the north Pole, in the Arctic. |
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Penguins, Wingless flies, snow algae, and a bunch of explorers frozen toes are all on the South Pole, in the Antarctic. |
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do you think they have a "famous toes" museum ? |
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