permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

I've worked with gambusia for about 20 years in Ca and the south east. 
The principle eaters of frog and toad eggs were salamanders. I thought 
this a good thing as there were always more than enough eggs to go 
around. The gambusia, though great in numbers, didn't seem to make a  
difference in the populations of amphibians, but quite decimated the 
mosquito population. I observed that the gambusia more often got into 
the eggs and became entangled and died. Also when I had mosquitoes in 
rain barrels, they all disappeared when the frog eggs hatched. Tadpoles 
love mosquito eggs and larvae. I also grow Acorus calamus.
Keith

Katey wrote:
> I got rid of my fish (they weren't for eating) because, although they 
> ate the mosquito eggs, they ate the frog eggs.  The frogs were more 
> important to my ecosystem.  I have sweet flag (Calamus) in my ponds for 
> mosquito control as well as the frogs.
>
> Katey Culver
>
>
> Charles de Matas wrote:
>   
> > All of the permaculturists I visited since I took the PDC earlier this year 
> > have ponds (large and small) and they've told me that the fish they keep 
> > help to control mosquitoes.  I am thinking of putting in a few tub ponds 
> > around my house to keep guppies.  Before I do this I want to check with my 
> > learned friends on this list if they have had good results at controlling 
> > mosquitoes with fish like guppies, or mosquito fish (gambusia, which are 
> > more common in the southern US)?  If this is really effective it would make 
> > life much more comfortable for me here in the tropics.
> >
> > Charles
> > Trinidad
> >     
--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
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