Ponds & Skeeters

I have heard some people say a pond sounds nice, but they won't get one because it will attract mosquitoes. I have news for those people. Mosquitoes will not breed in moving water; therefore, if you get a pond with moving water (with a waterfall or a fountain), you have no excuse for not getting that pond. Unless, of course, it is just an excuse for something you don't want anyway. If that is the case, it's time to find another excuse.

In my neighborhood, we have so much shade from all the trees, that most of my neighbors and I have lots of bromeliads. As I mentioned before, bromeliads hydrate by catching water in their centers. This poses a problem because mosquitoes will lay eggs in the bromeliad centers. We have a LOT of mosquitoes in my neighborhood as a result.

There are three things I do to combat this problem:

1. I flush out the bromeliads with water after a rain;

2. I used to call the City to have them spray for mosquitoes; however, it was difficult to get them to come out when I really needed it (like before a party). The City mosquito exterminator told me about the Burgess Fogger which is the same solution they use only milder. I found a propane fogger at a garage sale for $25 (I love garage sales!), but you can purchase one at a home improvement store for $80 or more. I purchase refills of the Burgess Fogger solution online and it works great! I use the one with pyrethrin and I highly recommend using a respirator when fogging! Whenever we are having company over or we plan to be outside for a while, we fog the yard (excluding the pond because it could kill the fish). This stuff really works! It lasts at least 24 hours, if not longer, unless it rains, of course;

3. Another remedy I read about in my Florida Gardening magazine is to put a small piece of Mosquito Dunk in each bromeliad cup. Mosquito Dunks can be purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot and contain Bacillus thuringiensis (BTi) which kills them but will not harm the plant. I plan to try this in the near future, so I will keep you posted if I feel it works.

If you have problems with mosquitoes, be sure and check your property after every rain and dump any standing water. Mosquitoes will breed in standing water caught in a leaf, in a tree, a pot -- they don't need a lot of water to lay their eggs. It only takes 4-5 days for mosquito larvae to become an irritating, blood-sucking adult! Be sure and empty those bird baths every 3-4 days, too!

I will close this entry with a September 2006 photo of the pond when the bromeliads are blooming.

Phase II - The Pond

The next thing I did was refinance my house. The housing market was booming so I was able to take some equity out of the house to put back into the garden. So I had a pond built. I hired Horizon Outdoor Projects out of Kissimmee to do the job. They talked me into getting their largest pond; however, they couldn't talk me out of putting it in the front yard. We spent a lot of time in our back yard, so I wanted something in the front yard to give us a reason to spend time there and to have a great view from my living room picture window.

Here is a photo of the pond being built.

And here is the finished product with landscaping by Donna (me).

Mulch makes all the difference. Here is the pond after mulch.