This summer, Hillsborough County's annual Mosquito Fish Giveaway events have been more popular than ever with residents picking up fish in record numbers to help combat the mosquito population on their own properties.
As the mosquito fish giveaway events have grown over the past few years, Hillsborough's Mosquito Management Services department has grown its team that oversees the biological control fish, including hiring a full-time marine biologist and a part-time animal care assistant to oversee a new mosquito fish hatchery for the County.
Hillsborough's mosquito fish program is one part of a larger biological control initiative. The fish, which are native to Florida, are a key element that will help reduce the amount of pesticides required to control mosquitoes. The fish also eat mosquitoes in the larva stage before they become flying, biting adults that can spread deadly or harmful diseases.
As more residents turn to the County for free mosquito fish to help control mosquitoes around their homes, it is important to remember that the fish can only help if they are placed in a suitable environment.
Hillsborough residents must keep their fish in a location where the fish will survive and thrive eating mosquito larvae. At the giveaway events, Mosquito Management Services personnel engage with residents about their properties and ask where a resident intends to put the fish before allowing them to take a bag of fish home.
If a resident wants mosquito fish but does not have intentional standing water suitable for the fish to thrive, residents are given an alternative biological mosquito larvicide tablet. This can be used in scenarios where a mosquito fish would not be healthy, like a shallow ditch or any body of water that dries up easily. These biological larvicide tablets offer 60 days of control and residents can receive a 2-year supply. The Mosquito Management team recommends dumping the water from bird baths, regularly cleaning the surface to remove any mosquito eggs, and replacing the water with fresh water because they are perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes, but not good for mosquito fish.
Mosquito fish (Gambusia holbrooki) are an ideal biological control for mosquito management for many important reasons:
- Mosquito fish control the pest population by eating mosquito larvae before the mosquito can grow up to fly and bite residents and pets.
- Several deadly diseases including dengue, West Nile virus, eastern equine encephalitis, and malaria are carried by mosquitoes, so managing their population is important work in keeping residents safe.
- Mosquito fish are native to this area and need no extra care, surviving and thriving on the larvae of mosquitoes and other macroinvertebrates. Mosquito fish are recommended for areas of intentional standing water like koi ponds - places that will always have water but make for great mosquito breeding grounds.
- Mosquito fish are small, native freshwater fish that eat mosquito larvae.
- Place the fish in intentional standing water such as backyard ponds, fountains, animal troughs, and unused swimming pools to effectively and naturally manage mosquito populations.
- The fish require no feeding, and care is limited to protecting them from garden sprays, chlorine, or other chemicals used for cleaning.
- Mosquito fish do not lay eggs and require no special environment for breeding.
- Mosquito Management Services' goal is for the County's entire mosquito fish supply to be raised at its headquarters, making the operation more sustainable as homegrown fish are more likely to be healthier than fish transported from farms.
Original source can be found here.
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