Mosquito dunks?

[flockof4]

What are mosquito dunks?

 

[slikylover]

can i can i ask are they safe for your chickens??

 

[whitewolfvt]

Quote:
Mosquito dunks are a disc like thing that to me resembles a peat pellet (you know those things that expand for starting seeds?). They are meant to be put into standing water and will kill off the mosquito larvae. They work great. We have been using them for a few years now.

 

[whitewolfvt]

Quote:
Only the dunks with BT in them....NOT CHLORINE. I can't think of the chemical that BT stands for, but it gives the larvae a bacteria if you will, that will kill them but won't harm other creatures. Including chickens and birds for the bird bath.

 

[flockof4]

Thank you, whitewolfvt. I have rain collection tanks that may need some treatment once the weather warms up.

 

[treeclimber233]

If you want to "Go Green" just put a few small fish (guppies work well) in the water container and let them eat the mosquitoe larva. That is what I do and it works great. I have some in my goats water bucket and the horse trough.

 

[chickiechick72]

So then, if you use guppies in a water feeder, you would have to feed the guppies, too, right? The larvae couldn't be enough, are they?

 

[subhanalah]

Ducks will disturb the water and eat any larva if they have a chance to hatch (from my understanding this takes 10 days of standing water, or maybe that's from the time they are laid til they are adults)

But if you have rain barrels, I'm sure you don't want ducks (or fish) fouling your wwater.

 

[pdirt]

Only the dunks with BT in them....NOT CHLORINE. I can't think of the chemical that BT stands for, but it gives the larvae a bacteria if you will, that will kill them but won't harm other creatures. Including chickens and birds for the bird bath.

BT stands for "bacillus thuringiensis", which is a bacteria that kills the mosquito larvae (not a chemical). I forget exactly how the bacteria does that but from what I recall reading on BT, it exists quite a bit in nature and sounds safe for chickens and humans. I haven't tried the dunks yet because our little pond is so tiny I just drain it whenever the skeeters are about ready to hatch.

I've never seen the dunks with chlorine, but yes, I imagine the chlorine content would have to be fairly concentrated in order to do much damage to mosquito larvae and therefore wouldn't be good for chickens to drink.