Mosquito Dunks, do they work for rain barrels? We sell whole white oak whiskey barrels, they have many uses. One of the uses is as rain barrels for gardens. I have been asked if a product know as "Mosquito Dunks" would be safe used in water for the garden? Has anyone used them, and are they safe?
Kentucky Rustic Bourbon Whiskey Barrels
-- Kentucky Rustic Furniture
We have been using them in our rain barrel (one quarter of a dunk per barrel) and have seen a reduction in mosquitos around the rain barrel. The product info. states that it is safe for birds, pets, and wildlife. I don't feed our dog water from the rainbarrel, but I do feel safe using the rain barrel water to water the plants in our yard where our dogs play.
Heidi
kyrustic wrote:
Thanks for the info. I'll tell them it's safe to use the water on their veggie gardens.
The worry is that not only do they kill mosquitoes but that they kill other things as well (bees for example). I put mosquito fish (rosie reds) in my small water gardens (barrel size). This year I put in 2 guppies which I will now have to bring in for the winter since they are tropical.... Anyone want some guppies (now 3)?
I read a while back that there was concern about its toxicity to bees.... From what I can find now there is only one species of bees that it is highly toxic to. Others may suffer a shorter lifespan but not one that anyone seems concerned about. It certainly seems the case that the cost/benefit ratio is on the side of using it. I still like guppies better though... DK
I don't really know. As I said, it was something I read some previous summer about the dunks and it convinced me not to use them. However I can really find nothing useful about it now in the time I think it is worth investing. I don't know if the story has disappeared because the original story that I'm referring to did not make the distinction between the different bacteria strains, if it was based on an in process study that didn't pan out, if it has just been swept under the rug because everyone is far more concerned about the diseases passed by mosquitoes than they are to what may be only a minor impact on the environment, or what (however I am noticing that being an environmentalist is about to take the same four letter word status as liberal how holds).
The one thing that I do know is that I am happy that it motivated me to get rosie reds and this year guppies. They are far more entertaining than a floating chunk of dunk. I'm not saying what people should or should not do.... I'm simply musing on line... I'm currently having my a$$ chewed off in rec.ponds for similar musings so I'm getting a bit nervous about doing it at all. DK
On the bulk packages it says to keep the stuff out of wounds, not to eat it or get into eyes. I have three garden ponds within a shovels throw from 6 hives of honeybees. I have used dunks in the ponds and the bees drink from them with no sign of a problem. You will have no problems with using them in rain barrels.
"dkat" wrote in news:67y2b.195266$ snipped-for-privacy@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:
Keep in mind, that the mosquito larvae actually have to ingest the bacteria to be affected. I stuck a dunk in a 5 gallon bucket of water and after 2 days, most of the larvae are dead, but there as still a few hanging around. The dunk in question is over a year old and has been through the mail.
If you've got a rain barrel and it's not raining, it might be better and cheaper just to introduce a thin layer of oil to the surface of the water ... kill rate for me was 100% in under a day. Of course, don't use any oil that you wouldn't eat anyway. For gutters and out of the way places, the dunks are a better idea.
- Salty
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