Out looking at _my_ pond0 this time and was observing all the diving beetles, water boatman, and diving beetle larvae. Tons of predators for mosquito larvae. Did you know that some frog tadpoles eat mosquito _larvae_?
It made me think about people who add gambusia mosquito fish to their ponds and also water features. They are also released by the state into wetlands. Gambusia mosquito fish that eat tadpoles preferentially to mosquito larvae. And I wonder how many other natural predators of mosquitoes do the “mosquito fish” eat preferentially to mosquito larvae? Most insect predators such as the ones above and dragonfly larvae and damselfly larvae lay eggs that hatch out into tiny larvae that would almost certainly be eaten by mosquito fish.
It also made me think about aerial spraying as well. Spraying insecticides kills the insect predators too. Predator-prey relationships always, always, rely on the prey coming back first before the predators can reestablish themselves, so spraying insecticides, especially over large areas, is guaranteed to increase our mosquito problem and guarantee a market for the insecticide manufacturers in the future.
Insecticide manufacturers make money on their product. They have salesman to sell their product to large-scale users such as cities, counties, and states. These toxin sales people do not decide to take a day off. They are constantly promoting their product in order to make a sale. If we want to combat their aggressive and methodical sales tactics we need to be constantly promoting a variety of counterpoints and alternatives. We don’t get to go out and play a round of golf with the city council, but they do. We don’t get to go to cocktail parties with the city council, but they do. We don’t have an expense account in order to take city council members to expensive restaurants, but they do. We are starting at a huge disadvantage but we can make a difference.