Blood sucker control...

For my floating islands I have developed several methods. Bladderworts work quite well swimming around my pontoon. They build soon a thick layer where all young larvae get eaten before they grow too big .
The first flush before Bladderworts are thick enough I catch with nets and feed the larvae to my Droseras and Drosophyllum.
Sometimes I just changed the mortar tubs Some filtered water in one new tub. Then put one overgrown island into it. Then fill it up with the the water of the former tub with all the larvae just on the center of the islands. When the water flushes through the moss and substrate all the larvae will stay in the moss.
A quite weak fertilizer fit for carnivores and orchids.
Another solution was I caught in the spring some Notonecta glauca larvae. They are good hunters and even hunt for the mosquitos which want to lay their little eggships they cant fly away until they are adult.
Bti were another way I used.
In the end my islands have a ring of Sphagnum which closes the gap between island and tub rim. After this the water is not accessible for the flieing buggers. But the bladderworts should be removed then, if they are present.
 
Adult Droseras and Drosphyllum catch al lot of gnat prey too.
But the tablets are the simplest method only a bit expensive. Here I could get only the toxin, a tablet 1 € works for 3 weeks or so.
 

stevebradford

Moderator
Staff member
I use fish.

For my flooded Sarracenia table I keep a Goldfish in there year around, it survives the winters and will eat any aquatic insects, also Utricularia but those only really grow well in water above 15 degrees C. After a year or two when the Goldfish is getting bigger I swap it back into the pond for a smaller one. For my pot bases in the summer months that get much warmer that I do put Utricularia in I use Guppies in those, they do well in water over 15 degrees C and won’t eat the Utricularia but are ravenous aquatic insect eaters.
2723B4FE-357F-47A8-AB49-96F4F052A9B9.jpeg

E9A814E3-05CE-4364-B267-D9401B573BBD.jpeg
 
Two other fish species friends of mine use for this purpose are
Macropodus ocelatus FO Guangzhou
Tanichthys albonubes
Both are hardy to 5 C° and survive in ponds outside in 6 b but I don't have a pond and must keep them in my studio, if I can set up an aquarium there.
It has not happened yet.
 
Top