While inquiring about the rules for building a backyard pond, my city suggested I have a plan some way to control the mosquitoes. I'm aware that some fish, frogs, newts, and turtles all eat mosquitoes and their larvae. I doubt my slow, lumbering long-fin goldfish will help, so I want to introduce some other creature to the pond. Is there any particular species that are really the best at this?

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    do not underestimate your goldfish,it will hunt and eat mosquito larvae and most other water living insects including dragon-fly larvae.as soon as you build your pond the wildlife will come. – trond hansen Jul 7 '20 at 7:14

As far as I know, dragon-fly larvae feed with mosquito larvae, and dragon-fly adults feed with adult mosquitoes.

Now, where do you get the dragon-flies from, is another question, which I cannot answer. Also, I cannot tell if you enjoy seeing dragon-flies around. Personally, I am kind of fascinated by them, I would have no problem having them in my pond- especially if they control the mosquito population as well.

  • I think I remember seeing Dragonfly larvae for sale at the same places you could by lady bugs, but that does not currently seem to be the case. A quick google search indicates the best solution is to just make the pond Dragonfly friendly, which you would need to do to keep them in any case. – James Jenkins Jul 13 '20 at 17:46

Any small fish except possibly goldfish/Koi. My Koi are confirmed vegetarians, never make any attempt to eat fish of any size. Guppies and gambusia are also called "mosquito fish" because of their appetite for larvae. I would prefer livebearers, anyone will do: swordtails, platys, mollies, whatever is on sale. These fish like warmer temperatures, but could be put in at 70 °F (21 °C) water temperature and would reproduce and eat larvae until the water temperature drops to about 50 °F (10 °C). They will tolerate this lower temperatures when living in a pond. Not nearly as interesting control of mosquitoes is adding Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) to the pond. It will kill any insects and not affect fish, amphibians, reptiles, or mammals.

  • Be careful: how I understand it, not the bacillus itself, but instead one of its proteins will be added to the water. – Allerleirauh Jul 8 '20 at 5:48
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    koi are omnivore so they eat everything aquariumadviser.com/what-to-feed-koi-fish what to feed depends on the water temparature,goldfish has the same diet as most other fish in the carp family so they too are omnivore and eat insects and plants.the only exeption to this is grass carp they are herbivore and live on a plant diet only. – trond hansen Jul 8 '20 at 16:25

White Cloud Mountain minnows are extremely effective at controlling mosquito larvae and are hardy too.

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