Re: NANFA-- Harvesting Mosquito Larvae Question

unclescott (unclescott_at_prodigy.net)
Wed, 18 Jun 2003 11:19:25 -0500

> Before the mosquito larvae hatch they become a hard shelled critter, looks
like an armored 'comma'. Until then you can harvest all you want. The
hardshells mean the blood sucking is coming soon. Then I become rather
frantic about harvesting.

In warm weather like Mark describes, 4-5 days might be it. These "commas on
prozak" are called "tumblers" on some web sites. They don't eat in that
stage. If you bring them indoors, they will metamorphosize into fliers in
minutes to a couple of hours.

If the phone rings, call back later. ;)

>Most of my fish won't touch the hardshell guys.

David, you just feed your fish too well! My "pikelings" - the pike like
killies - will ignore every thing else in a frantic chase to catch those
little marital threats.

I was lucky enough to stumble across an old Tetra Sieve set. Those are great
for sizing the mossies before putting them in tanks. The tumblers or
bullheads go in tanks with hungry surface feeding residents and no plant
cover.

One can get different size meshes and melt them (using a solvent OUTDOORS)
into pvc pipe size adapters. Those will site one on top of the other and
pretty effectively sort according to size. (Don't ever try that with brine
shrimp.)

Before throwing the tumblers out, I'd consider freezing them - maybe in an
old ice cube tray.

Having said that, I dumped out a funky former daphnia culture today. It went
over to the mosquitos entirely and it was such a mess it was easier to dump
and start over. :(

All the best!

Scott
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