Hey Gardeners! Do you have any buckets laying around collecting rain water?
Look at what we found in the shallow seat of this chair left outside!
It would be unbelievable if I didn’t see this with my own eyes. Can you believe that all it takes is a quarter inch depth of water for mosquitoes to breed and continue their life cycle?
Video: Mosquito larvae wriggling in the shallow water of chair seat.
Adult mosquitoes mate and the female lays her eggs in groups called rafts on the surface of water. The water has to be stagnant or non-flowing for the eggs to develop properly. As long as there is a quarter-inch or more of water available to the larvae that hatch from the eggs, the baby mosquitoes will grow. Eventually, they molt enough times and attain their adult size and shape and take to the air to find mates to continue the cycle.
Mosquito-proof the areas around where you live and play outdoors by removing anything that can collect water. This means old tires, buckets, cans, bird baths – if you’re not refreshing the water daily for your feathered friends, and even old lawn furniture like our forgotten chair.
Fill in areas that usually develop into puddles to remove the mosquito habitat of standing water.