What Eats Mosquitos
Believe it or not there is a fairly long list of predators of mosquitos. As a homeowner, our goal is to keep all pests away from our home. You never want to be the home where guest and family members stop in and end up dealing with mosquitos or other pests. Always remember to use a pest control service that helps keep the mosquitos away. What eats mosquitos? Birds, dragonflies, fish, bats, frogs, turtles and spiders are all common predators of a mosquito.
Let's take a look below at more specifics involving these predators and how we can prevent mosquitos around our home.
What Are The Natural Predators
There is a fairly substantial list of what eats mosquitos. In the United States those natural predators are valuable to our ecosystem as they control the mosquito population. Keeping the mosquito population at bay allows us to prevent the spread of diseases. Let's take a look at the list of natural predators:
- Mosquito Hawks - also known as the crane fly, leatherjacket, gollywhopper, or even the daddy long legs. They consume a large number of mosquitos in their diet. Mosquito Hawks are found all over the world and they are known to enjoy the climate of the Southern United States of America.
- Dragonflies - dragonflies eat mosquitos at a high rate. Additionally, they enjoy mosquito larvae during the aquatic stage of life. They are great mosquito predators as they can kill thousands of mosquitos for their diet. However, they are not known to control a mosquito population as much.
- Damselflies - most often consume mosquitos during the aquatic stage of life.
- Gambusia Affinis - a type of fish that eats mosquitos larvae and known to many as "mosquito fish." They are the single most reliable form of natural mosquito control. Also, these fish can consume up to 167% of their body weight in mosquito larvae.
- Purple Martin - known to be a mosquito eating bird, but do not consume nearly enough to be considered a form of natural mosquito control.
- Birds - in addition to the Purple Martin, there are many birds that enjoy mosquito as their diet. Swallows, Waterfowls such as ducks and geese, cardinals, bluebirds, and songbirds all enjoy both adult mosquitos and larvae staged mosquitos.
- Bats - bats are well known mosquito eaters. However, they often feed on moths, beetles, and wasps. Additionally, mosquito consumption only makes up 1% of their entire diet.
- Frogs and Tadpoles - although they do not consume a large amount of mosquitos, they are still considered great at assisting the reduction of a mosquito population.
- Spiders - spiders can consume 400 to 800 million tons of food during the course of a year and eat a variety of insects including various bugs and mosquitos. They catch flying insects in their webbing and mosquitos are an easy target.
How Can I Prevent Mosquitos
Preventing mosquitos around our home can be fairly simple. Keep in mind that as a homeowner, you have the ability to limit mosquito food sources, and water sources. Ensuring that water does not puddle up around your home and creates pockets of standing water is important. Lastly, the mosquito larva is typically found on the surface of the water.
Other Recommended Maintenance
Now that you are aware of what the natural predators of mosquitos are, let's explore the best way to prevent an explosion of the mosquito population. Pest control is likely a great choice. Is pest control worth it? The only way you can really determine if it is worth it is by keeping track of the insects that you are coming into contact with.
Next, it is a good idea to maintain pest control so that you can eliminate the food source of many varieties of pests and other insects. The last thing that you want to happen is to see a rodent or family of rodents move into your home. Read up on how you can prevent rats from getting into your walls. Remember, just like the reason for natural predators of mosquitos, there are food sources that rats enjoy as well.
Lastly, if you know the signs of pest infestations you can get a jump start on keeping them away. Read up on how to keep a pest infestation from happening. This can save you time and money and it keeps you from freaking out if an infestation occurs. Always remember that preventative maintenance is key.
When Do I Call A Professional
If you are experiencing a mosquito problem you should reach out to your local pest control service. They can recommend some great ways to prevent you from having a mosquito problem. Keep in mind that if you don't know who to call, you can reach out to your local home inspection team.
They can inspect your landscaping and surrounding foundation to ensure there is no pooling of water due to damaged gutters, water runoff, or improper grading of the landscape. In addition, they can refer you to the most reputable pest control service for getting rid of mosquito problems.
Conclusion
Dealing with a mosquito problem has a variety of solutions. Unfortunately, it takes some time to eradicate a mosquito population if you don't have some help. In many cases, you can rely on some natural predators to assist you in this process.
You could start building some bat houses and affixing them to the trees around your home. Since bats are natural predators, they can help reduce the nuisance of a mosquito population. If this trick doesn't work, call on Gray Pest Control for all your pest control needs in Jacksonville, FL, and surrounding areas.