Zika virus and water trays

[David Ahrens]

Hope someone doesn't say that this is not relevent to CP's.
Is anyone aware of the zika virus that is spread by mosquitoes. It is making it's way around south America at the moment but it is reckoned that it will spread to north America eventually. The symptoms are relatively mild but it is the damage it can do to unborn babies that is the problem.
Do you think that north American growers with have to adopt other ways of growing their Sarracenias in the future ? eg dry trays.
I know that some people in the US use doughnut dunks to kill mosquitoes and I was wondering if this could be an answer.
I haven't posted on the the US forum for years but I thought that I would give it a go. I put a posting on the UK CP forum but I don't think that many americans look at it.
Regards
David Ahrens
London

[marcel]

Personnaly I think the tray area is irrelevant to other sources of stagnant water of which there are plenty in all but the driest climates.
This needs to be dealt with as things like malaria are handled...best results seem to come from releasing sterile (radiated) mosquitoes and general personal prevention options.

[coline]

As I am on a zika potential area, and whether zika is or isn't a real threat, there is also Dengue, which is already well known.
So the best way to manage the tray problem is to add only enough water for them to dry in a 2-3 days, that way you are actually helping to control the mosquito because you create an "ideal habitat" for the females, they lay eggs, die, and the offspring are killed when dried out.
Or you may perfectly add a granulated insecticide like imidacloprid which is much more available than the B. thuringensis in all the rest of the countries.

[jdallas]

Feb 21, 2016 11:42:34 GMT coline said:

As I am on a zika potential area, and whether zika is or isn't a real threat, there is also Dengue, which is already well known.
So the best way to manage the tray problem is to add only enough water for them to dry in a 2-3 days, that way you are actually helping to control the mosquito because you create an "ideal habitat" for the females, they lay eggs, die, and the offspring are killed when dried out.
Or you may perfectly add a granulated insecticide like imidacloprid which is much more available than the B. thuringensis in all the rest of the countries.

This alternating wet/dry technique is a fascinating approach.

We use the BT mosquito dunks every year in our Sarracenia pools, and they are very effective. The manufacturer also makes BT granules the kill within 24 hours. Dunks last about a month and take about 3-4 days to kill larvae. I'm not sure of their availability in other countries, but they can be ordered on Amazon.

Even though effective, I would want to be cautious about using imidacloprid in water trays. It's harmless to the plants, but neo-nicitinoid insecticides are very harmful to Honeybees. Since they are systemic, plants in bloom present a serious hazard to pollinating insects. There's a good chance they will be outlawed here in Oregon, USA.

Jeff

[coline]

Yes, they are being taken out of the market, but as I am beekeeper (meliponicultor) and I have several hives inside my greenhouse as an easy protection against rain and see no effects on any bee species I have, I reccomend them to control the larvae (on non crop species as CPs are).
Species living here:
Nannotrigona perilampoides
Tetragonisca angustula
Melipona costaricensis
Scaptotrigona pectoralis

The benefit BT has on the use of course is that it is not a synthetical pesticide, and it releases nitrogen, which nepenthes and sarracenia would like.

[marcus]

Hi David,

Last year, I've been changing the water in my Sarracenia trays every three days or so to kill mosquito larvae. I think I'm going to try out B. thuringensis this year---the Sarracenia collection grew quite a bit and it's getting to be too much work to change the water so often.
Are you thinking about trying dunks yourself or are you just curious what we're doing over here in the colonies?

Cheers,
Marcus
(You may remember me from way back when I still lived in Scotland!)

[adelea]

I cant say for trays as I have never had a problem, however I was getting mosquitos in a couple of the neglected aquariums at my university (I have a greenhouse for a project and just decided I should chuck some carns in as I had some spare room).

The aldrovanda and utrics couldn't really keep up with the larvae, so I did what I normally do for my other aquariums, I added a CO2 reactor, within a week no mosquito larvae and none since.

It seems quite effective in relieving mossies, and we all know how good it is for the plants, sadly it is not so flash for certain fish species or tadpoles, but really if you have fish then you probably don't have mossies, especially if you have guppies, fighters or rainbow fish.

[coline]

Also, if the space is small, by making a bigger current, more water circulation, specially with surface breaking currents, they don't like them

[David Ahrens]

Hi Marcus, I was just curious to see what people were doing over The Pond.
My wife and I are just in the process of buying a new greenhouse which will get erected sometime. I don't think that the UK is warm enough for the zika virus but I never really bother with mosquito control, we keep the trays fairly full all through the growing season.
I had forgotten that I had posted on this forum, I must check it out more often.