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BT and daphnia


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#1 Guest_ignatz_*

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Posted 27 June 2012 - 03:25 AM

Does anybody know if the Bt strains that are sold to control mosquitoes will also kill daphnia and/or ostracods?

I try to keep my outdoor live food bins covered with mosquito netting but this year due to the extreme heat, we've had a bumper crop of mosquitoes (mostly the heartworm, WNV and encephalitis vectoring C. pipiens sp. complex) and they continue to manage to get into them and lay eggs. Some of my fish are better than others at catching the larvae, meaning that some make it to adulthood in the house. I'm going to try to come up with some better fitting frames for the netting or stop raising live food outdoors and in the greenhouse, but am getting desperate enough to consider the use of Bt in the tanks to control the mossies.

Can't seem to find any info on the lethality of Bt in non-target arthropods..

#2 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:34 AM

I try to keep my outdoor live food bins covered with mosquito netting but this year due to the extreme heat, we've had a bumper crop of mosquitoes (mostly the heartworm, WNV and encephalitis vectoring C. pipiens sp. complex) and they continue to manage to get into them and lay eggs.

I don't understand how they're getting in. If the netting is a smaller mesh than the mosquito then it should keep out one or a hundred of them, right? I'm confused. Is there a hole in your net?

Edited by EricaWieser, 27 June 2012 - 07:35 AM.


#3 Guest_exasperatus2002_*

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Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:54 AM

Is there a gap anywhere that they can be crawling in?

#4 Guest_ignatz_*

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Posted 29 June 2012 - 06:04 AM

I think I've solved the problem with the netting...but I'm still interested in the Bt question. Anybody got any substantive info on this?




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