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Mosquitoes in Your Hydroponic System: The Unexpected Threat · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
• 0:06
  I'm your host Dr Russell Sharp and today we're talking about a problem I've
• 0:10
  never had with hydroponic growing and I don't think it's a problem anywhere
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  in the UK but it is a problem elsewhere and it's a problem I've seen on Reddit
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  so I thought I would talk about it and explain why it's such an issue.
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  It's a problem, it's a pest that doesn't harm your plants in any way that I can see.
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  And it's mosquitoes. So why would mosquitoes be an issue for hydroponic growers?
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  They're not going to be harming the plants.
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  Even their larvae are going to be cleaning up your fertigation solution by eating
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  the microbes in the algae unit. So surely they're a good thing, mosquitoes.
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  Well, no, because you don't want a hydroponic system that has got.
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  Horrible mosquitoes that can bite you and potentially transmit horrible diseases
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  to your workers and the surrounding population.
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  So you'd be a bit of a pariah if you were the source of a massive mosquito outbreak in your region.
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  So they can become an issue, especially if you've got stagnant water in a fertigation tank.
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  They become a breeding ground for the larvae, especially if
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  your fertigation tank has got algae growing in it and
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  biofilms things like this that's what the larvae will be feeding
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  on so a reservoir that has doesn't have
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  a cover on it will be so the mosquitoes can
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  get in and lay their eggs and sheltered humid
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  environments like greenhouses and indoor grow rooms provide ideal hatching
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  conditions especially if you've got leaky reservoirs
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  clogged drains or poor airflow they create a
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  sort of perfect storm so you need
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  to make sure your hydroponic system is clean and recirculating so
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  where will you find mosquitoes in
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  hydroponics you'll find them in nft channels where
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  there's standing water at the ends of the channels that's a place where
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  larvae can build up and feed you'll find them in drainage troughs that don't
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  fully empty overflow trays using media beds and pots reservoirs with open tops
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  as I've said and condensation pooling even if there's any way like that so it's
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  important to remember that even just a small amount of water,
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  a few millilitres, can support mosquito breeding.
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  Some species can lay eggs in damp sponge or root matting.
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  So you can lay the eggs in the rock wool, the mineral wool.
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  So why does it matter? You're going to have stressed workers and visitors in
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  commercial operations, spread of diseases in tropical and subtropical regions.
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  The obvious one being malaria.
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  You don't want to have malaria. It's not going to be affecting into your crops,
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  but it's going to debilitate you and your workforce and the surrounding population.
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  It's just an indication of poor sanitation or
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  ventilation in your growing system as well if you've
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  got mosquitoes growing you've probably got the ideal situation
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  for other pests and pathogens like pythium
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  and phytophthora that are going to love unsterile unsterile
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  is that word uh yeah dirty vertigation and tanks and like this so you it's an
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  indication that you've not got everything sorted in your hydroponic system so
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  in rare cases mosquito larvae can even survive in filter systems and reduce
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  flow and clog emitters so they can actually.
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  Lead to degradation of the hydroponic system itself so
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  how are you going to prevent mosquitoes if you've got them i've seen
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  some horror stories on reddit of people with
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  hydroponic tanks dwc tanks non-circulatory DWC
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  they lift the lid and there's just loads of mosquito larvae
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  swimming around so eliminate stagnant water check for puddles under benches
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  introduce something that's going to kill the larvae so experiment with a sterilizing
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  agent like hydrogen peroxide you could even heat up the solution refresh it
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  get rid of it and start again with a new solution,
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  make sure you've got covers on all the open reservoirs so
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  that the adults can't fly in and lay eggs introduce water movement a small pump
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  or air stone to prevent larvae survival if they can be sucked into a filter
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  and then disposed of then that's probably the best option and improving ventilation
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  use yellow sticky traps to monitor the population of mosquitoes as well as pests,
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  you could look at in your area whether bt bacillus therugiensis that bacteria can be used as a.
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  Biological larva side this is deadly to
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  mosquito larvae be safe for your plants you can't
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  buy that in the uk but then again we don't have mosquitoes that are
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  a problem over here never use household insecticides
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  near your hydroponic system that's the key they may drift into your nutrient
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  reservoirs coat leaves while they might be fine for you to apply as a spray
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  in an indoor situation they could be very harmful if they're ingested on a fruit
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  or smoked on a smokable crop, so never do that.
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  Can they spread, can a mosquito spread a plant pathogen? That's another question, can a flying mosquito?
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  Very, very unlikely because the
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  mosquitoes are travelling from animal to animal or from pond to animal.
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  They're not travelling from plant to plant, say like a midge would be or an aphid.
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  So they're not travelling, they're not going to be carrying grey mould spores
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  or viruses because they're not sticking their proboscis into plants and landing
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  on plants, they're sticking their proboscis into a cow or a chicken or something like that.
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  So and then you so very very
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  unlikely they they're more likely
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  just a sign of poor control you might
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  mistake them for fungus gnats as well so that's
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  something to consider so make sure you be able to identify the difference and
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  just like any pest integrated pest management is is
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  key so monitor if they're becoming an issue monitor
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  them weekly see how effective your control systems
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  are train your staff to report the pools and
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  drips and things like this and avoid standing water not
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  just in your fertigation tank but also in your
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  gullies in your any drainage areas
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  pipes and things like this anywhere where mosquitoes could get into close
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  the system up make it tighter so florida would be you know you know there's
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  a number of examples in florida of mosquitoes breeding in the base of trays
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  under hydroponic towers despite
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  having clean nutrient lines no water accumulation, they can be created.
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  A mosquito factory as it were hydroponic system
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  got lots of water lots of biofilms potentially lots
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  of algae so um all those
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  tips you know aeration stones filters things like this sealing
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  it in all could help prevent mosquito infestations and.
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  Massive increases in mosquito numbers before.
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  You know the good news is you can you can get control
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  within a matter of weeks if you're as well
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  as it occurring fast it can be controlled fast in outdoor
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  sort of aquaponics and ornamental systems you can't
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  just seal up the the tanks and things like that but you
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  could potentially in aquaponics because using fish you could use the mosquito
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  fish gambusia or predatory coat
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  pods they can introduce to control larvae however
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  they won't give 100% control so you might have to
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  live with some mosquitoes in outdoor aquaponics systems and
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  you know you can't introduce insecticides if
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  you're growing fish so as i've
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  always said about aquaponics you've got to optimize for the
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  plants and the fish or be able
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  to suffer problems with one of them so mosquitoes
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  and hydroponics is not on the pressing matter for
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  most growers but you could find yourself
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  if you're going DWC or you've got a big fertigation tank
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  and you've got biofilms and you're in a tropical area you could
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  find yourself with an unwanted infestation of mosquitoes so don't
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  wait until it's unbearable get proactive be able
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  to identify what a mosquito larvae looks like as well because you might have
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  this issue and you might not even realize it so that's been hydroponics daily
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  for today mosquitoes in hydroponics something you never thought about before
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  and now it's going to keep you awake at night thinking have I got mosquitoes
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  in there I'm just going to go get out bed, go and check what's in my fertigation tank.
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  So you can thank me for all that worry and unnecessary worry and stress.
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  Until tomorrow, that's been Hydroponics Daily. Thank you very much for listening.