How do I grow mosquitoes? (to feed to my goldfish)

I've spent my life avoiding mosquitoes but now I've discovered that baby mosquitoes are my pond goldfish's favourite food.  


I learned more about it in this video.



I suspect it might be as simple as leaving an inch of water in the sun for a few days.  Or is there a trick to it?  We don't have many mosquitoes this close to the coast, so I might have trouble.

No problem, R_R. I'll send you a giant bag of them. Note that they need a blood meal to lay eggs.

We actually try to encourage mosquitoes here for feeding the bats.

What seems to attract the mosquitoes is buckets full of water. doesn't seem to matter if the water is clean or muddy. I always see them in the buckets doing their figure 8 swim. These are buckets which "collect" water from the roof. so they always have water in them year round.

This is the opposite of what you are asking for, but ...

We have large water tanks for our livestock. Those tanks were always filled with lots of mosquitos. A big problem for us. A simple solution for us, and we are told for many Amish as well, is to put two or three goldfish in every tank. They don't hurt the animals in any way, and they keep the tanks bug free. ~~In the winter we always have water heaters in the tanks to keep the water from freezing. The fish are fine on their own all winter. We have never needed to feed the fish anything else.

My mosquito trap works good to collect them:
https://permies.com/t/115296/trapped-mosquitos

If you can figure out a way to get them to migrate toward a container you can collect them in.

Mosquitoes prefer partially enclosed dark places/spaces, under, behind, in something. Try a box tipped on its' side, make it dark in a light area or just in a dark area(night time) with a dish inside. Give it depth so you don't have to worry about evaporation. Shouldn't take long. Good Luck

I recently thought of buying a few goldfish to see how well they would do in my open rain barrels that catch the drips from my leaky gutters.

Guys, have to tell you, this is most hilarious thread ever. "How shall we cultivate mosquitoes?"

I could swear I've wandered into a Monty Python sketch.      

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Guys, have to tell you, this is most hilarious thread ever. "How shall we cultivate mosquitoes?"

Don't laugh too loud Douglas. I have a friend who used to have a fancy fish that really needed live food and she harvested mosquito larvae from her outdoor water feature and used tweezers to drop them one at a time into the fish's tank.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Guys, have to tell you, this is most hilarious thread ever. "How shall we cultivate mosquitoes?"

I could swear I've wandered into a Monty Python sketch.      

I'm thinking more like the 'Twilight Zone'.  If I knew they would ship well, I would just take a mesh colander from the cupboard and dip-net the larvae out of the river.....or rainbarrel.....or ditch pond.....or pig wallow... ..... and overnight them to r.   Makes me wonder now....if honey derived from basswood flowers tastes different from that obtained near an alfalfa field, would mosquito larvae fed on venison blood taste more gamey than that originating from domestic swine?  Inquiring minds want to know.....

The emerged adult population has been pretty bountiful these days....thinking of just turning on the Hoover in the backyard with the spout pointing up in the air.  Should have the bag filled in less than an hour.

More seriously, r, if you have contacts further inland (and in areas without active mosquito spraying programs), you could ask them to place a few water-filled water bowls or rainbarrels around and then scoop out the larvae, not if, but when they arrive and start hatching.  Good luck!

I wonder if fish would eat dried larvae?

How long does it take for water to spontaneously generate mosquito larvae?

Mosquitos are the primary pollinator of blueberries and huckleberries in the PNW. So those and stagnant water and you will get a healthy mosquito population.

r ranson wrote:How long does it take for water to spontaneously generate mosquito larvae?

Personally, I find they grow better is slightly punky rain water that already has some muck in it, than in clean water. I recall you have ducks... I'd scoop a small bucket of used ducky water and set it in a cool shady place - from Ben's comment, near some huckleberry plants might be good (thanks Ben) - and then it could take less than a week.

This from a .gov site:

Eggs are ready to hatch from a few days to several months after being laid.

If conditions are "good" it happens fast.
From hatch to adult only takes about 3 days, so you're going to have to watch it like a hawk, or place it where there are tree frogs to harvest the developing adults.

They're pretty small for drying... but that's a very interesting thought. Most commercial fish food is unsustainable and questionable. There are places in Canada (Nahanni Butte I'm remembering you) where mosquito larvae scooping and drying could be a great summer project for kids to earn pocket money! Assuming the results are pretty much dust! Might have to smoosh and dry them like fruit roll-ups.

I am "happy" to report that a couple of inches of standing water in dappled shade will grow mosquito babies in about a week.  My goldfish seem to have no limit to how many they can eat, I suspect my goldfish are growing by about 5% per day on this new diet of mostly mosquitoes and algae with a tiny pinch of proper food for balance.  

An observation is that the water needs to be deep enough that the net can get in and catch the mosquitoes.

r ranson wrote: I suspect my goldfish are growing by about 5% per day on this new diet of mostly mosquitoes and algae with a tiny pinch of proper food for balance.  

It's not just humans that benefit from a diet of mostly fresh food...

I had to rear mosquitoes for my thesis research on using Bt for the biocontrol of insects.  Easy to keep them fed.  Just crush up some dry cat-food and sprinkle it across the surface of a bucket of water.  If the mosquitoes are not yet already in the bucket, they will be shortly.  Don't leave it in direct sun.  Shade is best.

The larvae are little worm-like strands swimming in the water.  Don't let them get to the pupae stage, or you will find yourself producing lots of blood-hungry adults flying around.

There are other options as well..

So far, with my two little feeder comet goldfish (30 cent and a 70 cent one), they want to eat between 1/4 and 1/2 a teaspoon of live food a day.  

Less than 1/4 teaspoon, they compete for the food and tend to waver between lethargic and manic.
At 1/4 teaspoon of mosquitoes, they don't chase each other and seem to be very calm but lively.  I imagine this is happy fish behaviour.
After 1/2 teaspoon of mosquitoes, they are a bit slow to eat more.  

They do like a pinch of regular food and even when they have an excess of mosquitoes they will still hunt for flyes (jump to eat them if they get too close to the water) and nibble on plants.  So I guess they really like plants.  

Having trouble keeping up with their demands.  I wonder what else I can grow for them to eat?  Also, do they eat in the winter?