Malaria concerns with graywater systems

I would like to process my gray water through an artificial wetlands. However, I live in the malaria hotbed of the world. How do I make sure I'm not raising mosquitos?

Make sure you have things that eat mosquito larvae.  Frogs and fish think they are yummy.  Dragon flies. Birds.  A healthy eco-system in your pond will attract mosquito predators.


https://www.orkin.com/other/mosquitoes/mosquito-predators/

http://bugofff.com/natural-enemies-of-mosquitoes/

I really don't want to die from malaria

The death rate after contracting malaria is around 3 in 1000.  So chances are pretty good that you won't die from malaria, even if you get infected.

Cris Bessette wrote:
Make sure you have things that eat mosquito larvae.  Frogs and fish think they are yummy.  Dragon flies. Birds.  A healthy eco-system in your pond will attract mosquito predators.


https://www.orkin.com/other/mosquitoes/mosquito-predators/

http://bugofff.com/natural-enemies-of-mosquitoes/

Thanks Cris! From the links you sent, it seems the only way to be rid of them effectively is fish. ...anyone want to send some mosquito fish  to central Africa?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:The death rate after contracting malaria is around 3 in 1000.  So chances are pretty good that you won't die from malaria, even if you get infected.

Hehe, thanks. I've actually had it a number of times. Thanks to modern medicine it's not that bad. But my neighbors are too poor to invest in early detection and medication, so I still feel an ethical responsibility to avoid multiplying mosquitos.

I do not know of a way to have a wetlands and not have mosquitos. In my experience things like mosquito larve eating fish and moving water definitely reduce the number of mosquitos from "way too many" to "too many" but definitely don't stop them. Can you pipe the greywater away from your house to a location where you're unlikely to spend time? I have found mosquitos do not travel very far.

Kyle Neath wrote:I do not know of a way to have a wetlands and not have mosquitos. In my experience things like mosquito larve eating fish and moving water definitely reduce the number of mosquitos from "way too many" to "too many" but definitely don't stop them. Can you pipe the greywater away from your house to a location where you're unlikely to spend time? I have found mosquitos do not travel very far.

Nicely put, and an idea that I had not thought of. I only have two acres though. ..

I think the "mulch basin" approach to greywater could be a solution. I think as advocated by Art Ludwig on his very informative Oasis website recommend mulch basins that you shape around trees and shrubs and fill with coarse mulch such as wood chips and crop residue. This way there's no open water for mosquitoes to breed, the coarse mulch gradually breaks down while shading the soil. Ideally you alternate which basin the greywater goes into daily so that the plant don't get waterlogged. This way you wouldn't get the wetland plants, but then again your existing plants would get to use all the water.

Nathanael Szobody wrote:I would like to process my gray water through an artificial wetlands. However, I live in the malaria hotbed of the world. How do I make sure I'm not raising mosquitos?

I don't know how you can have a wetland that doesn't produce mosquitos but I did recently hear of a man named Jim Humble who is promoting a very cheap cure for malaria. His website is jimhumble.is and I understand he is controversial but it might be interesting for you to look into.

Rebecca Norman wrote:I think the "mulch basin" approach to greywater could be a solution. I think as advocated by Art Ludwig on his very informative Oasis website recommend mulch basins that you shape around trees and shrubs and fill with coarse mulch such as wood chips and crop residue. This way there's no open water for mosquitoes to breed, the coarse mulch gradually breaks down while shading the soil. Ideally you alternate which basin the greywater goes into daily so that the plant don't get waterlogged. This way you wouldn't get the wetland plants, but then again your existing plants would get to use all the water.

Great idea Rebecca!  I have done that in the past and it works great!  I call it a trench garden. I dig a trench, fill it with brush and mulch, and plant bananas and papaya. The fertility is undeniable, but it doesn't last long; the primary soul biology is termites here, and they eat the entire mulch pit in less than a year. Nevertheless, we still do our laundry in the shade of the papayas, and dump the water on them.

Nathanael Szobody wrote:I would like to process my gray water through an artificial wetlands. However, I live in the malaria hotbed of the world. How do I make sure I'm not raising mosquitos?

Instead of a pond, use a "horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland" (google it).

Generally this is done by filling the whole wetland up with gravel until the gravel is about 2" above the average surface level of the water.

The death rate after contracting malaria is around 3 in 1000.  So chances are pretty good that you won't die from malaria, even if you get infected.

Death rates are not everything. When malaria leaves you sick and weakened for weeks out of every year, it can have a debilitating impact on a person's livelihood, earnings, ability to get educated etc... Malaria is a huge contributing factor to global poverty because the sick struggle to support themselves.