Bulldog wrote:
Our neighbors complained that my pond is breeding mosquitoes and rats. Does
anyone have articles saying this is a myth?

As far as larvae and eggs go, I don't see any. In fact, my theory is that
the pond is a trap. Mosquitoes might lay eggs but the fish eat them.

This is serious and I hope someone has some ready documentation.


As others have noted, as long as you are stocking the proper kind of fish,
mosquitos will not be an issue because the fish will eat the larva. To
convince your neighbor of this, see if your local mosquito control agency
(also called vector control in some areas) has pamphlets describing the
use of mosquito fish to control mosquito populations in waterways and give
that to your neighbor. Or search the web for other mosquito districts that
might have such pamphlets/info pages online. The use of fish is a very
common and effective control of mosquitos. So much so that many mosquito
control districts will seed a pond with mosquito fish for free or a small
fee if the owner requests it.

As for the rats, perhaps a gentle reminder that rats require a supply of
food would be in order. I doubt rats are very good at catching fish or
that the pond would be the big attraction as far as a food source (but
then again, I don't know what your pond area looks like). Still, I bet
there's an easily accessible food source nearby, like garbage, feed grain,
pet food, etc. Again, search the web for pest control agencies and find
pamphlets on rat control. They'll probably recommend things like trapping
the current rats then removing the potential sources of food and sealing
up any entries into the house (assuming their presence in the house is
what is alarming your neighbor, if it's just them outside, well, that's a
problem with nature.... animals don't know the meaning of property lines).