Need help with neighbors accusation

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).

Do you have a pump in your pond? My understanding is that mosquitoes need
*still* water for the eggs to hatch. (Some of the worst offenders are
things like flowerpot saucers, tarps where water can collect, underused
birdbaths, etc. where water can stand -- often unnoticed.)

I don't know how to address the "rat" issues, since I can't imagine why
anyone would think that a pond would contribute to the rat population
anyway.

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC




"Bulldog" wrote in message
...
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.

Anne Lurie wrote:

Do you have a pump in your pond? My understanding is that mosquitoes need
*still* water for the eggs to hatch.

It doesn't have to be totally still.

Minnows are a good thing.

I had some brief issues with things like that when I first set up our
pond. The neighbor came over complaining that it was stinking up her
yard. Funny, because I sit in my chair at the side of the pond most
nights and never noticed any smell expect for when I was adding water
and could catch a whiff of the product we use to neutralize chloramines.
Turns out, it was a fly catcher she had hung on her property that was
full of rotting flies. I suspect some people, even if truth smacked 'em
upside the head, would not believe it. I also wonder if her complaint
was in retaliation for my polite request to keep her dog from using our
yard as his personal bathroom. *sigh*

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu

Susan H. Simko wrote:
I had some brief issues with things like that when I first set up our
pond. The neighbor came over complaining that it was stinking up her
yard. Funny, because I sit in my chair at the side of the pond most
nights and never noticed any smell expect for when I was adding water
and could catch a whiff of the product we use to neutralize chloramines.
Turns out, it was a fly catcher she had hung on her property that was
full of rotting flies. I suspect some people, even if truth smacked 'em
upside the head, would not believe it. I also wonder if her complaint
was in retaliation for my polite request to keep her dog from using our
yard as his personal bathroom. *sigh*

Yeah, sometimes neighbors come up with completely unfounded accusations
when the real problem is something more psychological in nature, such as a
minor form of revenge or some sort of fear. I think many are not even
consciously aware they're doing this, just that somehow in their minds,
something has happened that makes them think you're the source of all evil
in the neighborhood. My parents had to deal with such when a cat-phobic
person moved in a couple houses down. Rather than come out and admit he
was scared of cats (which was my working theory on his problem), he came
over and made wild claims like "the cat food is attracting hornets into my
yard". In actuality, it was all the flowering plants attracting large
bumble bees into his yard, but he wouldn't believe it.

When that didn't work, suddenly the city was getting all sorts of
complaints about minor code issues (such as a large empty wooden wire
spool my dad was using as a work bench on the side of the house for half a
decade, the neighbor and city considered it to be "junk" and my dad had to
tear it down and throw it away). Complaints that stopped when that
neighbor moved out. Of course, there was no city ordinance against feeding
feral cats (which my dad does to tame/trap them and their kittens to get
them fixed and/or adopted), so the neighbor was out of luck in the cat
department. Funny thing that, isn't it.

Some people arent happy unless they are busy making other people crazy. Ingrid

Cichlidiot wrote:
Yeah, sometimes neighbors come up with completely unfounded accusations
when the real problem is something more psychological in nature,


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Some people arent happy unless they are busy making other people crazy. Ingrid

Cichlidiot wrote:
Yeah, sometimes neighbors come up with completely unfounded accusations
when the real problem is something more psychological in nature,


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Susan H. Simko wrote:
I had some brief issues with things like that when I first set up our
pond. The neighbor came over complaining that it was stinking up her
yard. Funny, because I sit in my chair at the side of the pond most
nights and never noticed any smell expect for when I was adding water
and could catch a whiff of the product we use to neutralize chloramines.
Turns out, it was a fly catcher she had hung on her property that was
full of rotting flies. I suspect some people, even if truth smacked 'em
upside the head, would not believe it. I also wonder if her complaint
was in retaliation for my polite request to keep her dog from using our
yard as his personal bathroom. *sigh*

Yeah, sometimes neighbors come up with completely unfounded accusations
when the real problem is something more psychological in nature, such as a
minor form of revenge or some sort of fear. I think many are not even
consciously aware they're doing this, just that somehow in their minds,
something has happened that makes them think you're the source of all evil
in the neighborhood. My parents had to deal with such when a cat-phobic
person moved in a couple houses down. Rather than come out and admit he
was scared of cats (which was my working theory on his problem), he came
over and made wild claims like "the cat food is attracting hornets into my
yard". In actuality, it was all the flowering plants attracting large
bumble bees into his yard, but he wouldn't believe it.

When that didn't work, suddenly the city was getting all sorts of
complaints about minor code issues (such as a large empty wooden wire
spool my dad was using as a work bench on the side of the house for half a
decade, the neighbor and city considered it to be "junk" and my dad had to
tear it down and throw it away). Complaints that stopped when that
neighbor moved out. Of course, there was no city ordinance against feeding
feral cats (which my dad does to tame/trap them and their kittens to get
them fixed and/or adopted), so the neighbor was out of luck in the cat
department. Funny thing that, isn't it.

I had some brief issues with things like that when I first set up our
pond. The neighbor came over complaining that it was stinking up her
yard. Funny, because I sit in my chair at the side of the pond most
nights and never noticed any smell expect for when I was adding water
and could catch a whiff of the product we use to neutralize chloramines.
Turns out, it was a fly catcher she had hung on her property that was
full of rotting flies. I suspect some people, even if truth smacked 'em
upside the head, would not believe it. I also wonder if her complaint
was in retaliation for my polite request to keep her dog from using our
yard as his personal bathroom. *sigh*

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu

Anne Lurie wrote:

Do you have a pump in your pond? My understanding is that mosquitoes need
*still* water for the eggs to hatch.

It doesn't have to be totally still.

Minnows are a good thing.