A mosquito control that sounds fishy

University of newcastle was built on a swamp and contains numerous ponds. My proposition is to introduce NATIVE, LARVAE EATING species of fish to these ponds.

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Inspiration - I was inspired by the idea of walking on campus in the Winter without being bitten by a mosquito and thought wouldn't it be nice if every season could be like this.

What it does- We introduce a native species to our swamp and ponds such as the Crimson Spotted Rainbow Fish (goldcoast fish control, 2020) which consumes the mosquito larvae. Studies in Africa have shown there was a significant decrease in the mosquito population, about 75%, using Talipa fish of which the population was controlled as the locals consumed the fish (Howard et al, 2007). The use of guppies may also be used as a cheap alternative (warbanski et al, 2017) or the introduction of koi ponds to increase the structural appearance of the campus in addition to decreasing the mosquito population.

Challenges I ran into- The only potential problem is population control, however being on a university campus one can use the fish to study anatomy or other scientific experiments. In addition, if using a consumable fish such as Talipa we could capitalize on the fish market

What I learned- Mosquitoes breed on stagnant water, where once the eggs hatch the larvae will consume the microorganisms in the environment. A pond is a great environment for these organisms which is often the chosen breeding spot for mosquitoes (wang et al, 2020).

What's next for A mosquito control that sounds fishy- initiate controlled environments to see how much of a decrease occurs in the mosquito population and whether or not the fish population itself can be controlled.

References: 1) Howard, A. F., Zhou, G., & Omlin, F. X. (2007). Malaria mosquito control using edible fish in western Kenya: preliminary findings of a controlled study. BMC public health, 7(1), 199. 2) Goldcoast mosquito control using pond fish: https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/documents/bf/mosquito-control-ponds-dams.pdf

  1. Warbanski ML, Marques P, Frauendorf TC, Phillip DAT, El-Sabaawi RW. Implications of guppy (Poecilia reticulata) life-history phenotype for mosquito control. Ecol Evol. 2017;7(10):3324-3334. Published 2017 Apr 1. doi:10.1002/ece3.2666 4)Wang Y, Cheng P, Jiao B, et al. Investigation of mosquito larval habitats and insecticide resistance in an area with a high incidence of mosquito-borne diseases in Jining, Shandong Province. PLoS One. 2020;15(3):e0229764. Published 2020 Mar 4. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229764
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