NEWSROOM
LSU
AgCenter Provides Fish To Control Mosquitoes
August 14, 2006
The LSU AgCenter
is providing mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) to the New
Orleans area in an effort to suppress mosquito populations in
the many abandoned swimming pools in the city.
Experts estimate New
Orleans has more than 6,000 abandoned pools, and each has the
potential of being a breeding ground for a multitude of mosquitoes.
Mark Schexnayder, the
LSU AgCenter’s hurricane recovery coordinator and a Louisiana
Sea Grant Extension agent, has been coordinating this effort between
Operation Blessing and the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control
Board to ensure that the mosquito numbers don’t get out
of hand.
Schexnayder said using
the mosquitofish was the idea of Steve Sackett, research entomologist
and field superintendent for the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite
Control Board.
Sackett said he had
used fish before to control mosquitoes in the city but never to
this magnitude.
"Before Katrina
we would use minnow traps to catch a few fish in drainage ditches
to use for this purpose, but with the potential for West Nile
Virus and other disease problems that we could see from having
this many abandoned pools, we had to think bigger," Sackett
said.
The combination of
resources from the various agencies involved in the project has
provided what was needed to be successful.
"We’ve gotten
off to a good start with the help of Operation Blessing, which
gave us $25,000 to put the fish farm back in operation at the
Orleans Parish Prison," Schexnayder said.
Operation Blessing
is an international relief organization that has donated a considerable
amount of money, manpower and equipment to the New Orleans recovery
effort.
With this grant in
hand, Schexnayder contacted the LSU AgCenter’s Aquaculture
Research Station in Baton Rouge about donating some mosquitofish,
and the result is that Orleans Parish now has the world’s
largest Gambusia fish breeding facility.
"Dr. [Robert]
Romaire and his staff at the Aquaculture Station have been phenomenal
in this effort. They have been draining their ponds in Baton Rouge
and giving us fish to put in the abandoned swimming pools,"
he said.
Romaire, LSU AgCenter
professor and director of the Aquaculture Research Station, said
the mosquitofish are a native species found in just about any
water body in Louisiana.
"Many of our experimental
ponds at the Aquaculture Research Station that are used in catfish
research and crawfish research have large populations of mosquitofish.
Although they are not part of our targeted research program at
the station, they do add the benefit of controlling mosquito populations
at the station," Romaire said.
He said in addition
to providing fish to stock the swimming pools, the LSU AgCenter
is providing mosquitofish breeding stock to the New Orleans Mosquito
and Termite Control Board to help in establishing the mosquitofish
breeding facility.
Romaire said, "We
are also providing technical assistance on rearing/breeding mosquito
fish as requested by the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control
Board and our AgCenter colleagues based in New Orleans."
Many other fish species
will consume mosquito larvae and are effective in controlling
mosquito populations, but the mosquitofish have some noticeable
advantages.
One advantage is that
they are tolerant to poor water quality where other mosquito larvae-consuming
fish are not. Another advantage is that mosquitofish do not lay
eggs. They give birth to live young. Therefore, no special environment
is required.
Mosquitofish produce
from 50 to 100 young at intervals of about every six weeks. The
young are born at about one-fourth inch in length and grow to
about 3 inches at maturity.
As soon as they are
born they begin to eat mosquito larvae and are able to consume
about 100 per day.
The mosquitofish can
tolerate a wide range of temperatures and have a life expectancy
of about three years.
For additional
information on the mosquitofish project in New Orleans, contact
Mark Schexnayder at (504) 838-1170 or mschexnayder@agcenter.lsu.edu.
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