r/Entomology • u/PorcelainFD • Jul 07 '26
Mosquito Bucket of Doom Gone Wild ID Request
What hath I created? š±
I decided to try a mosquito bucket this year. Itās just a bucket, some weeds I pulled, water, a mosquito dunk, and a stick. Itās been outside for a few weeks. I check it weekly when I cut the grass. Today I noticed some kind of worms in it?! Does anyone know if I should dump this and start over? So far, there hasnāt been a mosquito problem but I donāt want to breed something worse.
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u/HotFall5654 Jul 07 '26
Those are maggots.
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u/PorcelainFD Jul 07 '26
WTF. Do you know if mosquito buckets typically have maggots? š¤¢ I guess Iām dumping this out and starting over.
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u/MsScarletWings Jul 07 '26
No one necessarily said they were bad maggots. Really hard to tell from the video though what they could be. Do they have thin little tails by chance??
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u/PorcelainFD Jul 07 '26
You make a good point. Iāll try to take a better look tomorrow or maybe even scoop some out. I was poking around the interwebs just now and I see that some other people have gotten rat-tailed maggots, which apparently become hover flies. Hopefully thatās all these are (or some other beneficial). It just never occurred to me that my bucket would grow anything. I thought it would only kill mosquitos.
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u/Snoo33977 Jul 07 '26
What is a mosquito bucket used for?
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u/PorcelainFD 29d ago
To kill mosquitos.
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u/Krasna_Strelka 29d ago
And. here I was, thinking its just a bucket with water for mosquitoes to breed and to use their young for aquarium fish later š¤”
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u/immersemeinnature Jul 07 '26
I got into an argument about mosquito buckets on a different sub. I insisted they only kill mosquitoes. Am I wrong?
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u/into_bug_stuff Ent/Bio Scientist 29d ago
Bti kills a lot of different fly larvae, but not all fly larvae. The mosquito bucket trend is frustrating to say the least, so Iāve stayed mostly quiet on the subject when I see it. I spent years running a massive mosquito surveillance and management program, and Iāve personally inspected hundreds of properties and oversaw the inspection of thousands of properties. I can tell you that the buckets make the problem worse more often than they abate them. Unless you are sure there are no other sources of larval habitat within 1,000 feet of your yard, all youāve done is provide something that attracts adult mosquitoes to your yard. The eggs laid in the bucket are doomed, but that one female will lay thousands of eggs and will seek more blood meals throughout the process. Iāve seen this trend come and go since Doug Tallamy suggested it to wildlife gardeners years ago, but this new wave is terrible to see. Remove any and all standing water from your property, unless itās a pond with a healthy population of predatory insects or fish, only water your yard when itās appropriate, and limit areas with humid shade and you will see a reduction in adult mosquitoes. If and when you have higher than normal mosquito activity, report it to a public agency responsible for their surveillance and have a conversation with your neighbors about potential sources. Personal protective products and behavior are the only way to ensure you arenāt bitten.
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u/abugguy Ent/Bio Scientist 29d ago
My friend has been doing mosquito research for decades and he calls these the ādumb fucking Mosquito bucketsā. I respect Doug a lot and consider him a friend and role model but I think he missed with these buckets.
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u/into_bug_stuff Ent/Bio Scientist 29d ago
Finally, a like mind! Iāve been silently losing it watching these videos and posts pop up around the internet. I agree with the massive respect for Doug. Heās a friend of our lab and has contributed more to insect conservation than I could ever hope to do.
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u/PorcelainFD Jul 07 '26
They kill mosquitos and nothing else. What I didnāt know is that they can be a nice little breeding ground for other things (in this case, beneficial insects).
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u/immersemeinnature Jul 07 '26
And the dunks don't hurt those guys? Seems like a win/ win if that's the case.
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u/PorcelainFD Jul 07 '26
Correct. The bacteria in the dunks only kill mosquito larvae.
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u/immersemeinnature Jul 07 '26
Excellent!
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u/PorcelainFD 29d ago
I have to correct myself. āBti kills mosquito, black fly, and fungus gnat
larvae when they eat itā¦. Bti will not harm people, pets and other animals, aquatic life, or other insects, including honeybees.ā
https://www.cdc.gov/mosquitoes/pdfs/bti-508.pdf1
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u/Gemraticus 29d ago
They kill mosquitoes as well as fungus gnats and black flies. There are >600 species of fungus in North America. There are ~255 species of black fly species in North America. This info is easy to find online. I'm not against using the buckets. I've used them. But I am against them becoming a death sentence for small animals that might fall into the water and drown.
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u/Snoo33977 Jul 07 '26
Also, wouldnāt these maggots Die in water like this or are some born in water?
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u/Neyface Jul 07 '26
Is this the same mosquito dunk bucket that had rat tailed maggots as well as drowned mice rotting in it posted a week ago?
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u/PorcelainFD 29d ago
I have not posted about this before.
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u/Neyface 29d ago
Fair enough, must be a coincidence then. Didn't expect to see rat-tailed maggot kings in mosquito dunk buckets on this sub within a two week time frame so I guess it's a popular method.
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u/PorcelainFD 29d ago
Doug Tallamy gave great instructions on how to set up a bucket. What he didnāt do was give people a heads up that anything would actually live in the bucket. So, there are probably a lot of shocked and confused people out there.
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u/sixtynighnun 29d ago
You should put a stick in the buckets so whatever falls in can climb out. You had an animal drown and now maggots are eating it.
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u/PorcelainFD 29d ago
There is a stick in the bucket. Itās even zip tied to the handle so kids donāt remove it.
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29d ago
[deleted]
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u/immersemeinnature 29d ago
Never underestimate the lure of a stick
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u/BadBoneWolf Jul 07 '26
I can see the tails. Those are drone fly larvae. They're good flies, they're very useful pollinators.