Are mosquito larvae safe?

I want to start feeding my fish live mosquito larvae, but I want to make sure they will be safe to put in the tanks. I would put out a bin with water and some grass clippings to attract the mosquitoes. We don't use any pesticides on the property. I would also wash the larvae before putting them in the tanks. Is this safe, or is there a risk of introducing diseases or parasites into the tanks?

No risk to my knowledge... @Colin_T can explain this better.

I have been feeding my tetras mosquito larvae for several weeks now and no problems, They love it and go wild, the larvae are gone in seconds.

Perfectly safe!

The only time you have to be concerned about feeding mosquitoe larvae to fish is if the mozzie larvae come from contaminated water (eg: chemical drain, etc).

If you have a container of water in your backyard and it gets mozzie larvae in, they will be fine to use.

I must point out that it is illegal to culture mosquitoes in most countries due to the diseases they carry. However, if you happen to have a container of water outside for other insects, birds and animals to drink from, and some non toxic plant leaves drop into the container, then mozzie larvae might appear in the container of water. If that happens, you should scoop out any larvae to prevent them from turning into adults.

I have a small tub outside n it's full of life, in fact my fish can't keep up. Tho it's not a culture, don't bother with grass clippings as that is messy. Just a bit of gravel n the fish love them. In fact I'm off to get a few scoops now.

Okay, thanks everyone. I'm going to find a bin I can use, and hopefully soon my fish will have mosquito larvae to eat. I just hope they'll still eat their pellets afterwards!

If you are feeding live food to fish, give them normal dry food first, then frozen or live food after. That way the live food stays in the tank for longer because the fish will be half full on dry food. It also means all the fish should get some and not just the fastest swimmers.

That's a good idea. Thanks!

We have been having very heavy rain here off and on for the past week. All my mosquito larvae have been washed away but I do have a large number of frogs hopping around in my back yard now.The sirens are sounding off again warning of another severe thunderstorms coming This is the 2nd one today.

I have been collecting mosquito larvae for a while now, here are a few tips;

You don’t need a huge container, something like this or bigger will be fine,



The muck in the bottom is the broken down pellets.
you will need more than one container so you can have a steady supply and kill and remaining larvae easily! I find with a large tub, you will have to completely empty it when u spot the larvae changing to pupae or you will end up with lots of mosquitos.... and nobody wants that!

You can collect the egg rafts and store them for up to 8months, this is handy if you live somewhere where it gets cold through the winter because you can culture them indoors.

Egg rafts.

The warmer the weather the faster they grow. I put out one main tub 3-4 litres with old tank water and either grass cuttings in old tights or fish pellets/flakes, I check tub every morning and whenever I spot an egg raft I will collect it and either place it in tub of fresh dechlorinated water with fish food (you only need a small amount of pellets/flakes for the whole cycle in one tub) and close the lid constantly from now (I close the lid so no eggs are laid in this tub and I know the stage of the mosquito cycle) Also by collecting rafts and placing in new water ensures u are not introducing anything else into the tank like dragonfly,damselfly , hydra etc. I keep the main tub out all summer and just top with old tank water and keep collecting the egg rafts. Just destroy the egg rafts u do t need. I will also collect the eggs towards the end of the summer and place on tissue paper for 4days and then store in a small pot until the summer ends and I start culturing indoors. You just add them to water and they hatch.

Have a few closed tubs going at a time of different stages so i have a constant supply. Keep them out of direct sunlight. I put my tubs under overhanging trees.

Once you see them turning to pupae just dump that tub out onto your lawn to kill them or drain the larvae through a net and freeze them in small amount of water, this is also great because if you don’t want to culture indoors you have a frozen supply through the winter should you need it. You can also pour boiling water into tub to kill them instantly and then just throw them away.

My Betta Zilla loves his larvae, he gets them everyday after his pellets and he goes nuts, I sometimes feed him a few at a time and other times I just dump them all in there so he can go on the hunt.

I really hope this helps and makes sense, I think I covered everything but all questions and advice welcome. I’m not sure on the laws here so I hope I don’t get a knock at the door later, however I am doing my community a huge favour, whatever Zilla doesn’t eat gets killed...... I’ve saved many people from getting bitten, I must have killed a few hundred thousand this month lol!!

I can’t wait to fill and stock my large tank and sit back to watch the feeding frenzy.

xxamyxx85 said:

Once you see them turning to pupae just dump that tub out onto your lawn to kill them or drain the larvae through a net...

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I'm going to disagree slightly. The pupae is merely the next stage of development following the larvae stage. Fish eat these just as enthusiastically as the larvae. No need to destroy them - just part of the daily harvest.
Collecting egg rafts is an interesting idea, although it will no doubt reduce the daily harvest of larvae.
Since I also culture Red Russian Daphnia in the outdoor bins, in addition to leaf litter and zuchinni chunks (produces bacteriaas an alternate food source) I feed daily a mix of spirulina and pea powder (mixed in water). I often find larvae nearly attached to chunks of decaying zuchinni (watermellon rind also works well).

AbbeysDad said:

I'm going to disagree slightly. The pupae is merely the next stage of development following the larvae stage. Fish eat these just as enthusiastically as the larvae. No need to destroy them - just part of the daily harvest.

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I don’t think I explained myself very well.... I feed these to my fish too....I only kill them at pupae stage to ensure no mosquitos, the first day Showing pupae means within the next 24-48 hours you will have mosquitos so I kill as soon as I start seeing an appearance of pupae for that reason. Better to be safe than sorry.

AbbeysDad said:

Collecting egg rafts is an interesting idea, although it will no doubt reduce the daily harvest of larvae.

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Lol, there are hundreds of eggs on one raft, I get multiple rafts and millions of eggs, no tank could ever use them all. As long as you hatch every two days you will have an abundance of larvae! Rather than having hundreds and thousands in a tub all at different stages with no way of separating and getting them all, that tub no doubt will be hatching mosquitos. I think it much safer for people who are doing this for the first time to do it safely and dependent on where you live the cycle from egg to mosquito can be very fast as little as 7days.

xxamyxx85 said:

Lol, there are hundreds of eggs on one raft, I get multiple rafts and millions of eggs, no tank could ever use them all. As long as you hatch every two days you will have an abundance of larvae! Rather than having hundreds and thousands in a tub all at different stages with no way of separating and getting them all, that tub no doubt will be hatching mosquitos. I think it much safer for people who are doing this for the first time to do it safely and dependent on where you live the cycle from egg to mosquito can be very fast as little as 7days.

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That's a crazy amount of eggs!