2011 spring.pub - Chihuahuan Desert Wildlife Rescue

Chihuahuan Desert Wildlife Rescue, Inc.,
P.O. Box 12583, El Paso, Texas 79913
I would like to become a member of
Please note our change of address!
CDWR and help our area’s wildlife.
$25.00______
$75.00______
$50.00______
Amt:_______
Thank you for your support. Your contribution is a
wonderful opportunity to help orphaned and injured
wildlife and to support the efforts of the CDWR volunteer
rehabilitators. With membership you will receive a
yearly subscription (3 issues) of the newsletter.
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Address: _________________________________
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Phone:_______________ Email:_____________
CDWR is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization
and all donations are tax deductible.
P.O. Box 12583
El Paso, TEXAS 79913
www.whc.net/cdwr
Join us now and help make a
difference for wildlife!
Please note our
change of
address!
NON PROFIT ORG
US POSTAGE
PAID
CANUTILLO, TX
PERMIT NO. 001
Mosquito Control
Despite my forced “remodeling” I still have three small ponds for turtles and other aquatic wildlife that
comes in occasionally. Every spring and summer the ponds turn into hatcheries for huge swarms of mosquitoes
and have needed constant attention – dip netting as many of the larvae as possible, draining and refilling the ponds.
It was a lot of endless work.
I have tried introducing Gambusia (mosquito fish)
that were netted in the canals along the Rio. I never had a
lot of success getting them to reproduce in large enough
numbers to control the mosquitoes. This spring when I
started seeing the larvae in the ponds I tried something else.
I made a trip to PetsMart and picked up about 20 Rosie
Reds (fathead minnows) and dumped them into the offending
ponds. They set me back about $2.00 for the lot. The
very next day the mosquito larvae had disappeared and I
have not seen a single mosquito all summer long. Within about two months I had huge schools of the minnows in
my ponds. They are prolific little fish and are egg layers. When they have devoured all the larvae I supplement
their diet with Wardley's Tropical Fish flakes that I crush to a fine powder in my fingers. They are native to our
upper midwest so very cold hardy. I have heard that they remain active even under a layer of ice.
A very inexpensive, safe and natural solution to a nasty problem. Wish I had thought of this back in 2006
and maybe I could have avoided West Nile Virus that knocked me for a loop for nearly a month.
- Bill Howe