pollinator gardens

The Great Mosquito Bucket Hack

~ Judy's Chickens ~ 31 Comments

These are mosquito buckets.

The mosquito-specific toxin, B.t.i. (Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis), a naturally occurring bacterium found in soil, kills mosquito larvae. The toxins in the white floating discs, called Dunks®, stop mosquito reproduction at the larval stage. They do not harm other wildlife. The company that produces them also sells a granular form that can be placed in bird baths.

This post is for you IF:

  • you hate having to use Mosquito Joe to manage these pests because you suspect there is collateral damage to beneficial insects, but you hate mosquitoes more
  • you hate to wear bug spray and socks, a long-sleeve shirt, and pants in the middle of summer when you weed your garden
  • you worry about diseases spread by mosquitoes
  • mosquitoes love you.

I am very thankful for the day my naturalist friend, Joanna Brichetto, posted a story on her blog, Sidewalk Nature, called The Mosquito Bucket of Doom. The bucket system is a bee-friendly, vegetable garden-friendly, and pet-friendly way to eliminate mosquitos.

I have four industrial-looking mosquito buckets spread around my half-acre backyard. There is one in each vegetable garden

and a pretty fiberglass one on a stone patio.

How to Make a Mosquito Bucket

Ingredients:
a  5-gallon bucket, a planter, or any container with a wide top
2 handfuls of grass clippings (leaves work but take longer to decompose)
water
a package of Mosquito Dunks® (a larvicide)

Instructions:
Add 2 handfuls of greens into a tall container.
.

Half-fill the container with water. As the organic matter decomposes, it produces carbon dioxide which attracts female mosquitoes. Add a Dunk® and place the bucket near your seating or work area. Thirty days later, add a new Dunk®. I buy packages that contain 20 Dunks from an online source.

Testimonials:
We hosted my son’s rehearsal dinner in our backyard in the middle of July with just the four buckets for mosquito control and never saw a skeeter.

I volunteer at a community garden near a floodplain inhabited by lots of mosquitoes. I  showed the residents how to set up mosquito buckets, and within 2 weeks, the mosquitos were gone — for the rest of the summer.

How Does the Mosquito Bucket Work?

Mosquito Dunks® work by killing mosquito larvae, thereby interrupting their reproduction cycle. It does not kill adult insects, just the larvae of mosquitoes which use the bucket for the next generation’s productivity.

Joanna learned about the bucket system from famed etymologist Dr. Doug Tallamy. Here is a link to his explanation.

Mosquitoes need ¼-inch of standing water to successfully lay eggs. It takes a few days for the eggs to hatch into the little swimmers seen in Joanna’s photo below.

Dr. Tallamy says when the swimmers (larvae) eat the B.t.i. in Dunks®, it prevents them from maturing to adulthood. He also says companies that spray for mosquito removal only kill about 10% of adult mosquitoes and many more beneficial insects.

Related Stories:
The Soil Your Undies Challenge- A Simple Home DIY Test for Soil Health
How to Build a Raised Garden Bed
How to Start Seeds in a Recycled Milk Jug
Hensplaining Chicken Idioms

Follow Judy’s Chickens on Instagram and Pinterest @JudysChickens.
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© 2014-2023 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos, videos, and text may not be reproduced without the written consent of Judy Wright.

Asteraceae: My Favorite Family of Pollinator Plants

~ Judy's Chickens ~ 25 Comments

Warning: Reading this may lead to a fondness for dandelions.

What do these flowers have in common?

Zinnias

Sunflowers

Cosmos

Marigolds

Asters

Goldenrod

Dandelions

Artichokes

Artichokes?

I’ll give you a hint, the artichoke is a bud! If left to mature on the plant, it will produce hundreds of purple, narrow-tubed flowers cradled in one base.

These flowering plants are all part of the Asteraceae Family.

Plants are placed in families based on characteristics they share. These flower heads are all round and have a flat central disc. While each flower appears to be a single flower, all Asteraceae flowers are actually a composite of many small flowers, each with their own reproductive parts, packed densely into one receptacle.

The flowers in the center disc are called disc florets and those surrounding it are ray florets.

As beautiful as flowers are to us humans, flowers are trying to impress insects and birds. Pollination is the primary objective of a flower. Once pollination happens, the flower withers and dies. Pollination activates the fertilization of seeds, ensuring reproduction of the plant. Both ray and disc florets have all the necessary reproductive parts.

Another feature of plants in the Asteraceae family is their sepal-like leaves, called bracts, on the flower head’s underside. Bracts surround and protect the base of the plant where the seeds mature. They are arranged in either an overlapping or a linear pattern.
 

 

I took a few bracts off to see the seeds beneath — they are packed in there!

Rings of new disc florets emerge gradually in an orderly fashion from the disc’s outside perimeter to the center. A cone-shaped arrangement forms as the underlying seeds grow larger and require more space. This was a marvelous insight for me; one of the traits we love about zinnias is how long the flowers last. They last that long to ensure that every ovule (pre-seed) gets fertilized.

If you dissect a flower head, you can see the many seeds at various stages of maturation.

A good visual of a composite flower head is the sunflower.

Sunflowers are a bee magnet. We hear a lot about the benefits of growing “pollinator” plants in a garden. You need look no further than plants in the Asteraceae family for colorful flowers that attract insects.

The end result is hundreds of sunflower seeds to eat and ensure reproduction.

Not all Asteraceae plants have both ray and disc florets. A few species have one or the other. Dandelions, for example, are comprised of ray florets only. With my new appreciation of flowering plants, I don’t think I will be as quick to pull dandelions out of my vegetable garden anymore. After all, my Sicilian immigrant grandmothers picked dandelion leaves to eat. The leaves are a good source for vitamin C. During early times, the cool-weather plants were grown in kitchen gardens for settlers to eat to prevent scurvy.

Artichokes are comprised of all disc florets. The bristles that make up the choke are actually hundreds of very immature flowers.

Knowing this, I forevermore will say a prayer of gratitude when I remove those less edible filaments from a stuffed artichoke. For without the choke, we would not get seeds for more artichokes! THAT would be a travesty.

Studying and photographing the unfolding reproductive cycle of flowers in my garden has been a source of joy, a saving grace, and a silver lining of diversion while living through this crazy pandemic. I am grateful to my mother for instilling in me a love of gardening and to Mother Nature for providing everything I need to grow food in my backyard. I hope to inspire others, most especially children, to experience the peace and thrill of planting a seed, watching it grow, and being a witness to the beauty of the natural world.

A moth imbibing in nectar.

If there are cool-weather plants such as asters, cosmos, chickory, or chrysanthemums in your yard, maybe cut one open and see for yourself!

I am grateful to my fellow naturalist and Instagram friend, Rose Marie Trapani, for sending me a flowering artichoke in the MAIL so I could dissect it. That’s a whole ‘nother story! You can follow Rose Marie @oursiciliantable on Instagram.

Related Posts
How to Build a 4 x 4 Raised Garden Bed
Winter Floral Arrangements Using Greenery from the Yard
Lemon Tree Very Pretty
Family Dirt
Edible Landscaping with Nashville Foodscapes

© 2014-2020 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos, videos, and text may not be reproduced without the written consent of Judy Wright.

Follow Judy’s Chickens on Instagram and Pinterest @JudysChickens.

If you enjoyed this post, consider becoming a follower. Be sure to press “confirm” on the follow-up letter sent to your email address.