By: Jay Warecki, Ph.D.
Director, Medical Research Education Associates
Director, Superior Aquaculture, LLC
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have reported that mosquito control measures are now the most effective means of controlling the spread of the Zika virus, West Nile virus, plus dengue, and yellow fever. Mosquito control and related public health issues will become increasingly significant in the immediate future, and effective counter-measures should become everyone’s priority.
Pond owners may soon view their once-beautiful ponds near their homes as the breeding grounds for disease – especially as our climatic and global weather patterns change. Environmental health problems of the tropics and sub-tropics are rapidly becoming the problems of the mid-latitudes.
Mosquito control via species and size-specific stocking of fish has long been a main-stay of public health efforts in tropical and sub-tropical regions, including parts of the Southeastern U.S. Maintaining such stockings in appropriate densities, however, can become a difficult challenge.
Floating In-Pond Raceways™ developed by Superior Aquaculture, LLC offer new and impressive options for owners of all surface waters, e.g. ponds, marshes, reservoirs, or estuaries, who are interested in sustainable, affordable, and non-chemical solutions to mosquito control.
Fish stocked in open ponds tend to favor localized areas such as shorelines, for feeding. But…mosquito larvae tend to cover the entire pond. This normally results in less than optimal mosquito larvae predation.
In-Pond Floating Raceways accomplish outstanding mosquito control through two mechanisms:
- Widespread pond circulating that eliminates stagnant water, and
- Concentrated larvae capture and delivery to high-density, larvae-loving fish.
Major pond circulation is a “free” by-product of the raceway system that uses highly efficient, low-head, airlifts to move pond water through the floating raceways. Highly energy efficient water movement not only brings fresh, oxygenated pond water, larvae, and other ‘’planktonic candy” to the ever-appreciative, larvae-loving fish in the raceways, but with flow rates as much as 10,000 gallons per minute per raceway, it can have a major impact on improving the pond’s water quality – including the reduction of blue-green algae. The raceway system’s sediment collection pods near the exit ends collect the uneaten fish feed and feces.
Since the above floating raceway system is designed to operate as a cutting-edge, income-producing technology of almost any size, mosquito larvae control and its impact on reducing the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne illness is a no-cost bonus for personal and public health.