This is not pertaining to plants or botany, but, I made an accidental discovery last year. The red weaving ants are good predators of mosquitoes provided, the entry or exit point from the breeding area is narrow. I observed that the ants had covered all the exit points from the vent pipe of my septic tank and no sooner a mosquito tried to either enter the vent hole or exit, it was caught by alert ants and promptly dismembered. I stood on the spot for 30 minutes and hardly a couple of them escaped the clutches. Regards. Yazdy Palia.
On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 2:59 PM, sid <[email protected]> wrote: > My housing society in suburban Pune has taken up a project to get rid > of mosquitoes from our neighbourhood through natural means. We got a > lot of our ideas from this article: > http://permaculturetokyo.blogspot.com/2009/07/natures-mosquito-control.html > - which involves a design system involving plants and animals. > > We had the following questions: > 1. What is the Citronella macronata tree? The article mentions this is > a tree that can be planted as a hedge. Is it found in India? > > 2. The citronella compound has also been bred into the “lemon > geranium” which exudes the same scent (as Citronella Macronata) and is > used to repel mosquitoes at the herb layer. Is “lemon geranium” the > same as Citronella grass? > > 3. Is 'catnip' native? Where can we find it? Catnip extract (and so is > Rosemary extract) is a good mosquito repellent. > > 4. Bullrush and Cattail attract dragonfly that eat mosquitoes - what > are these and where can I find them? > > 5. The Chinese have been using Artemisia annua (a.k.a. sweet wormwood) > to cure fevers for centuries. Is this available? > > And if someone can help with this: Are there places around Pune where > one could get mass quantities (and cheap) of lemon grass, citronella > (grass) and vetiver for planting? > > Thank you very much > Regards > Siddartha > > 3. > >
