Probably, I live in a city so I compost in large garbage cans anyway.

@extranjera..........

Do you get rains all year around ? Do you have a "dry" period ?

If not, it makes sense than no one would mulch.

Smiles,
Lyn

Compost piles are supposed to get too hot .

Good point Porkpal, I wasn't really thinking it through before.

Lyn, we have a dry season that extends from mid to late Nov until June. On a normal year, we will get one week of rain during that time usually in January. This year we have had 3X the normal rainfall for this area and I don't think we have gone a week without some rain all winter. Summer rains are monsoon type deluges and generally in the evening. I think mulch here would mainly serve to enrich the soil, which is shallow and easily washed away, and perhaps help with erosion. I wanted to just throw all the cuttings from the garden back in under the plants as instant compost and mulch, I was told it would just give the mossies a place to breed.

Sorry to hear that, Jonna.

As usual, it's always something

Smiles,
Lyn

Everybody mulches, and it is encouraged here in Florida both for erosion control and moisture retention. A lot of the mulch used is aromatic wood chip such as eucalyptus or melaleuca (which is the tree that they make tea tree oil from). Both those aromatics repel insect activity including termites.http://polkmastergardener.ifas.ufl.edu/Articles/Mulch%20as%20published%20Pat.pdf I've never heard of mosquitoes breeding in mulch.

I also have lots of bromeliads and many hold water in the 'cups' but I sprinkle my used coffee grounds into them consistently, and that seems to do the trick. I never see mosquito larvae in them any more. Trees with large leaves certainly can breed mosquitoes in the leaf litter, though. I rake up the leaves under my mango tree, or spread coffee grounds around under there.

If I treat my standing water (pot saucers and other collectors plus the nearby ditches) regularly with Mosquito Dunks I have very little problem with mosquitoes.

I never even considered mosquitoes using my bromeliads as home. I will have to check on that this spring when they all go outside. I have a 40 gallon plastic "tub" that I keep water in and use that water to dunk my plants when I re-pot them. I do keep those floating, mosquito wafers in that and I never see mosquito larva because of the wafer.

Same here with the mosquito dunks in the rainwater barrels. My broms are potted and I just periodically tip them to drain the wells. Mosquitoes will definitely take up residence in them. I know some folks that put a few Mosquito dunks crumbles in their bromeliads to prevent that. I'd not heard to use coffee grounds before.

Back to the mulch, in the south it not only preserves the moisture content it will help keep the soil and roots cooler. I use what is commonly available here and don't purchase any other.

Good topic! I've read and enjoyed this thread ~ thanks!

We have to worry about West Nile disease carried by mosquitoes, but I don't worry about the dang bugs breeding in my mulch. With temps in the high 90s to low 100s for months at a time in an arid climate (during the summer), the surface of the mulch seems to dry out very quickly and does not seem to be a breeding ground.

I do have to check other sources of standing water, like the bird bath, cat watering bowl, etc., but I have never worried about the mulch because the surface moisture evaporates so quickly. Even in non-drought years, I need it to maintain an even soil temperature around the plants and to maintain moisture in the soil.

Smiles,

Lyn

I've been using the mosquito dunk bits in the broms but will try the coffee next, I have to have the dunks muled down from the US, I've never found them here. The type of mulch sold here, mainly at Home Depot, are some kind of wood chips. They are large enough that they could allow small pockets of water to form. I generally add a couple inches of peat moss every year to make up for the soil that has washed down and away, it's sort of a mulch but is small enough pieces that it doesn't trap much water.

We have West Nile and Dengue fever here, too. There are often TV news bits on mosquito prevention and the diseases they transmit, but I've never heard anyone suggest that mulch would harbor mosquito larvae.

Mind you there is so much other surface water around here, especially in summer, it's hard to tell where the skeeters are coming from. Ditches and puddles and ponds Oh My! I just take it on myself to patrol the standing water around and near our house, and it seems to help. All my beds are mulched and I do water in the spring and fall - our hot dry seasons. If they were breeding in the mulch, I'm sure I'd have more mosquitoes than I do.