When I have a large container without a hole I sometimes like to make it a little water garden. Mosquito Dunks work great in container water gardens too. Best price I've found for them is at HD.

And they're safe for fish too. I use them in my water gardens that have lots of fish.

Are they safe for kitties and wildlife, then?

You can read about them here:

http://www.summitchemical.com/...

Among other things, it says: "Non-toxic to all other wildlife , pets, fish, and humans".

Great, thanks!

Dunks work GREAT!

But are a bit expensive if you have large areas or a lot of water containers.
We have dozens of water plant containers so went thru a lot of Dunks.
A cheaper option is getting it in powder or granular form.
Aquabac is our preferred product.
What you are looking for is Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelenis).

Our cats and dogs drink the pond and container water and have shown no effects in 4 years of use.
Fish, frogs, etc and other insects are not affected.

I use them in my 75 gallon rain barrel.

This sounds great! I wonder if they're available in HD in Canada?

Susan, there are lots of places besides HD who sell it. Or you can order it online. I first found out about it in one of those gardening supply catalogs & ordered it from them as I had not seen any in stores. That was years ago.

Susan there were many Canadian resources for dunks and BTI when I googled.
http://www.homedepot.ca/produc...

http://www.pondexperts.ca/pond...

http://store.thepondreport.com...

I'll have to look for them then!!
Our mobile park doesn't allow any standing water features because of the potential for mosquito problems, but they should fix that!

HD Canada only sells them online..... and so do the other two companies.
I really dislike buying online. I'm a more "immediate" shopper
The only $$ transactions I do online are at my bank site (pay bills, transfer $$ between accounts, etc). On an IM program I had my identity stolen, so I don't do much online anymore, other than chatting

Susan your local pond stores and bigger nurseries may carry it.

Susan, Lowe's & Wal Mart sell them in the US. Do you have those there?

yes.. they are great in standing water to kill the mosquito larvae... then or later as they are introduced..
I have found they are great to kill the little black soil knats in the soil of potted plants.. the soil knats don't do much .. but their larvae that live in the soil eat a bunch of the roots.. ..disolve a few bits of a dunk in the water you use to water the plants.. pour it on soaking the soil.. the BT that kills the mosquito larvae.. also kill the black soil knat larvae,, that are in the soil.. eatting the roots of the plants.. removing the soil knats in future generations... perfectly safe inside as it is outside..

Hey thanks Gordon; I didn't know they took care of the soil gnats too. Great info.!

well... Ann.. it takes care of the knats in the next generation.. where there aren't many.. .. but the flies aren't much of a problem.. except they are making the pesky larvae that will eat the roots.. and this will kill off the larvae..
it works well in killing off the larvae.. so I've not had the chance to understand how long the BT in the soil is there killing off future introductions of the larvae.. or if the BT is able to be active after the soil dries out in a day or so.. or perhaps becomes reactivated when rewatering later.. seems like a great doctorial project I'd love to read..

I had a big potted plant outdoors which was so heavy it was almost impossible to move. It had a saucer under it which made moving it even more difficult. Sometimes it would rain so much the soil was more than soaked & the saucer was full of water. I couldn't even tip the saucer. The plant was a Schefflera arboricola which is amazing in that it takes wet conditions without complaint as well as the driest dry, punishing drought conditions in the same manner. I eventually just began crumbling the mosquito dunks up on top of the soil around the plant & figured it would become activated when it got good & wet. It seemed to work that way as I never had problems with mosquitoes in that area even when the saucer sat full of water for days on end. And this was down in zone 10 of Fl.
So I think you're right Gordon about it getting reactivated with water. I did make sure I put some new crumbles in there every 3 months or so.

Excellent ideas, thanks!