# larva in water trough?!



## elisie

So a few minutes ago, I was out in the pasture and I noticed that my water trough had a bunch of little swimming larva things, they moved like teeny little tadpoles and some were a light tan, others were almost black. :shock: I looked up some pictures, and one type looked like mosquito larva, but I couldn't distinguish the others. I got all that I could out with a strainer, and I'm planning on dumping the whole thing and cleaning it with baking soda and boiling water. I'll also pick up some wormer soon and worm my horses. Are there any ways to prevent this from happening again? The trough is metal and holds over 50 gallons. There's no way that frogs could reach it, but we have had a lot of mosquitos lately and sometimes beetles get caught in there in the summer. I've never seen this before, it seems to have developed very recently because I'm out with my horses every day and I check the water frequently. Thank you!


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## natisha

Yes, most likely mosquitoes. Dump & clean.


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## Speed Racer

Yep, skeeter larvae. I get them, too. 

No reason to go overboard with the baking soda and boiling water. I use regular water from the hose, a little bit of bleach, and a toilet brush bought specifically for the water trough. Let dry, and refill.

There's really nothing you can do to actually prevent mosquitoes from using your trough to lay their eggs.


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## elyea5911

*Bacillis*

I use bacillis tab in my troughs. The bacteria kill the mosquito larva and will not harm the horses. It safe enough that one of my dogs ate half a tablet. Tablets last about 30 days.


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## gssw5

I get mosquito larva in my tanks all the time, I just dump and refill.

A friend told me if you dissolve a little bit of salt in the water while you fill it the salinity will kill the larva, I have never tried it, but she swears by it.


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## squirrelfood

The dark ones are probably dragonfly. The larvae won't hurt your horse if they drink them, just extra protein. :smile: But once they hatch, the mosquitos would be a problem. Apple cider vinegar helps keep them out, about 2 cups per 50 gallons.


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## JCnGrace

Because of mosquito larvae in the summer I let my tanks get down to a few inches then dump & use a sprayer on the end of the hose to rinse the tank out. Doing this every second-third day will keep the larvae from hatching.


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## franknbeans

^^ that is what my BO does too. Just don't fill it all the way in the summer, so it gets down quicker so you can clean it.


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## elisie

Thank you, everyone! I'll certainly try out your suggestions.


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## smrobs

Yup, mosquitos. In the larvae stage, they won't hurt your horse. If it was a big tank that was difficult to dump and wash, I would have suggested some fish, but since it's little, just keep it low and wash it often.


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## loosie

Means your water is healthy, tho if there are too many there, may be a prob, esp when they turn into mozzies.


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## 2scicrazed

In my troughs I put a few feeder guppies in them. They are a species related to mosquito fish. Will completely wipe out larvae, can handle high temperatures, and can handle the chlorine when you top it by 90% volume.

They'll die when temps go under 40° in the fall.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## 2scicrazed

Buy the feeder guppies for $0.10-0.20 each at most pet stores
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## NorthernHorse

I just typically just let it get low and clean it out, my trough gets empty every 2 days, so I just scrub it out quick and refill. I would try fish, but if you have cat like mine they might not last very long lol.


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## squirrelfood

Some horses WILL eat the fish.


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## loosie

Haha Squirrel - you reckon they eat 'em on purpose, or they just get... sucked in??

I'm amused by all this worry actually. My horses usually have dams to drink from, so there are more than wrigglers there -0 wonder how many frogs, leeches, etc have been ingested if fish get swallowed!


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## farmpony84

I let my water over run a bit when I fill it and I put the 12 cent gold fish in the tubs...


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## Saddlebag

The larvae require still water so overflowing it a bit will get rid of them. This needs to be done every three days. I used to fill the dog's wading pool with about 3" of water for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs in then dump it on the lawn. If you have standing water you can't get rid of put a few drops of Dawn dish soap in it to change the viscosity of the water. Mosquitoes lay eggs in that too.


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## squirrelfood

loosie said:


> Haha Squirrel - you reckon they eat 'em on purpose, or they just get... sucked in??
> 
> I'm amused by all this worry actually. My horses usually have dams to drink from, so there are more than wrigglers there -0 wonder how many frogs, leeches, etc have been ingested if fish get swallowed!



They eat them on purpose. I used to watch my old gelding fishing for them, up to his eyeballs in the water.


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## Celeste

I dump my water often and change it. If the mosquitoes mature, they can carry a bunch of diseases. (West Nile, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, etc........... )


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## SueC

Fish can still be great in a relatively little trough. We put some in our (small) frog pond to cut down on the number of mosquito larvae, and this was really successful. We used tiny little fish that gobble up the mosquito larvae, but don't mess with frog offspring, and probably can't handle dragonfly larvae either. You don't have to worry about aquatic life in your horse trough, as long as the water itself is clean. Your horses won't pick up gut parasites from the water trough, unless it has droppings in it... (horse, or intermediate hosts like foxes, dogs, cats for some things) ... and of course, that goes for droppings anywhere, and you don't often find them in a trough...


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## wbwks

The simplest solution is to get a couple of goldfish (the 29cent kind) and put them in the trough. They will eat the larva, problem solved! They can live in the tank year round and never need to be fed. Larva feed them in the summer and they are dormant in the winter, if you use a stock tank heater and the water is not frozen they will be fine.


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## Nikkibella

I never heard of putting fish in the trough 0.0 sounds absolutely...AWESOME. My horse has a stall and turnout so he only has two hanging buckets in his stall and two 15 gallon buckets outside that get dumped, scrubbed and refilled daily. But there are three horses in a pasture that have a big trough....I bet with a little encouragement my BO would get some fishies!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## loosie

squirrelfood said:


> They eat them on purpose. I used to watch my old gelding fishing for them, up to his eyeballs in the water.


That's hilarious! Gotta get that on Youtube!:rofl:


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## SueC

That really is hilarious. I had heard that in Iceland people used to feed dried fish (meal?) to Iceland Ponies as part of their ration in bitter winters, but I'd never heard of a fishing horse before!  How big were these fish? Did you actually see him munch them, SF? Was his breath - ahem - fishy?  I suppose he was getting his Omega-3s...


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## squirrelfood

About 3 inch goldfish, and yes, I watched him eat them. He appeared to enjoy them very much. He's not the first horse I've seen do that either. Knew one several years ago that would kill rabbits and munch on part of them if she could catch them. A lot of horses have been known to eat fish or meat for the protein. Ever had your horse try to take a bite of your hamburger or hot dog?

I knew a young lady from Iceland who kept horses, and she confirmed they often fed whole frozen fish in the winter.


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## Speed Racer

Goldfish do poop y'all, so you're still going to need to clean the trough. Fish in tanks aren't to keep them clean, they're there to dispose of any eggs/larvae that are deposited and help keep down the mosquito and other biting nasties populations .

I had goldfish as pets for a long time. Even with a filtration system they're nasty, dirty critters. No way would I put them in my horses' drinking water. 

I'll take mosquito larvae over nasty goldfish poop any day. The ammonia goldfish produce in their waste is more harmful to horses than them gulping down a few larvae. Besides, would YOU want to drink fecal matter?


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## squirrelfood

And goldfish are probably the dirtiest fish you could keep in there, actually, or any other type of carp. But they ARE cheap.


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## Yogiwick

Eww... eating live fish just icks me out, esp when it's a horse. Ick!!

I don't like anything other than water in my troughs.

Just dump and refill it regularly (provided it's not huge) and you'll be fine.


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## SueC

squirrelfood said:


> About 3 inch goldfish, and yes, I watched him eat them. He appeared to enjoy them very much. He's not the first horse I've seen do that either. Knew one several years ago that would kill rabbits and munch on part of them if she could catch them. A lot of horses have been known to eat fish or meat for the protein. Ever had your horse try to take a bite of your hamburger or hot dog?


Not mine, who are suspicious of anything like that and give me "What on earth are you eating?" looks if it's dairy or meat related. But 20 years ago my father had a Warmblood cross gelding who was pretty much game for everything that was going. Eating was his number one hobby, and he made very dramatic "Come over here and let me try a bit of what you're having" faces, complete with twitching lips, boggling eyes and a pointy nose pointing in the direction of the food like a compass. My dad was drinking some beer once and could not believe it when this horse licked it off his hand when offered some, and instantly asked for more. But the funniest thing I remember was taking a big leg-of-lamb bone from the family roast, still dripping in gravy, out to the dog, when he intercepted me with his best "I haven't eaten for a decade, please kindly make a donation" face. I said, "Oh, would you like to gnaw a bone?" and jokingly held it up to him...and he did. Kept tearing away at all the bits and licking the gravy. Poor dog, should have seen its face! :rofl:

I suppose if you have an ichthyovorous horse like that one of yours, SF, you could treat them to sashimi on their birthday!  Now I wonder, with or without wasabi? :rofl:


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## Avishay

Back when I had 100+ gallon tanks, I used goldfish. They're great, very economical. Some of mine lived to be 5-6 years old and got to be nearly a foot long. If you clean the troughs once a month or so, what with the water tunover from topping off the tanks every day or so, they do quite well. 

That said, a few years ago when I consolidated facilities (I had been teaching/training at several barns), I switched to smaller 25-75 gallon water troughs, and fish were no longer an option. Last year just regular dumping of the troughs did the trick to control them, but this year they're so bad that I asked for ideas on another forum - I had thought Apple Cider Vinegar would be a safe solution, and I got a lot of people saying it worked great for them. Sure enough, it's a great cure for the problem, and I'm happy because I wanted to avoid commercial chemical products.


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## ZaneyZanne123

Mosiquite Larvae. If the trough is realy large putting in a couple of Gold fish can help with Mosquito larvae. No they wont bother the horses and usualy the horses wont bother them. 

Otherwise just clean out the water trough more often.


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## squirrelfood

I've been using the AC vinegar trick for the last 12 years, after my gelding ate all the fish. It changes the water PH so it's no longer larva friendly.


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## amigoboy

Horse eating fish? must have a need for OMEGA 6, some give fish liver oil supplement.

Have Heard about Icelandic horses and fish, never seen it. Read that the Swedish army when they invaded Russia in 1710 feed their horses tobaco when they got to the Ukrain. I´v met old people who lived through a hard Winter on Bark Bread, so I anything is possible. 

They had Gold Fish in the water tanks at a boarding stable in Arizona I was at, they never cleaned them and I didn´t see any sick horses other than they just stood around doing nothing.

Don´t Think I´d go that way, fish poo, Micro organisams and stuff the fish dont eat.
Allway´s figured the horses water should be as good as the water I would drink myself
.
Better to use smaller water troths that are manageble and can be cleaned out.


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## ZaneyZanne123

IF the tank is large enough and not over crowded with the fish then the amonia will not be a problem due to large surface area. Natural bacteria in the water will break down the fish waste. Its done in my aquarium all the time and in healy water ways. I mean horses and other animals drink from ponds, lakes, creeks and other water ways for a mellinium and have not succumbed to fish turd toxicity. (now high bacteria content due to other reasons yes but not by fish waste) I'm talking two 2 inch goldfish per a hundred gallons not a hundred fish.


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## SueC

Is this the time to bring that statistic out of storage about how many water molecules in a glass of water you are drinking have already cycled through the kidneys of dinosaurs (etc etc)? :lol:


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## loosie

Mate! You've just got to get a vid for us!! Yes, in different parts of the world... I think meat of some type is a diet supplement for horses in a number of places around the world - think I remember reading about spiced, dried meat in India... I used to regularly share a pie or sausage roll with my horse when I was young & wreckless... not that I suppose there's much meat in a 4&Twenty....


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## squirrelfood

Fish are all eaten, horse was sold last year. No vid, sorry.


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## waresbear

squirrelfood said:


> I've been using the AC vinegar trick for the last 12 years, after my gelding ate all the fish. It changes the water PH so it's no longer larva friendly.


Does the ACV help with the scum too? I really like this idea....


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## squirrelfood

It does help some with the algae also.


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## tmhmisty

I'm tempted to get a few fish just for the entertainment factor! And possibly a new snack for the horses


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## KsKatt

I bought a dozen bait fish from the local service station, these guys are probably 4 years old here. This is a huge concrete and stone tank, filled via windmill;


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## waresbear

In all my years, I have never, ever seen live fish for sale at a service station!


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## KsKatt

This is a service station in a town of around 600 people. In the back room they have bait fish (goldfish/carp). The tank is under the wall of fishing pictures. Kids with fish as big as they are. Fishing is a big pastime. I'm stunned at the pretty colors and how big those things get!


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## waresbear

Yep, nice lookin' fish!


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## Celeste

Those look like some nice koi! I imagine that it would be impossible to turn over and empty and wash that giant water tank every week like I do my small one. The fish might be your only hope of keeping out the mosquitoes.


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## KsKatt

Definitely! Although I am going to have to get some repairs done. That will be a major job!


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## waresbear

Ok, those fish do belong in there, that is a tank, not a trough!


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## SueC

Hmmm yes, just don't use piranhas, who would be rather useless with the mosquito larvae and are probably best used in a moat around your house. :rofl:


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## KsKatt

SueC said:


> Hmmm yes, just don't use piranhas, who would be rather useless with the mosquito larvae and are probably best used in a moat around your house. :rofl:


Well aren't you a bloodthirsty little thing!:shock::think::rofl:


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## Celeste

SueC said:


> Hmmm yes, just don't use piranhas, who would be rather useless with the mosquito larvae and are probably best used in a moat around your house. :rofl:


You must have some neighbors like some of mine..........


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## SueC

Our neighbours aren't too bad here actually; it's more having experienced a nasty burglary two years back and having cathartic fantasies of a certain burglar in a piranha-infested moat!  But I guess it would deal with that issue as well! ;-)


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## squirrelfood

waresbear said:


> In all my years, I have never, ever seen live fish for sale at a service station!



Aww, you should visit Arkansas! It's done all the time here. People fish, and bait is big business.


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## KsKatt

SueC said:


> Hmmm yes, just don't use piranhas, who would be rather useless with the mosquito larvae and are probably best used in a moat around your house. :rofl:


I really should admit that I do have one set of neighbors that your suggestion actually did cross my mind!!:twisted:


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## Yogiwick

Not common in New England haha.


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## KsKatt

Well now, us country folk are just different. Think of all those ******* jokes, some of them are true!:lol:


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## ZaneyZanne123

I would like to have a moat full of pirrahna for some of my family members. :wink:


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## SueC

ZZ123, you can choose your friends, but not your family! ;-) Although the longer I've lived and discovered my own shortcomings, the more I have appreciated my parents!  Other relatives, not necessarily! ;-)


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