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Posts Tagged ‘gambusia’

A Few Summer Things

Posted in gardening, tagged , , , on July 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

My hops have out-done themselves this year. They haven’t bloomed yet but they are reaching for the sky. I think I will add more hops next year, not for any reason other than i just like watching them race up the rope. It is a very hot corner of the yard. I’ll probably move the purple coneflowers, but maybe not.

That’s mugwort towering over the red umbrella. I bought it without knowing what it is used for (it has impressive medicinal uses). It is supposed to reach heights of 4-6 feet (less than two meters). Nope, mine is three meters plus (over ten feet). And it has yet to fully bloom – supposedly the flowers are blue, but they remain mysterious little buds for now.

The unicorn is just a fun something I made.

It is really neither here nor there, but my mosquito fish spawned. The large one is the female (photo on left). The spawn showed up the other day. I think there are a few survivors yet (Gambusia are cannibals so the little ones have to be quick). My husband thinks I am nuts for caring so much about fish that live in murky water for the sole purpose of keeping our yard free of mosquitoes (they do a decent job), but here I am: obsessing over Gambusia small fry.

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Water Fountain an Gambuzia

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on June 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I blogged last year about how I created a couple water features. This one with the rusty yard sale fountain has had to undergo some changes. The rusty fountain rusted more in the water and filled the pump and hose with sediment. We decided that was not suitable for mosquito fish or cost effective for my time (cleaning the pump and draining the pond frequently).

The fountain came out and I was left with “how to deal with rust”. A friend in the UK sent me a short video on getting rid of rust using catsup. Well, catsup and a copper scrubber, to be exact. I wasn’t certain it would work, but we had an extra bottle of catsup (ketchup, I just like the spelling ‘catsup’ better). No copper scrubber, but there was a spare wire brush from a barbecue long ago that I borrowed from my husband’s work bench. (I told him later).

By golly! It worked!

I wasn’t going for full rust removal as we purchased a product that car mechanics know well: a kind of paint that covers rust and prevents more from forming, something called “POR”. This little can cost nearly $50 (!!) and the stuff is super runny. It is a mess to work with! I wore rubber gloves, used a drop cloth, and still dripped it everywhere!

The final touch was to add some color using some outdoor latex paint I already had in possession: claret wine and yellow. I sponged that on and let it dry.

Now I am waiting for Clackamas County Vector Control to deliver some gambusia (mosquito fish). I want to get a few native water plants as well. I already have a couple native water lilies in planters, but something floating on the top of the water would be nice.

I do have to change the filters once a week in the pump, and a lot of earthworms and slugs manage to drown in the pond along with sundry insects. Not sure how to avoid that.

Post Script: May 6, 2026 – My fish have arrived! About the size of guppies, five to a pool. And just in time: hundreds, if not thousands, of little blood suckers are swimming in those waters waiting to hatch into flying blood suckers.

Post Script Script: 6/5/2026 – I know I have two survivors. The mosquito larvae are gone. Whether or not I have more survivors (gambusia) is up for debate. But we don’t have mosquitoes breeding.

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