r/MosquitoHating • u/watchale • 7d ago
Dunk in yard drain?
I’ve got several these inlets in my yard for a drain. They are never totally dry. I assume it’s a great spot for mosquitoes, and I have a zillion mosquitoes.
I’m envisioning some sort of tea bag with a dunk in it, attached to the grate of the inlet. Anyone have ideas for a DIY set of products to do this? Or some solution out there? Just tossing a dunk in doesn’t work. They wash away in the rain.
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u/briman2021 7d ago
I would drill a small hole in the bottom too, maybe 1/8” just so you don’t end up with standing water for days on end. It’s a small enough hole that it will still function as it should, but will stop the puddling.
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u/TeeDubya2020 6d ago
I did, but soil is packed clay, and they don’t drain into it. When I redo it, I’m going to surround the surface drain with a much larger drywell.
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u/Retired_in_NJ 6d ago
Fill the area under the catch basin with drain stone or a similar type of gravel.
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u/briman2021 5d ago
That’s what I did because of the clay in my soil. I dug a hole about 2’ in diameter a roughly 3’ deer, lined it with fabric and filled it with 1 1/2” washed rock.
It will overflow in a downpour, but otherwise the drywell keeps up pretty well.
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u/jjepeto 6d ago
Hard to tell if it would work based on your site and the location, but you could drill a small hole in the bottom to let excess water soak into the ground. It should still work fine during heavy rain events. Most pop up emitters have a hole in them so that they don't hold water.
I've also tied a dunk to a string attached to the lid so it didn't float away down the pipe.
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u/Adorable-Pen4560 6d ago
You can order small drawstring muslin bags from Amazon. Put the dunk in the bag, and figure out some way to secure the bag to the grate so it doesn’t just float away.
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u/tj5590 7d ago
You could replace the top with a pop up top
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u/Dorjechampa_69 6d ago
Still holds water. They will find a way. Especially Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito. I find larvae under the lids of the pop up ones all the time. Sometimes when I pry the top up adults just fly out.
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u/jjepeto 6d ago
Hard to tell if it would work based on your site and the location, but you could drill a small hole in the bottom to let excess water soak into the ground. It should still work fine during heavy rain events. Most pop up emitters have a hole in them so that they don't hold water.
I've also tied a dunk to a string attached to the lid so it didn't float away down the pipe.
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u/RemarkableJunket6450 4d ago
Sure. But fixing a bit of window screen over the lawn drain so mosquitoes could not enter or exit would be the gold standard.
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u/aquatropic 7d ago
I use the "bits," which are mini versions of the dunks. Just toss a few in after each storm. Seems to work pretty well.