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Comment by ruralfam

7 days ago

Mandatory if you have water troughs/tanks for animals such as goats or horses. Also a very good idea to encourage swallow nesting. Many an evening I watch a dozen or so swallows on our property dipping and diving in a sort or aerial mosquito feeding dance. Swallows are very cool btw. HTH, RF.

3 comments

ruralfam

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zokier  7 days ago

While swallows are definitely cool birbs, I would be very surprised if they had any noticeable effect on mosquito populations. There is even one study proposing that swallows attract more mosquitos!

https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/39/1/115/879132

choice quote:

> Cliff swallows occasionally eat mosquitoes (Brown and Brown 1996), but they represent an insignificant part of the diet

https://www.mosquitoalert.com/en/depredadores_naturales_de_l...

  • ruralfam  7 days ago

    Well, these are barn swallows. They eat up to 1,000 insects per day, and up to 100 mosquitos per day (link below). We have at least a dozen, so perhaps 1,200 mozzie per evening (I hope). I think barn swallows are the most populous bird species. Again they are pretty cool. We also have lots of bats, but they are harder to track. HTH, RF.

    https://worldwidebirder.com/what-do-barn-swallows-eat