Chinese Drywall, Foreclosure and…Mosquitoes

August 14th, 2009. By AbiK

A lot of the news lately on the Chinese drywall situation is unfortunately inextricably entangled with the economic downturn. The problem? Foreclosures. Unfortunately for those who’ve found themselves underwater on the value (or lack thereof) of their home, the addition of a Chinese drywall problem only exacerbates things-not only can they no longer afford their homes, but they can’t unload them either given the defective drywall. 

The situation reminded me of an article I had read back in March in National Geographic. The article, “Mosquito Hosts”, focused on some homes in foreclosure in Maricopa County, Arizona—homes that had been vacated and have pools in their yards. 

At issue was that in the absence of being able to afford their homes, the homes had been left unoccupied and the last thing on homeowners’ minds was pool maintenance. So, of course, the resulting green, algae-filled pools sat there effectively putting out an “Open House!” sign for mosquitoes to come on in. 

The National Geographic article focused on management of the mosquito problem by bringing in mosquito fish-small, guppy-like fish that devour mosquitoes. Apparently a single fish can knock off hundreds of mosquito larvae a day. Pretty impressive consumption rate. Mosquito fish are used worldwide for mosquito control and they’re well-suited for the job—not only because of their predatory nature, but they’re also surface-dwelling fish and they reproduce rather quickly (source: livemosquitofish.com). 

Of note also, anti-mosquito chemicals can reportedly work from one to five months, depending on the dose; mosquito fish are a longer-lasting method of control having a life expectancy of about 3 years.

So I put myself in the position of a homeowner who has a Florida or Louisiana Chinese drywall problem—and who has a pool in the backyard. Regardless of whether the house is in foreclosure, the defective drywall is enough reason alone to vacate the premises. So what if I wanted to buy some mosquito fish? 

According to livemosquitofish.com, an “abandoned small pool” (they don’t define “small”) can hold up to 35 mosquito fish. So maybe a large pool might take 100—just guessing here. At 99¢per fish, I’d be looking at about $100. Seems pretty cost-effective, though who knows whether a homeowner’s insurance policy would cover it. 

National Geographic mentioned that “several states give the fish to property owners”—I did find a reference for Louisiana deploying mosquito fish back in 2006, (laseagrant.org), but otherwise my Google searches didn’t yield much, unless I were looking for California or other states out west. 

I don’t know whether you can swim with the fish—literally—or what you do when it’s time to remove the fish. The “live help” at livemosquitofish.com isn’t “online”-probably too early in the morning (they’re in the midwest, I’m on the east coast). But something tells me if you’ve got any mix of these problems—Chinese drywall, foreclosure, and mosquitoes breeding—you’re most likely not too worried about swimming in your pool or fish removal.

Tags: chinese drywall

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