Mosquito larvae: how to spot wigglers and stop them
The small dark things jerking up and down in a bucket or a plant saucer are mosquito larvae. Every one that stays there becomes a mosquito, and in hot weather that can take a week or less.
What mosquito larvae look like
In a container of standing water
- 1Eggs, laid on the water or just above the water line on a container's side. Those above it wait, even months, until rain floods them.
- 2Larvae, the wigglers: black or brown, breathing air at the surface; Aedes and Culex larvae through a tube at the tail end. The newest are almost too small to see.
- 3Pupae, the tumblers: small, dark and comma-shaped. They do not eat, and adults come out of them after 1 to 2 days.
- 4Egg to adult in a week or less in hot weather, depending on the water temperature.
Where they breed around a house
In any still or nearly still water: old tyres, the saucers under plant pots, cans, jars, pet dishes and bird baths, and anything else left out that holds rain.
What to do
- Tip it out. Store containers upside down, cover them, or throw them away so they cannot hold water.
- Change water weekly in pet dishes and bird baths.
- Deal with anything that holds water for more than a few days: drain it, or fill it with soil or cement.
- Where water has to stay, a bacterium sold for the purpose, Bti, kills larvae without affecting people, other animals or plants. It does not work on pupae, since they do not feed. In the Philippines, check a product against the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority's registered products.
Which adult comes out of which water is on types of mosquitoes. More in paano mawala ang lamok sa bahay, and in Tagalog on kiti-kiti. If there are more places than you can keep empty, book a visit through mosquito and fly treatment. We cover Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, Tarlac and Olongapo.
Source
University of California IPM, Mosquitoes, read 25 September 2026
Tell us what you have found
Send the pest, the town and roughly how long it has been going on. That is enough for us to say what the treatment would involve and what it depends on.