Try This Fantastic, Multi-Tasking Pest Control Product Has Surprising Uses & Destroys the Most Annoying Bugs

Mosquito dunks can be used in many ways around the yard and even in your home. Learn how you can take control and rid yourself of pesky pests.

Mosquito on leaf
(Image credit: Pawich Sattalerd / Getty Images)

Mosquito dunks are useful for mosquito control in your birdbath and pond, but did you know they can be used in many other situations?

Mosquito-borne diseases can cause serious illness and even death, so reducing their population in your yard will help to keep you and your neighbors safe. Mosquito dunks are a cost-effective and easy backyard mosquito control method. Mosquito dunks and their relatives, mosquito bits, are useful both in the backyard and garden, but also indoors.

They are made with a bacterium that is safe for use around humans and animals. Let’s explore how you can use mosquito dunks to improve your outdoor and indoor gardening.

What Are Mosquito Dunks?

Mosquito dunks and mosquito bits are larvicide treatments that are cheap and effective. They use Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) to stop mosquito and fungus gnat larvae from growing into adult insects.

They are safe for your backyard birdies, pets, fish, and humans. Applications last for 30 days, and mosquito dunks can be found at Amazon.

Outdoor Uses

Man breaks mosquito dunk in half to prevent mosquitoes in bird bath

(Image credit: Summit)

Mosquito dunks are a great way to control mosquitoes in your yard and garden. Using just a quarter of a dunk can prevent mosquitoes in bird baths and a half dunk is great for a small pond. Dunks can even help take care of mosquitoes in your rain barrel. You can also lure mosquitoes to a mosquito bucket of doom then throw a quarter of a dunk into the bucket to nuke the larvae and control the mosquito population in your yard. Add a new dunk every 30 days for continued control.

Mosquito bits are the same product as mosquito dunks but in a fast-acting, granule form. The bits can be sprinkled in areas where a chunk of dunk wouldn’t work as well. If you have a swampy area of your yard, plant saucers that always end up collecting water, or a piece of downspout extension that never fully dries, mosquito bits can easily take care of the problem. Just sprinkle one teaspoon of bits for up to 25 sq. ft. (2.3 sq. m.) of water or up to 8 oz.(.23 L) for up to 1000 sq. ft. (92 sq. m.) of water. Reapply every 7-14 days for continued mosquito control. Mosquito bits can also be found on Amazon.

Other outdoor places to use mosquito dunks and bits include:

  • Drainage ditches
  • Water gardens
  • Tree holes or hollow stumps
  • Vehicle tracks in the ground
  • Bromeliad plants that hold water
  • Other plants that attract mosquitoes like water lilies

Indoor Uses

A woman reaches to water houseplants on a wall with a watering can

(Image credit: RgStudio / Getty Images)

Indoor mosquito breeding isn’t really an issue, but mosquito dunks and bits can be used indoors for fungus gnat control. The Bti in the dunks and bits also kills fungus gnat larvae that lurks in your houseplant soil.

Overwatered houseplants create the perfect breeding ground for fungus gnats and they are hard to control once they get going. To treat your soggy houseplants for fungus gnats, let the soil dry out a bit first, then mix up a fungus gnat “tea” with mosquito dunks or bits.

If you are using bits, place 4 tablespoons of bits in a section of old pantyhose and dunk the makeshift “tea bag” into one gallon (3.8 L) of water. Let it steep in the water for 30 minutes. Remove the bits and discard in the trash. Use this fungus gnat “tea” to water your infested houseplants. Reapply weekly.

If using mosquito dunks, it is a similar process. Use a quarter of a dunk for one gallon (3.8 L) of water. Since the dunk is not rapid acting like the bits, steep the dunk in the water for 24 hours. It is important that children and pets don’t accidentally drink the water, so keep it in a safe place. Once the “tea” is ready, use it to water your houseplants.

You can use sticky paper to catch adult fungus gnats to double your pest control potential. Simple, yellow sticky traps are cheap and effective and can be found on Amazon.

Mosquito dunks are a great pest control option for both your indoor and outdoor garden. You can rest easy knowing that the dunks are doing their job to keep you itch free in the backyard and fungus gnat free inside.

Kathleen Walters
Content Editor

Kathleen Walters joined Gardening Know How as a Content Editor in 2024, but she grew up helping her mom in the garden. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Miami University and a master’s degree in Public History from Wright State University. Before this, Kathleen worked for almost a decade as a Park Ranger with the National Park Service in Dayton, Ohio. The Huffman Prairie is one of her favorite places to explore native plants and get inspired. She has been working to turn her front yard into a pollinator garden.