Installed a rain barrel last spring and ended up with more mosquitoes than water saved

I thought putting a rain barrel under my downspout in Portland would be a simple way to cut my water bill. After three months I noticed the barrel was breeding mosquitoes like crazy because I didn't seal the screen properly. I used a cheap 50 gallon plastic barrel from a garden store and the lid never fit tight. Now I'm wondering if the hassle of treating the water and cleaning the filter is worth the 200 gallons a month I'm saving. Has anyone else dealt with mosquito problems from rain collection and found a fix that actually works?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamesmason6d ago

Well gosh, are you really saving 200 gallons a month if you're spending money on mosquito dunks and having to scrub that barrel out every couple weeks? I've had rain barrels for years and learned the hard way that cheap barrels and loose lids are just asking for trouble. A fine mesh screen over the downspout entry point does way more than trusting the lid to seal right, and I'm talking about 16 mesh or finer not just some flimsy window screen. You might be saving water, but if you factor in the hours of maintenance and the mosquito dunks you're buying it's probably not the bargain you think it is.

leo_campbell6d ago

The fine mesh screen tip is a game changer, I used to think rain barrels were pretty straightforward but clearly I was wrong. I had a similar setup with a cheap barrel and just figured a tight lid would be enough but the mosquitoes still found a way in. Now I'm rethinking my whole approach because dumping mosquito dunks into the water every month is definitely not the savings I thought it was. I might actually ditch the barrel and just focus on other water saving methods instead.