Efficacy of arroyo chub (Gila orcutti) as a mosquito control agent in newly renovated constructed treatment wetlands

The native Arroyo chub, Gila orcutti, have been proposed as a replacement for the non-native mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis and Gambusia holbrooki, as a biological control agent for mosquitoes in sensitive watersheds throughout southern California. Survival and efficacy of the chub at controlling larval mosquitoes, specifically Culex tarsalis, the Western Encephalitis mosquito, was evaluated at the Prado Constructed Wetlands in Orange County, California. Because mosquito-eating fish are not strictly larvivorous, they also have the potential to impact non-target organisms and cause trophic cascading in systems where they are introduced. Based on this, we studied the impact of predation by the chub on the aquatic community that co-occur with mosquito larvae in man-made wetlands, specifically the macroinvertebrate and planktonic communities.