Realized my rain barrels were doing more harm than good for about 6 months

I set up two 55 gallon rain barrels off my downspout in March, felt real proud of myself for conserving water. Then last month a friend who works with native plants came over and pointed out the water was basically stagnant, breeding mosquitoes and growing algae. She showed me the dark film on the inside and said without a filter and regular cleaning I was just creating a little swamp. Ended up dumping both barrels, installing a mesh screen at the top, and now I flush them out every couple weeks. Anybody else ever set up a system then find out you were making things worse?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas_torres15d ago

Tbh I used to roll my eyes at people who got all technical about rainwater collection. I was like it's just water from the sky, how complicated can it be? But reading this and thinking back on my own setup I'm starting to realize I was the problem the whole time. I had this idea that any conservation effort was automatically good without actually maintaining what I'd set up. The stagnant water thing really hit home because I bet I walked right past that dark film and just thought it was normal buildup. Now I'm rethinking my whole approach and looking at those mesh screens and cleaning schedules way differently.

thomas_torres15d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain on this one. I did basically the same thing with a single barrel a couple years back and didn't realize until the neighbor mentioned the smell wafting over the fence. It's frustrating to think you're doing something good for the environment and then find out you've just created a mosquito breeding ground.

max_torres449d ago

Whoa hold up, mesh screens alone won't stop the mosquitoes if your barrels are dark and warm. You gotta keep an eye on that seal around the top too, those little buggers can get in through the tiniest gaps.