In Singapore, the breeding of mosquitoes has always been a public health issue. We were fed with the messages from the local National Environment Agency telling us to get rid of receptables that are capable of collecting water that will serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
In my community garden in Serangoon North, we have been using bamboo poles as stakes and materials to build our trellis. They are those poles that we use here locally to hang our laundry to air dry. However, using such bamboo poles in the garden may provide an avenue for potential mosquito breeding, especially if they are positioned vertically.
The node of each bamboo stem consists of a plate that seals the cross-section of the pole. Depending on how much excess of the stem that has been left after it has been cut, what results is a cylindrical container, which acts like a glass, capable of holding water. I have personally witnessed bamboo stakes collecting a sizeable volume of water after a rainstorm.
To prevent this from happening, I thought of ways to seal the ends of every vertically-positioned bamboo pole used in my garden. At first, I used plasticine to cover up the open cross-section. A resident living in my neighourhood told me I could fill the ends to the brim with soil. Soon after, one of my fellow community gardenrs, Mrs Yap, thought of a better idea.
She covered the ends of the bamboo using recycled Yakult bottles which are normally discarded after one finishes the drink. The Yakult bottle that Mrs Yap used seems to be slimmer than the usual ones that I encountered before. It apparently was able to fit so nicely on the laundry bamboo pole as the diameter of the mouth of the bottle was just slightly larger than the diameter of a typical bamboo pole. It looked as if the bottle had been pre-designed for this purpose!
Thanks to Mrs Yap who has come up with this environmentally-friendly method that can help to prevent mosquito breeding in our community garden. In doing so, we are doing our part, although a very small one, to reduce and recycle waste. It also saves us some money as well as we no longer need to buy plasticine from the stationary store to seal up the bamboo poles anymore!
