You don't just accept them.

You could put a lid on it, stopping the adults from laying their eggs in the water.

One solution that I heard (though I've never tried - so it may not work!) is to put a small amount of either vegetable oil or vegetable based soap onto the surface of the water in the butt, this creates a film over the water surface that the mosquitoes & midges either can't or won't lay their eggs through.

Use up the water. Once it's poured onto the ground round your plants the larvae die. I think any lid would have to fit very well to keep mozzies and midges out. OK for prevention but it doesn't deal with the larvae that are there now.

In other words - 'don't bother' the larvae are not going to harm your plants!

You can drown them by dropping a few droplets of washing up liquid onto the water surface. This breaks the meniscus surface skin and their breathing tubes flood with water.

In my former cruel days childhood, my morbid fascination with all living things included little experiments such as this.......:-(

Thankfully, it never progressed beyond insects!!!

If you are going to use the water on the garden make sure you use Eco. friendly washing up liquid... We just ignore them as I said earlier. I worry about this obsession to kill things that basically do no harm! We are so obsessed with destroying every bug - good, bad, or indifferent that we may well end up with no insect life! Fractal this is not a rant at you :)

I didn't think so Mg :-)

I'm covered in itchy lumps as we left the windows open yesterday evening MG, so I'm all for reducing the number of biters about. I don't mind wasps, bees, maybugs, daddy long legs etc though, they don't attack unless provoked, if at all.

"....dropping a few droplets of washing up liquid onto the water surface. This breaks the meniscus surface skin and their breathing tubes flood with water."

Ah, so that's how it works!

I don't look back on this too fondly. They would frantically and repeatedly launch themselves at the surface, stabbing it with their breathing tubes at the tip of their tail the inside of which is water repellent and opens like a small flower when it breaks the surface. This of course now didn't work and they gradually drift to the bottom from exhaustion and oxygen starvation.........
........shudder!