A Gold Coast Councillor says mosquitoes have "reached plague proportions" in the city, after recent record-breaking rainfall created ideal breeding conditions.

Key points: Spraying or fogging is being used to control mosquitoes after days of heavy rain

Spraying or fogging is being used to control mosquitoes after days of heavy rain Council is offering residents free mosquito-larvae-eating fish to help reduce the population

Council is offering residents free mosquito-larvae-eating fish to help reduce the population One councillor expects the mosquito population to peak in seven to 10 days' time

Lifestyle and Community Committee head Hermann Vorster said efforts to control breeding populations by spraying problem areas had been hampered by the wet conditions.

"It's something that we haven't had to grapple with as a city for a long while," he said.

"The ground has become so saturated that the low-lying bits of the city are now small inland puddles and lakes, creating awesome conditions for mosquitoes but terrible ones for residents.

"Now we've got a city-wide problem."

Council has restarted spraying residential areas to kill adult mosquitoes after efforts were suspended during recent wet weather.

Tests reveal 'unconventional' mosquito population

Cr Vorster said council would target northern areas of the city, where most complaints were from.

Low-lying areas, including Pizzey Park in Miami, have been flooded following heavy rain and provide the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. ( ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale )

"We're focusing on Helensvale and Coombabah, but we'll be working south [to] Mermaid Beach and heading west in the next few days," he said.

"We don't expect the problem to peak for another seven to 10 days due to the way mosquitoes breed — very quickly but they live very shortly."

But Cr Vorster said 60 per cent of mosquitoes captured as part of the council's testing and monitoring program were freshwater varieties.

Crimson-spotted rainbow fish feed on mosquito larvae, before they become adult mosquitoes. ( Supplied: Queensland Government )

"We're dealing with mosquitoes breeding in unconventional locations rather than the traditional salt-marsh areas in the north where we'd normally expect our mosquitoes to come from," he said.

He said residents could also "rob mosquitoes of the opportunity to breed close to home" by emptying bird baths and removing water from underneath pot plants.

Residents with permanent water features such as fountains, ponds, or dams, can also request crimson-spotted rainbow fish, which eat mosquito larvae.

"One of the oddities of local government — we provide free fish," Cr Vorster said.

It will take fish and fog to kill mosquitoes, says expert

Emeritus Professor of Environment at Griffith University Patricia Dale said using fish to eat larvae along with other control measures could be effective.

"Fish will eat larvae, but if there are other things available they prefer them … so it's not a complete control, she said.

She said spraying salt marshes with larvae-cides to prevent adults from emerging was one method used, while councils also 'fogged' residential areas usually with machines on the back of trucks.

"That's a very fine particle that they spray into the air and it knocks down adult mosquitoes that are flying around," Professor Dale said.

"There's no evidence that it is [dangerous to humans].

"In many places fogging is the main treatment used, not in Australia, we tend to avoid fogging if we can."

But Professor Dale said mosquitoes could breed in just a couple of centimetres of water and new insecticides were needed to avoid resistance.

"One cattle poop has contained over 700 mosquito larvae," she said.

"That's 700 adults of whom around 50 per cent are female that will go and bite somebody."