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Water boatmen

parkgatemanparkgateman Posts: 9
in Wildlife gardening
About 4 years ago I built a small pond . I had a pond lily in it , which spread like mad , and I always left the leaves to die off and sink . Eventually this pond was infested with duckweed . I hate it . I think it was the reason a lot of the wildlife died. Last year all the water evaporated due to the hot weather. I rescued about a dozen or so tiny frogs . Everything else was dead. In a way I was glad as I now decided to get rid of all the stuff from the bottom , including the lily . Over the winter , the pond has naturally filled back up. Frogs spawned in it earlier this year . Sadly the tadpoles have mostly died due to the pond being pea green soup ish. However , I have noticed that the pond now has quite a few water boatmen. In fact , maybe 20 - 30 baby ones. Where did they come from ? I know the pond is green and cloudy , but ive not seen the parents. Today I have ordered some oxygenating plants to hopefully clear the water for next year.  

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet PeterboroughPosts: 26,107
    They can fly
  • LynLyn DevonPosts: 15,754
    Tadpoles don’t mind pea green water. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • parkgatemanparkgateman Posts: 9
    Nutcutlet. Thank you for your reply , I never knew that. Amazing.  Lyn,  I googled about the water. It mentioned that algae take oxygen , stopping the tadpoles from breathing. Thank you both for your answers. 
  • philippa smith2philippa smith2 Posts: 8,401
    Duckweed is easy enough to scoop off the surface - in some cases it can actually be helpful if the pond is in full sun with not much other surface cover.
    Removing the "sludge" from the bottom of a pond is not always a good idea as you will also be removing lots of the wildlife - in laval (?) form or just those who enjoy a muddy environment.
    If all the water evaporated from your pond, it obviously wasn't deep enough, in the right situation, had a leak or WHY.
    There is a world of difference between a wildlife pond which evolves over time and a container of water which is cleaned out every year.
    Don't mean to sound offish or judgemental but a proper wildlife pond is a joy to behold - interesting, instructive and helpful to your garden.
    Stick with it :)
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 741
    Never had a single Water Boatman in our pond in 6 years.  I thought they would be one of the first things to colonise it.  They must be happy elsewhere.  We have lots of Damselfly larvae, which are hatching now, never get sick of watching them.  
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,057
    We dug a hole and let it fill with water, which it did very quickly. Within a day we had a couple of WBs skimming around. Now there are  dozen or more (especially at night). Luck of the draw I guess!

    In a previous garden I dug a pond, filled it with a hose and within an hour of turning the hose off there was a great diving beetle doing its thing! Heaven knows where that had been hiding, waiting for some idiot to dig a hole and fill it with water.
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