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Old 12-07-2009, 09:21 PM posted to rec.ponds.moderated
ReelMcKoi ReelMcKoi is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2008
Posts: 124
Default Biting my lilies


"adavisus" wrote in message
...

ReelMcKoi;854123 Wrote:
Something is biting my water lily's leaves off about 1 inch below
the surface and leaving the leaves UPSIDE-DOWN on the water.
=:-O I never saw anything like this before. Any ideas what it can
be
?
They're not eaten, almost look like someone snipped them off and
flipped them over.
--
RM..


Less than a wild guess, its a snapping turtle stomping in among your
lily stems, chowing down on the stems. Big enough to drag around the
foliage and tilt them upside down as it goes about grazing.


It's just the leaves snipped off and flipped over. We've had snappers
before
but they never damaged the lilies. And it's only the one lily. :-(


You might notice 45° angle cuts, triangular notches when its turtles
pecking.


Nothing like that. They look like the stems were cut with a scissor. No
bites in the leaves. The leaves are perfect and upside-down.


After heavy rains I get large turtles turning up to lay eggs, they then
hop in the nearest lily pond to dine on fine cuisine. Resorted to turtl

e
trap mk. V1 design, to stop them from banging holes in the pond liners
and scoffing lily baskets at a time.


Geeze! We've had several types of turtles in our ponds and none did
any damage to the plants that we could see. One snapper killed
several koi and ate only parts of the body. We took it to a nearby lake.


A bait in a trap usually has the mischief maker in the trap the next
day waiting for room service. A trip to a long lazy river besides a
luxurious golf course.


What kind of trap did you use?

--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
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