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....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

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.

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

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

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.

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQ...QsassZadavisus

"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
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

Have you a pic of the trap? We get loads of turtles in our acre
pond. They are not as graciously removed as yours. An efficient trap
might improve their exit.

Jim

I like your lily pics.

I did not realize you sold them on ebay as well.

Jim

Hi Jim,
Yup I thin spares from over 100 varieties of waterlily now and then on ebay once in a while.

Alas with so many dishonest resellers fobbing off iffy plants from iffy ponds, especially among the americanponders, wgi and iwgs fraternities, I'd sooner thin them out direct to ponders

Not much point sending classy named varieties to resellers who probably have ponds exposed to crown rot, I don't subscribe to the mantra 'the sooner they kill them the sooner they buy another'. I really don't want to be associated with blatant rackateering.

Ah, the turtle traps, caught 10 or so largeish turtles out of the ponds in the last couple of years which made some 3,000 plus punctures in liner ponds... Their big hind claws can do some damage. Three rolls of seaming tape 25"x3" cut into less than 1" squares to make repairs, ah, the end of an era, I figure I have 95% of repairs done, one 40' pond left to start repairs on...

The heavily planted ponds provided good cover for large non basking turtles. Droughts drove them out of local ponds and they ambled in to the lined ponds over a period of a couple of years. Now the population of big parents is depleted and the ponds can settle down

A photo of the traps, well, they are a cage, a simple bait, trap door mechanism... the turtle ambles in for the bait and conveniently closes the door behind it, then waits for room service to turn up. Usually has a turtle in the trap in less than an hour, set out just before twilight.

As soon as I see orphaned lilypads, usually of Albert Greenberg, out comes the trap. Snapping turtles diets are usually 90% plants, when a desperate famished turtle turns up from some heat blasted bleak farm pond they usually decimate a basket by way of a calling card

Hope the url link to a photobucket image works:


Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/adavisus/

Having seen ebay deteriorate from a user point of view, horrible messaging, ghastly dsr ratings, paypal ripping off accounts etc (paypalsucks.com) have been more impressed with other websites for listing stuff, better messaging, easier to customise listings, what websites do folk like to use to find stuff, besides, ebid, bonanza, webstore, aquabid?

Might try listing turtle traps once in a while

Regards, andy
Pond and water gardening aquatic plants |
pondering