Oxymel of Squill wrote:
: I've never had frogs, and for 18 months I seem to have lacked newts
: as well. Is it possible I just haven't seen them, or might I have
: done something to scare them away?
: Got 2 ponds, one still for lillies one with pump & fish
:
: Jon

I'm not sure, they are wild animals after all...they may have felt
threatened by other wildlife, or some other weather related threat and
scarpered!
Newts will be taken by herons and any other fish eating birds, so maybe they
need a hiding place?
a net or some other type of protection (maybe a few dozen small lengths of
plastic pipe at the bottom of the pond would afford them some confidence to
stay?)
They do like still water - we used to catch them when we were kids, in an
old stagnant pond full of discarded oil drums!!
The water was cleanish and weedy (if a little rusty!) and quite a lot of old
tyres etc, maybe these was their saviour?
Newts will eat tadpoles and almost any other live or dead animals they can
fit in their mouths, so if you want to encourage them, you've got to
encourage a natural food source - bloodworms, earthworms, mosquito larvae
(these non biting UK variety will lay masses of eggs in stagnant water in
summer, when they hatch, the larvae are usually seen on the surface but a
slight knock will send them 'spinning' to the bottom!) virtually any kind of
bugs that live in water will encourage newts to your pond.

HTH