Baal writes
Our problem is that we cannot encourage frogs to our pond!

Should I pinch some frogspawn and artificially inseminate? ;-)

Ideally, no, because of the risk of spreading disease, or so the usual
advice runs.

If the spawn is from somewhere close, then I can't see that'd be a
problem - but if there were breeding frogs close by, you'd expect them
to have found their way to your pond.

Are you sure you're providing everything they need? In particular, look
at the immediate surroundings of the pond - do you have enough dampish
vegetation for foraging?

I smile and go off waving
(Amiably) - for that's my way

http://www.helden.org.uk
"someone" wrote in message
.. .

"jal" wrote in message
...
Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?


I learned from experience last year that newts do eat tadpoles. So this
year I'm moving my few clumps of developing frog eggs from my pond to a
Belfast sink in the garden, with pond water, and putting a net over it to
keep the newts out until the tadpoles are ready to go.

someone





--
Kay