Quote:
Originally Posted by jal
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?
Cheers
John
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My parents have a small concrete-lined pond, with a shallower marshy bit at one end and a small island. Tadpoles and newts thrive. You probably need some tadpoles to feed the newts. There are also dragonfly/damselfly nymphs in the litter at the bottom, scary things if you dredge one out, and they eat a lot of tadpoles. But always a few tadpoles survive to be froglets sitting on the lilypads. And all of this wildlife appreciates a bit of weed to hide in, lilypads, irises, etc. Tadpoles are there to be eaten.