I found bugs of some kind in the pond today, they don't look like
mosquitoes, they seem to have black bodies with 4 legs that stretch out to
all 4 corners when they swim with what appear to be single wings...the whole
bug is about the size of shelled sunflower seed or smaller but the legs
spread out to about the size of a quarter...they o.k. or do I need to nuke
the pond?

Bob H wrote in message
...
I found bugs of some kind in the pond today, they don't look like
mosquitoes, they seem to have black bodies with 4 legs that stretch out to
all 4 corners when they swim with what appear to be single wings...the
whole
bug is about the size of shelled sunflower seed or smaller but the legs
spread out to about the size of a quarter...they o.k. or do I need to nuke
the pond?

Do they seem to we walking on the water? If so they are water striders, and
are harmless. Usually the fish will reduce the bug population to next to
nothing. Nuking the pond to get rid of bugs is almost never necessary.

If they are 'oaring' underwater they are either
water boatmen or backswimmers. Two different kinds of bugs. If you take a
backswimmer out of water and flip him over he will struggle to get back to his
version of upright. He also swims at a bit of an angle. He will bite you so be
careful!
Water boatmen swim in a more erratic fashion, kindof jerky, and will not munch
on you.

Insects in the pond are part of the natural cycle.
Thousands of species of insects start their lives in water, practically live
their whole life in water and then change to thier adult form to live for a
short while breeding the next generation.

I often take a small net to my fishless bog area and scoop up insect larvae.
Once I had a damselfly nymph and a bloodworm in my white china dish and watched
the damselfly nymph gooble up that bloodworm. You could see the worm inside the
translucent damselfly.

You can tell I'm a bit of a nut about insects ;-)




k30a

That sounds like it, I have been holding off on introducing fish till I got
my filter in, that came yesterday so now I guess I will bring in a couple of
fish...I have a friend that has offered me free subikens (sp?) I am going to
try those for fear that KOI will be an expensive free lunch for the local
wildlife....if these fish survive, KOI it is :-).

"bern muller" wrote in message
news

Bob H wrote in message
...
I found bugs of some kind in the pond today, they don't look like
mosquitoes, they seem to have black bodies with 4 legs that stretch out
to
all 4 corners when they swim with what appear to be single wings...the
whole
bug is about the size of shelled sunflower seed or smaller but the legs
spread out to about the size of a quarter...they o.k. or do I need to
nuke
the pond?

Do they seem to we walking on the water? If so they are water striders,
and
are harmless. Usually the fish will reduce the bug population to next to
nothing. Nuking the pond to get rid of bugs is almost never necessary.

Yuke k30. lol
Priss
"K30a" wrote in message
...

If they are 'oaring' underwater they are either
water boatmen or backswimmers. Two different kinds of bugs. If you take a
backswimmer out of water and flip him over he will struggle to get back to
his
version of upright. He also swims at a bit of an angle. He will bite you
so be
careful!
Water boatmen swim in a more erratic fashion, kindof jerky, and will not
munch
on you.

Insects in the pond are part of the natural cycle.
Thousands of species of insects start their lives in water, practically
live
their whole life in water and then change to thier adult form to live for
a
short while breeding the next generation.

I often take a small net to my fishless bog area and scoop up insect
larvae.
Once I had a damselfly nymph and a bloodworm in my white china dish and
watched
the damselfly nymph gooble up that bloodworm. You could see the worm
inside the
translucent damselfly.

You can tell I'm a bit of a nut about insects ;-)




k30a

I love Shubinkins Bob. Their my favorite.
Priss
"Bob H" wrote in message
...
That sounds like it, I have been holding off on introducing fish till I
got
my filter in, that came yesterday so now I guess I will bring in a couple
of
fish...I have a friend that has offered me free subikens (sp?) I am going
to
try those for fear that KOI will be an expensive free lunch for the local
wildlife....if these fish survive, KOI it is :-).

"bern muller" wrote in message
news

Bob H wrote in message
...
I found bugs of some kind in the pond today, they don't look like
mosquitoes, they seem to have black bodies with 4 legs that stretch
out
to
all 4 corners when they swim with what appear to be single wings...the
whole
bug is about the size of shelled sunflower seed or smaller but the
legs
spread out to about the size of a quarter...they o.k. or do I need to
nuke
the pond?

Do they seem to we walking on the water? If so they are water striders,
and
are harmless. Usually the fish will reduce the bug population to next to
nothing. Nuking the pond to get rid of bugs is almost never necessary.

Bob H wrote in message
...
That sounds like it, I have been holding off on introducing fish till I
got
my filter in, that came yesterday so now I guess I will bring in a couple
of
fish...I have a friend that has offered me free subikens (sp?) I am going
to
try those for fear that KOI will be an expensive free lunch for the local
wildlife....if these fish survive, KOI it is :-).

The only time I have lost large numbers of fish to local wildlife was when a
heron ate almost all of my large goldfish over the course of several visits.
The Koi that were sharing the pond were smarter, and hid at the bottom of
the pond until the intruder left and all survived. I probably lose
occasional goldfish to Raccoons as well, but never a koi.