On Sat, 7 Mar 2009, Sacha wrote
On 7/3/09 08:13, in article , "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote after...
, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:
"Sacha" wrote
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

It's taken me years to get rid of the stuff on our pond, had to buy a
skimmer (Oase SwimSkim) in the end and that has worked so far. Never seen
any of our fish eat it, indeed when they gulp down a mouthful of pellets
and
accidentally get some Duckweed too they spit it out.
Maybe it's not carp that eat it.

Thanks, Bob. I'll look that up but probably not to be used until after
the
tads have hopped it?! We have all sorts in our ponds, some carp, some
goldfish, some goodness knows what. All seem happy and are breeding, so
something must be right. But the wildlife pond need the skimmer most so
I'll look at that once the spawn has hatched.

It will need cleaning out at least daily at first, then after it's removed
the visible duckweed and other floating stuff you can extend the clean out
period. There is always duckweed hiding in places to take over again.

As far as I can see, one flake of duckweed rapidly becomes thousands. It's
terrible stuff for spreading.

We're stumped then, because we could only clear it when we are in
France, which is three or four times a year.

I see the problem has even made it to today's Grauniad. But they have
nothing much to say and no easy solution either:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...d-gardens-lia-
leendertze
--
Kate B

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