"lannerman" wrote in message
...


Hi, it could be fish but its unlikely, as to be so small they would have
to be this years fry and likely coarse fish havent spawned yet this year
! For the record (and since your in Cornwall) since the introduction of
coarse fisheries, ducks, herons etc have quickly spread perch, whose
eggs are very sticky !
So, we are left with either immature newts or damsel fly larvae which
are much smaller than dragonfly larvae and thats what I think you've
found !

I seriously hope they are not damsel fly larvae . I had a whole hive of
dragon fly larvae in the pond about three years ago and they ate all the
frog spawn . I saw them doing it. If it is damsel fly, its got to go!

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...


With regard to the stinking leaves - not nice.

I neglected our medium sized pond and it went more or less anaerobic
So we decided to clean it out.

After carefully removing most of the water, and the plants in their
baskets, we started removing the muck from the bottom.
We then set up two muck buckets with water to keep any frogs or newts we
found.
We thought we might have a few frogs, and perhaps about four newts as we
had seen a couple swimming around the previous year.
We stopped counting after about 50 frogs and a similarly large number of
newts (can't remember how many).
So ponds have hidden depths :-)
Also, stinky leaves don't seem to cause frogs and newts any problems, just
fish.
Your frogs and newts may just be hiding.
If the pond looks clearish and doesn't smell bad then it is probably O.K.

The pond was smelling rough in one corner until I cleared it yesterday (
carefully to make sure I didn't do any real damage - working on principle ,
they are not coming unless its clear and if they don't come, there is next
year) .

Now the water looks clearish on the shallows. The birds use it to drink as
does our cat so I don't think it must be that bad. I know.... the cat does
have clean water but he still prefers the pond.

That's no indication of good water quality! Cats will drink out of the *toilet* in preference to anything you put out!

"kay" wrote in message
...
sweetheart;952167 Wrote:

That's no indication of good water quality! Cats will drink out of the
*toilet* in preference to anything you put out!

Never had the cat drink out of the toilet, but then clean toilet water is
actually mains quality ( unless you are living in an eco house using grey
water?).

No doubt I am going to have to clean the pond completely but it will wait
until I am sure I wont get any frogs .

But thanks for the replies, they have been very helpful.

Yeah, the water is mains quality, but the bowl is not quite up to the standard that you attempt to supply in the kitchen ;-)

kay wrote:


sweetheart;952220 Wrote:


Never had the cat drink out of the toilet, but then clean toilet water
is
actually mains quality ( unless you are living in an eco house using
grey
water?).
.

Yeah, the water is mains quality, but the bowl is not quite up to the
standard that you attempt to supply in the kitchen ;-)

My (ex) cat was attracted to the smell of bleach.

That makes life difficult! Yes, you keep them away from anything harmful, but if they actively seek it out it makes your job harder.