Talkback: Dragonfly nymphs

hello richard i was shocked to see the pond up on this web site, my son attends ivydale school where i voluntered to help with the wild life garden earlier this year,i helped choose the plant around the pond also planting them,i check on the pond daily it looks great can you let me know what maintence is needed,ie:duck weed thanks

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Reply to Jacqueline Belchem Ponds can look after themselves pretty well, as long as nothing gets out of hand...but duckweed is likely to. Just keep an eye on it and skim off as much as you can every so often. It is impossible to eradicate entirely, but as long as you keep most of the surface clear, it will not smother everything else. One important point for this pond, surrounded by tarmac, do not let anyone put frogs, toads, newts or spawn in. These creatures only breed in water, most of the year they are terrestrial. The moment they climb out of the pond and down onto the playground, they will be picked off by predators or succumb to drought and starvation.

Dragonfly nymph invasion ! I have a small garden pond, 2m diameter, which has in past years been a haven for frogs, snails and aquatic insects. This year, however, the frogspawn, tadpoles and snails disappeared at an early stage and through the summer the pond has appeared almost devoid of insectlife - except for a number of dragonfly nymphs. This autumn, clearing some of the debris from the bottom of the pond I disturbed dozens of these fearsome looking creatures. I believe they are nymphs of the Common Hawker dragonfly as these have been observed egg-laying in previous summers. What should I do ? The dragonflies themselves are magnificent creatures - but I would prefer my pond to return to it previous biodiversity !

Reply to Richard Although dragonfly nymphs are near-top-end predators, they should not have caused everything else to disappear. Otherwise they, quite literally, eat themselves out of house and home. If they are being too voracious, and are picking everything else off, perhaps you need to increase the plant complexity in the water, creating more hiding places for the prey to escape to.

how lovely to have dragon flies.