Muskrats and crayfish usually chew the plants beyond repair.  (It is highly unlikely to see either unless you live within feet of a creek or lake) Deer nibble and eat some plants as if they have been invited to a buffet.  Dogs are usually more playful and view the pond or water garden as sport, while cats tend to climb onto pots or pond liners, either knocking over pots and damaging pond liners with their claws, trying to get a better view of the fish (lunch)!  Birds, as in ducks, geese or herons can wipe out your plants or fish.  Ducks can fly into your pond, uproot your potted plants and eat everything in their path.   Ducks and geese can reach your submerged plants as well and they enjoy vallisneria as if it were a treat intended for them.   Koi can be great and never touch  your plants and all of a sudden,  koi can be destructive as well–after all they are plant eaters and we put our plants in harms way when we add them to the pond!  The only way to protect you plants is to put the submerged plants in small cages or add lava rocks to the tops of your container plants as koi don’t like the feeling of the lava rocks in their mouths.

     Mice and voles are usually not destructive until the winter months when they tend to chew the liner or nest in plant material.  The best advice here is to clean your ponds and the area around it then set out live traps.  Then relocate or destroy them. 

     Raccoons are usually after your frogs and fish but can wreak havoc with your pond plants while trying to get to them.  A motion activated sprinkler may work for you in this case.

   Snails are sold to eat algae in the pond but  believe it or not, there are certain snails (aquarium tropical snails and others) that can be voracious eaters  regarding your pond plants.  Apple snails and Columbian ram’s horn snails are voracious eaters and can destroy your plants.   Hand picking seems to be the only cure and caffeine does kill them.   Be very careful and only release  JAPANESE TRAPDOOR or GOLDEN MYSTERY  snails in your pond. 

Other pests are aphids, caddysfly larvae, china mark moth, cucumber beetles, spider mites, Japanese beetles mealybugs and weevils.  Make sure you follow the directions carefully on any pesticide that you choose.  Always be careful around your fish and plants and make sure the pesticides won’t harm more than they help.  There is an herbal aphid spray that wont harm anything. I have used sevin dust in the past with no harm to fish. I used just a hint on all affected leaves.

     Most of you won’t experience any of the pests mentioned in this blog, but at least you know what to look for and perhaps can prevent these pests before any damage is done.

Last thing you want to see in your pond!

      I would assume many gardeners are bird lovers and outdoor lovers  as well.  And if you are a brand new water gardener,  then you may not know that the arch nemesis of a water garden with goldfish or koi, throughout most of the USA, is the Heron. This is one birdyou never want to catch in your  fishpond, they have only come for one reason, your backyard buffet.

Small & very pretty green heron, Still gonna eat your fish!

In much of the country people don’t even know herons are in their area, they seem like large birds you may only find in th southern swamps. They are usually a protected species, some a foot tall, some four feet tall with a six foot wingspan. Found commonly hanging out next to water gardens in the early morning around sunrise or wading in the shallow end of a pond, a heron can swallow a 24″ fish and take off quickly. They love backyard ponds, as they are small, shallow, and the fish are usually bright colors, could we make it any easier for these birds? I don’t think so. . .  .

The Scarecrow I talk about, cost about $65-$79 as of 2008

Now winter is a very common time to find these birds in your yard. For fish to live, we generally keep a hole in the ice here in the north, with a pump or trough deicer.  These birds have less and less open water to hunt  and they easily see our water gardens open water reflect like a mirror in the sky. Lakes and streams with fish are iced over but we provide a tiny open space of open water, on top of that, the fish are bright orange and red or white or yellow. These birds will come back until the pond is empty, however we can keep them away pretty easy. A scarecrow, battery operated device is sold almost everywhere & works on all animals, it one in has a motion detector and shoots a stream of chilly water at animals that come by the pond. You can set one in the area in which it protects so that you can come up behind it without getting sprayed. Most people, myself included, forget about the device and normally walk right by it, and you  may get a little spray of water at your butt.   It protects the pond and after a few squirts the bird will stop coming around for good. 

Another option is a decoy heron, these birds are territorial, move the plastic decoy from one side of the pond to the other every 7 days as birds are smart and flyover birds will notice the decoy never moves, after a while. Make sure you have plenty of submerged plants, as fish can hide from the birds in submerged grasses like anacharis or hornwort.

Last of all, a small line of fishing line around the pond ,about 14 inches high, is invisible to the heron and they only way they can get to the pond is to walk in, when they reach your fishing line fence, they cannot move any closer to the pond and don’t know what is in the way, they will then fly off. The fishing line is not unattractive, is inexpensive and easy to put up .Once the heron is gone, you can take it down.

 E-mail me if you need help finding anything.