Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations eating my lilies

I haven't posted here in a long time, but maybe someone would be kind enough to answer a question. After ignoring my wife's pestering for 5 years, I finally capitulated and went out and spent 150 bucks on 4 hybred water lilies. I wiggled the pots down in about 18" of water and walked away. The next day I noticed some leaves floating around and then saw that I now only had 3 lilies showing on the surface. I pulled up the phantom lily and all of the leaves and flowers looked like they were cut off with a scissors about 3" from the base. What would do this? A turtle or a grass carp? Anyone know?

Do you have a muskrat around?

Nope...never saw a muskrat

I too spent a small fortune on lilies, and I too have watched them be eaten to their demise. I found both geese and a turtle (eastern painted) red-handed. They seem to love the new shoots / growth. Short of wrapping them in some fencing, I don't know how to establish them.

Per Bill Cody (as recently as yesterday), lilies are VERY hard to establish in the presence of Grass Carp. He suggest fencing off the new lily section with netting or very dense tree brush.
Cody on Lilies and GC

Thanks, A turtle was my number one suspect. I moved the lily over to one of my wife's small garden ponds, so maybe I'm not totally out the money.

Thanks Theo, your suggestion makes sense, but the wife would never stand for a corral of chicken wire sticking up around the lilies.

I had a Nutria almost wipe out my 1.2 acre pond of white lilies

You almost have to fence off the lilies to get them to take. Once they are established, it's had for rodentia/turtles to knock them out.

we have established lillies years ago with fencing on temporrary basis. Might talk wife into temporary fencing. grass carp have to be very hungry to control them. The key is the early stages keepign them form turtels #1 then geese and muskrats then grass carp. Of course we see the opposite of this in most ponds where we are paid to kill lillies that have taken over, this is where grass carp comments come in. High numbers of grass carp no other weeds but not dent in lillies.

Turtles are what eat my lilies.
When the turtles eat mine I eat the turtles.

Anybody think that honeylocust branches around waterlilies will keep the turtles away?

Nope