Some of you may remember in the one pond we use for swimming we had a serious problem with swimmer's itch (duck itch) last summer. At one point the wife had 40 some welts from the parasites that barely penetrate the skin and die leaving an inflamation. We had to give up swimming much to the disappointment of my wife that has bad knees so it's really the only good way for her to exercise.

Anyway last year was the first year for that and it happened shortly after I had a pair of mallards show up and stay on and off. I've had ducks here before but for some reason that was the first time we had a problem. A factor may have been a heavy infestation of Sago Pond weed which probably gave the snails and the parasites something to adhere to. This year I plan on taking care of the Sago Pondweed with Whitecap herbicide once I have enough funds to purchase it!

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.