Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Muddy water and Alligators

We are in the midst of an aquatic vegetation treatment project in a several year old, 18 acre lake. There are several alligators that inhabit this lake. There are several 3 footers, one or two 7 footers and a big 12 footer in the back part of the lake. Unlike other lakes in the area, this lake is very turbid and muddy. The question for this forum is whether it is safe to assume that the principal cause of this muddiness is due to our alligator inhabitants. Does anybody have any experience with alligators and muddy water? Thanks to all.

No experience with gators up here in Illinois.

It doesn't seem like less than 10 gators could keep an 18 acre water hole muddy. Do the jar test. Get a jar of water and set it aside to see if it will clear on its own.

Thanks, Dave. While a "control" for the experiment may be difficult to establish, I may be able to use NTU's as a proxy for "muddiness". I can fill one of my sample tubes for our portable Nephelometer (Turbidity Meter) and monitor turbidity over several days... The more accurate question is whether somebody has actually removed an alligator population from an existing muddy lake and seen significant clarity improvement.

i agree with dave. seems it would take a hole slew of gators to keep a late that size muddy. does it clear up during the winter, when gators get scarce. and if the water is so muddy, why is it having a weed problem. sounds like the weeds would nto get much sunlight.

Dundat, good point. However, in this particular case, we are treating water hyacinth which is a floating plant.

what do you use to kill waterhiacinth? or are you pulling it out by hand?

We used a tank mix of two sytemic herbicides and a surfactant. Water Hyacinth is not that difficult to kill. The coverage was too large to take it out by hand. We also treated several clumps of cattails.

Mike, I believe that the presence of alligators in your pond is not the cause of your muddy water. If you watch them you'll see that they just float around waiting for opportunities to ambush food items. The three footers are relatively inocuous but the seven footers would probably, and the twelve footer would absolutely, consider pets, children and even adults to be on the menu. I urge you to contact your Department of Wildlife and or Fisheries to have the alligators removed. If they are unresponsive, consider removing them yourself.

Thanks, Dudley. Living in Louisiana, I'm sure that you have a lot of direct experience with these critters. My first strong recommendation to the Board President was to have the alligators removed and at the very least post signs that indicate their presence and discourage homeowners from feeding them. Unfortunately, they are being fed by the residents. Not good! However, since the lake has a channel with water flowing in as well as a channel for outflow the alligators come and go as they please. Some are territorial and stay. The first step before removal is to put bars on the entry and exit culverts to prevent entry by neighboring alligators. What I have not mentioned before is the presence of cottonmouth snakes; some as big around as your arm and several feet long. I don't know what's more dangerous to children and pets: poisonous snakes or alligators... I guess sometimes you don't get to choose the wildlife that inhabits your pond or lake.

Alligators are a little higher on the food chain than snakes. The gators will help eliminate the snakes.
They will stalk & hunt children & pets. The snakes prefer to slip away when they sense someones presence. The gator will begin his hunt.
When people live in close proximity with large free ranging predators sooner or later the unthinkable will happen.
Who will be liable?

Hey Mike,

I have worked in the past with Gatorland in Central Florida on their water quality issues. We moved 15 Australian Salt Water Crocs from a 5-acre pond to accomplish reduction in fecal coliforms and improve BOD and improve water clarity.

We acheived all of the above. But there were a great deal many more of them per acre than what you are dealing with. I do not think the gators are your problems. Are there Carp? Cat fish? Turtles? In my experience, these animals cause more mudding problems than the gators or in the above example Crocs do.

How about wind currents? Is the shore line unstable enough that the wind currents cause lapping water to hit the shoreline creating the silting and increasing the total suspended solids?

Give me a call on my cell if you would like to discuss.