Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Establishing Golden Shiners

John, good choice in dogs!

John- Thank you for describing your deck/gazebo setup (great visualization) and for the tip on the birdhouses. We need all of the help we can get in terms of bug control. I’ll start spreading Semaspore next year for the grasshoppers and establishing a flock of Guinea fowl for the ticks, but will add the birdhouses for another layer of control. I’ve always been an organic gardener and my goal is to get the bugs down to a more manageable/tolerable level. I also find “feathered friends” more aesthetic than a spray tank, too.

I hadn’t considered wood ducks. Depending on the map, it appears that I am either in a migratory path (just barely) or situated at a permanent resident/non-breeding resident/”uncertain status” junction. I’ll plan on putting in a few posts and see what happens...

BTW – your friend looks so happy!

Full Circle this is something you probably wouldn’t want but I have lots of frogs and I'm sure they also help with the bugs. When my fish died from the winter kill the tadpoles came on really strong. There were so many that the pond looked like it was raining. They would dive down and come to the top of the water making what looked like rain. I had no FA doing this time until the middle of June when they turned into frogs. I watched them closely and any algae that tried to form on the deck posts, deck latter and underwater structures were covered with tadpoles eating the faint algae I could see. The stems of my lilies that tried to form algae had tadpoles on them also.

Esshup Dolly was just a little bundle of fur that we heard at our back door in the snow one night in January. She is a great walking dog and insists we walk every couple of hours. That’s good for me since I need it for my health. What I hate is she catches 3 or 4 frogs a day. Even at night. But for every one she catches it seem there is always one to replace it.

John- I don’t mind frogs at all. In fact, I assume that they will naturalize in/near the pond as we have a year-round “puddle” (30x50?? in this drought) 600 feet downstream from the pond site that has 10’s of 1000’s of tadpoles in the spring. In the early summer, the ground appears to shimmer and, if you look real close, there are wall-to-wall “mini-frogs” (less than ½”). Initially, I was concerned about the puddle becoming a mosquito haven but there aren’t any larvae present. By our observations for the past 2 years, there aren’t any fish (but the water gets deep in an area that is not easily accessible), no water/bog plants, the dragonflies are thick, and no FA. This puddle appears to be a main watering hole for the local wildlife – perhaps because it is centered in a thick grove of trees and most of the stock tanks and ponds in our area are out in the open. The back edge of our pond will abut the same tree line but as I said, about 600 feet “upstream”. We will leave all of the trees that we can so the wildlife will have another option.
BTW - Dolly looks as if she is in heaven!

Full Circle, ponds are hard to figure out for me. I used to have frogs and tadpoles but not the numbers I had this year. Probably because I had big fish of all kinds that probably eat them in my old pond. So this is a new kind of pond taking place from what I used to have. Good or bad I don't know. I'm thinking of giving lots more cover around the pond then I ever did before. Mostly cattails which isn't for most people. In my opinion the tadpoles and dragonflies are keeping the mosquito's & larva down and the FA is eaten by the tadpoles.

I left all my trees lining two fields just for the wildlife. Most around here bulldoze them for more planting space. I also live in an 8 acre woods and actually have made (planted 5 1/2 acres) a woods around the pond area mostly for wildlife and my serenity.

By the way I counted the 6"x6" poles yesterday on the 12'x24' platform and there are actually 15, not 12.

John- 5½ acres is a lot of work! Fortunately, the original family was thoughtful in their land use and left about ½ the property untouched. As our needs are different than our neighbors (cattle ranchers), we have the luxury of continuing that original plan. We have a lot of cleanup and some selective thinning (removing diseased and dead trees) ahead, though, as it looks like the property was neglected for the past few years. We’ll also be re-digging/cleaning out a couple of small stock tanks (.15 acres, .2 acres) that we discovered on an old satellite picture as they are now shallow depressions (silt runoff?). There is also a ¼ acre tank that the last owner dug that I am not sure what to do with as he dug it mid way on a hillside on the high side of the property. I am not sure what he was thinking as there isn’t much watershed in that area and it looks like something from an unnatural depiction of the lunar landscape. We’ll figure it out, though..

If the cattails get out of control or you decide to go with another plant, would you be open to goats? I’ve used goats for 20+ years to do selective thinning/clearing and have been happy with the results. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, but they are rugged, quick, able to access areas that are either too steep or too thickly overgrown for conventional methods, and will re-seed and fertilize the area if you add your seed to some grain and feed it to them. The limiting factor is seed size – the seed must be small enough to pass thru rather than being digested). Best of all, they can be trained with a minimal amount of effort to respect a hot net and their manure resembles a juniper berry (no cow pies to worry about). Although I’ve not used them for cattails personally, cattails are on their “candy” list. Just a thought…

Thank you for the pole information – I updated my notes. I am curious to see how your pond evolves. Will you keep us updated? Many thanks!

Thanks for the goat info. The cattails used to be kept in their place nice and neat by 18 large grass carp I had, only I didn't realize just how good of a job they were doing until they died. Muskrats which visit occasionally helped also I think. Even the Water Irises could mussel into a patch of cattails and slowly overtake them, but that took lots of time, and of course with help from the GC. Now my cattails have exploded, but I see a few things to like about them. The wood ducks like to sleep in them at night, the frogs seem to like them and it helps to keep my dog Dolly from catching so many and when my pond recedes from summer evaporation it helps cover the muddy shore that is exposed. So I can play with them and see what happens. But this isn't for your typical ponder. Keep us up to date on your pond and area. It sounds exciting and I will do the same.

this is a great experience thank you for sharing it with us.

I can tell you another critter that will control cattails with a vengeance: Beaver. Seems to be favorite food at my place.

Was surprised to find out that beaver also tear up water lilies.