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Hi
I made a small wildlife pond when we first moved in about 4 years ago, which was quickly colonised by lots of different beasties. About 2 years we had our first dragonflies hatch, which we were really pleased about , thinking we must be doing something right. Then last year our first frogspawn which had a pretty high survival rate. The usual beasties seemed to be thriving too, Damselfly,Mayfly, Diving Beetles, Waterslaters , Waterboatmen,etc.
This spring again we had the frogspawn, which duly developed into tadpoles of which none survived, they had all disappeared within days. On closer inspection of the pond I counted without looking too hard at least a dozen Dragonfly nymphs, and on a recent dipping session found virtually nothing apart from the Dragonfly nymphs.
I,m thinking the dragonfly nymphs have eaten virtually everything that moves. We have had a couple of dragonflies hatch so far and am hoping that more do this summer, which hopefully will reduce the number of nymphs a maybe put things back in balance because at the moment its a pretty boring pond to look into.
The pond is fairly small 2 x 3m and about 2ft deep so probably not big enough to cope with that many dragonfly nymphs.
Anyone else had this happen?
Regards
Rob Scott
Sounds like your pond hasn't struck a balance yet - however dragonfly nymphs aren't above cannibalism so if there is nothing else for them to eat they won't hesitate to turn on each other and this will cut down their numbers, possibly significantly so. They can stay in the nymph stage for many years though so many not necessarily emerge this summer. With any new habitat, it takes time for all the different inhabitants to move in - the further from another pond the longer it takes, so it is a case of letting the pond gather it's beasties. Pond food webs are a tangled mess so I don't really think there is a way of speeding up the process - especially since everything seems to get eaten by everything else lol With a small pond it is more difficult to create the space needed to support a wide community - but adding things like denser cover could help give some species a chance to escape the Alien jaws!
Millie & Fly the Border Collies