My pond is saturated small wormlike creatures. Not sure what to do

[TomP86]

Hi all. This is my first post here. My pond has millions of small worm-like creatures on the very bottom. I notice when I was moving some rocks there was a giant worm came out and started moving around. When I cleaned the filter in the waterfall reservoir there were hundreds of tiny red worms at the bottom and many inside the filter. Can I please have some advice on the following questions if possible?

1. Is it normal to have these creatures in a pond?
2. Is there any way to prevent them from going in my pond?
3. Can I exterminate them somehow without poisoning fish? (I don't have fish in there currently so I could dry out the pond. Not sure if this would actually kill them)

 

[Lisak1]

Hi all. This is my first post here. My pond has millions of small worm-like creatures on the very bottom. I notice when I was moving some rocks there was a giant worm came out and started moving around. When I cleaned the filter in the waterfall reservoir there were hundreds of tiny red worms at the bottom and many inside the filter. Can I please have some advice on the following questions if possible?

1. Is it normal to have these creatures in a pond?
2. Is there any way to prevent them from going in my pond?
3. Can I exterminate them somehow without poisoning fish? (I don't have fish in there currently so I could dry out the pond. Not sure if this would actually kill them)

View attachment 155016

1. Probably
2. Unlikely
3. No. But you did just answer the question as to why the worms are thriving. Get some fish in there and let them do what they're good at

 

[j.w]

@TomP86
Oh yep yummie's for fish!

 

[TomP86]

Hi. Thanks for the welcome and advise! I'll put some fish in and see if it makes a difference. On doing a little bit of reading these worms mutate into misquito-sized flies and they spread by the fly dropping the eggs on the water. Do you think it would be worthwhile buying a couple of bug zappers to try to cull off some of the population? With that said I haven't seen any flies buzzing around

 

[GBBUDD]

Hi all. This is my first post here. My pond has millions of small worm-like creatures on the very bottom. I notice when I was moving some rocks there was a giant worm came out and started moving around. When I cleaned the filter in the waterfall reservoir there were hundreds of tiny red worms at the bottom and many inside the filter. Can I please have some advice on the following questions if possible?

1. Is it normal to have these creatures in a pond? WORMS EAT DECAYING MATTER
2. Is there any way to prevent them from going in my pond? DOUBTFUL
3. Can I exterminate them somehow without poisoning fish? (I don't have fish in there currently so I could dry out the pond. Not sure if this would actually kill them) YES FIND A FISH THAT WILL EAT THEM BUT BECAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR

View attachment 155016

 

[Mgessert]

I think the fish will control the population.

 

[fishlips]

It's looks like a bloodworm or midge fly larvae.

Harmless.

 

[TomP86]

Alright cool. Thank you guys. I'll put some fish in here and will not worry about it too much then