Hi there, new member, and thought I would lead off with an obscure question:
does peppermint oil, diluted in water, harm goldfish?
the story:
built a decent sized (about 1000 gallons) pond for my aging mother to enjoy in her retirement. Stocked it with about a dozen medium sized goldfish (and now a whole lot of fry -- another problem), and it has/had good plant coverage, with various marginals, lillies, hawthornes and hyacinth. All was good.
Unfortunately as it turns out one of my mother's neighbors down the street is a beekeeper. And once the bees discovered the new pond they started showing up, not a few at a time, but literally by the time I took action, probably up to 80-100 at a time (the situation was only compounded by the arrival of a decent number of wasps who appeared to also discover the pond). The pond was rendered unusable for the majority of each day. Not exactly what I had in mind of my mother's peaceful retreat.
So I began a campaign to try to discourage, and now finally to just block the bees from foraging in the pond. As of three days ago I finally just pulled all the marginals, laid beams across the pond, and draped large sheets of fine netting (too small for the bees and wasps to get through) over the entire pond. While that seems to be working of course ir means the pond is out of commission. So knowing that I have to open the pond back up sooner or later, I am planting peppermint plants around the edges, and what I would really like to do is dilute some peppermint oil into a spray can (supposed to deter bees who find it smelly) and spray all of the floating hyacinth (which the bees love for its stability), the exposed rocks, etc. and see if I can prevent the hive(s) from considering the pond their prefferred water source once again. But obviously such a course of action would lead to a significant amount of the peppermint/water solution getting sprayed/washed into the pond. Hence my question: is peppermint oil toxic to goldfish in relatively diluted conditions (diluted in water, and then diluted into 1000 gallons of pond water)?
thx for any help.
does peppermint oil, diluted in water, harm goldfish?
the story:
built a decent sized (about 1000 gallons) pond for my aging mother to enjoy in her retirement. Stocked it with about a dozen medium sized goldfish (and now a whole lot of fry -- another problem), and it has/had good plant coverage, with various marginals, lillies, hawthornes and hyacinth. All was good.
Unfortunately as it turns out one of my mother's neighbors down the street is a beekeeper. And once the bees discovered the new pond they started showing up, not a few at a time, but literally by the time I took action, probably up to 80-100 at a time (the situation was only compounded by the arrival of a decent number of wasps who appeared to also discover the pond). The pond was rendered unusable for the majority of each day. Not exactly what I had in mind of my mother's peaceful retreat.
So I began a campaign to try to discourage, and now finally to just block the bees from foraging in the pond. As of three days ago I finally just pulled all the marginals, laid beams across the pond, and draped large sheets of fine netting (too small for the bees and wasps to get through) over the entire pond. While that seems to be working of course ir means the pond is out of commission. So knowing that I have to open the pond back up sooner or later, I am planting peppermint plants around the edges, and what I would really like to do is dilute some peppermint oil into a spray can (supposed to deter bees who find it smelly) and spray all of the floating hyacinth (which the bees love for its stability), the exposed rocks, etc. and see if I can prevent the hive(s) from considering the pond their prefferred water source once again. But obviously such a course of action would lead to a significant amount of the peppermint/water solution getting sprayed/washed into the pond. Hence my question: is peppermint oil toxic to goldfish in relatively diluted conditions (diluted in water, and then diluted into 1000 gallons of pond water)?
thx for any help.
