Wildlife pond

[Wenny]

ok I reckon I have snail eggs on the underside of all my lily pads... Do I leave them or remove.?

 

[DutchMuch]

Can you give us more information on your problem? why remove them? what are you going to do with the lilys?

 

[Wenny]

Worried there may be too many snails!

 

[Wenny]

I e mo the d some to 2 other ponds to see what happens... Lily's just about to flower

 

[RichardSJPonds]

We have probably thousands of snail in our 6'x8' lily pool. They eat the decaying lily pads and flowers. Our ponds have them too, but not nearly as many. I suspect the fish are eating them, as I've seen them nibbling at the undersides of the lilies. As far as I'm concerned, they're a natural part of the aquatic ecosystem and I leave them alone to do their thing. We don't experience any major issues with our ponds, and our fish are happy and healthy. The biggest issue is string algae in late spring, which we control by removing it by hand or with a child's rake and applying a double-dose of bacteria.

I did a blog post about pond snails, it might give you some additional insight into these little invertebrates: http://www.landvistaaquascapes.com/blog/snails-natural-inhabitants-of-ponds

 

[addy1]

I leave the snail eggs alone. In 10 years they have not over run the pond or caused damage to the lilies.

 

[adavisus]

If snail numbers are affecting delicate plants you don't want destroyed, for example frogbit, you can 'naturally' thin out their numbers at dawn, when oxygen levels are low all the snails will be in shallow water, where it is easy to squish, ahem, cull their numbers

 

[dichthuatmid]

nice to make friend with you