I have been poking the frogs to distract them while the fish so that they don't
slip into the water and eat the smaller fish. Today when I walked
to the pond, and a great blue heron flew away from the bank. What can I
do? Is my population of koi doomed? Help please.
First the frogs eating little ones. NOW a great blue heron!
what do you mean by 'poking'? You mean like stabbing them?! ick!
well I don't know about the bird though, probably need to use some kind of plastic poultry mesh, or other netting over the pond.
or maybe you could use the shotgun? just kidding!
Definitely put plenty of plants/rocks for the fish to hide. that should help at least.
These are a bit goofy looking, but I have not had problems with the Heron since I installed one of these.
http://www.ponddoc.com/Store/Predator/decoy.html
what about a motion activated water sprinkler thingy?
This is a large pond, 72,000 gallons. There are three established
areas of water lilies. One is quite large. I believe the fish like to stay under those. I am thinking of buying a decoy heron from
www.thefind.com/garden/info-great-blue-heron-decoy
They present decoys from about $12 to well over $200 from various
manufacturers and on line stores.
I even thought of also putting a scareheron. A stuffed scarecrow sitting in a canvas chair, wearing a hat, clothes, etc. Together they might work well. ?????