CLOSED: What's growing in my pond?

These "things" are about a 1/2"long with a whip like tail. They are translucent white and undulate like a worm. They are massed, on the right and a single one is on the left. They are laying on a paper towel.

some kind of tadpole? i think some of them mass together like in a gel.

Dragon fly young.

I would doubt them to be tadpole, because of the way they move. I had thought the same as trois, but I found this article http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/bugs/dragonfly/dragonfly.phtml which seems to say they should look very different. I will try to keep an eye on these little creatures.

Definately NOT ANY STAGE of a Dragonfly. Look in Golden Guide POND LIFE and I think you will find it. Sorry I don't have time right now to look it up for you. This is a very handy little book and everyone who loves nature should have one in their library. It's only about $3.00.
MN4

This message was edited Jun 19, 2005 10:39 AM

They look like the mass of wood frog eggs that my wood frogs lay each year. Huge jelly like masses of thousands of eggs. It looks like a tadpole to me. This happens in March, however.

Wood Frog info:
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/wood_frog.htm

Rat-tailed maggot. I got them too. Gross.
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent525/water/aquatic/pages/20_jpg.htm
Mostly harmless but yucky. Water change took care of them.

eeeewwwwwwwww...I have never heard of them.....Do they always go in a pond? If they like dirty ponds I probably have them too.. Afraid to look.

I've seen them too. Disgusting...especially watching them move.

I'm pretty sure the fish would eat them right up and the fly they turn into is a pollinator, but yeah eeeeeewwwwww. I only ever find them first thing in the spring when the water is gross and the fish are still inside the house in their winter home. Once I get my spring cleaning done, they don't seem to come back.

Yuckphui, gross, especially the second one:

http://www.museums.org.za/bio/insects/flies/syrphidae/eristalinae/eristalis/eristalis_tenax.htm
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/173_11_041200/whishwilson/whishwilson.html

yuck, i wish it had been a tadpole.

It looks like the winner (loser?) is Sylvi74. Thanks for the ID. Guess I need a few fish in there.

George

I have 2 ponds and have not seen any of those things in my ponds yet. But, one pond has fish and the other one never had fish in it. I went out there today and I have fish swimming along with tadpoles in the pond that had no fish. The only thing that we came up with is we moved our pond plants from one pond to the other and transported the eggs for the fish. I will keep my eyes open for the maggots! yuck

i have 2 ponds in my yard with plants and fish. i drained the kids pool for the winter and was going to fill it up again for the kids as it was going to be 90 this week. the pool has about 3 inches of water in it from the rain. it is full of tadpoles. some are large and have their back legs already, but some are still babies. can i move them to one of my ponds without hurting them? so i can ready the pool for the kids. problem 2: i was hanging clothes out on the clothes line yesterday and a million termite "flies" came buzzing by me. they were coming from a stump in the empty lot next to me. i was going to put bleach on it (i heard that will clear them up) but there were a lot of lizards on it eating the "flies" so i did nothing. i do not want any termites in my yard...what do i do? thanks cindy