If you get heron, will they continue to return? I had a first ever visit on Friday and lost fish. S/he retuned Saturday. Any chance this will be a fluke or will this continue to be a problem?
Thanks for any info or tips.
Dave
Heron return?
dave,
once they find a free meal they will keep coming back. did you try the fishing line ?
i lost 22 fish in two days when a heron hit my pond a couple of years ago. the fishing line strung across my pond worked.
mark
I live by the bay. I lost a lot of koi until I went to my local nursery/hardware store and purchased a net - Its the type of net for cherry trees. Its been about a year now and I still have my fish. Once in a while I will find that something has landed on it, but it has worked for me. I have a cement pond approx 1500 gallons and I have placed 2x2's over the top for the next to rest on.
Mark, The heron was here Friday and again on Saturday but we have not seen him since. I've been kinda busy and its been raining constantly and haven't gotten the fishing line out yet. I will try it. Thanks!
mnorberry, thank you too.
They are going to come back!!! Here is another way to net your pond.Bellie
Thanks for the warning Bellie.
Dave . please get the net over the pond my unwelcome visitor just about cleaned out the pond before I saw him. Net worked great. Also keeps leaves out in the fall.
OK. Its almost time to put the net up anyway.
I had the same problem. I use the bird netting ( the same as you have) only on the shallow edges of my pond so the Heron can't wade into it. It is held in place by the large containers. The other containers are there because the Heron landed on the coping and fished from there even though it is 3 to 4.5 deeper there. My Koi are so tame, they think a large bird like a Heron looks like someone who may just offer them a snack until one gets eaten. They will swim right up to the Heron.
Next year, my health allowing me, I am making some hyper-tufa containers to match the stone and they won't be so intrusive to the pond scenery and stand out so much. They will be lower in height and just enough of them to hold the netting secure.
I also have a "Scarecrow" which is a sprinkler that has a motion sensor on it and it worked well until my water gummed it up and they are a little too expensive to keep replacing. It does work though if you don't want to net your pond.
Here's my solution for animal invaders...PVC and Deer netting,only feasable for small ponds.
Bill...
I thought of using a similar idea here. May I ask how you attached the netting to the PVC?
It looks like you have a snake caught up in the netting....is it? I have had several caught up in mine and have had to cut a couple out to save their lives.
Tell us about your pond. How deep, how much water etc if you will.
Bill & Bell, Thanks for your input. I'm netting my pond too.
Mine is 2&1/2 feet at its deepest and about 650 gallons.(14' at its longest and 6' at its widest)
Dave
Bings...The snake,lizard and frog are all pond guardians,but as I still had invaders I built the PVC net.The net is lashed to the PVC using simple twist ties.
The Pond is about 7x6,2 ft at deep end,about 500 gal.I dug the hole & started it exactly one month ago.See my Journal for more pic's under the pond category.
Some wild animal tried to poop in my pond tonight...at about 1:45 am, I went out back to check the pond and thought I heard something scamper off then I opened to door. By the time I got out to where the motion detecting light went on, nothing to be seen BUT, about a foot out on the netting were about 5 fresh turds that looked like they came from a small dog? I managed to move the net frame from over the water without any of them falling in and cleaned up. But WHAT the #%$# did it??? All I can think is either raccoon or opossum.Time to get a few Havahart live animal traps.
Good Luck Dave....That netting is worth the trouble of putting in on, believe me. You can see the leaves I would have if I didn't net the whole pond come fall time. I do use a much stronger, heavier net on my pond because it is so wide.....approximately 16 feet by 18 feet....It is a blue green net and very ugly but , like I said...worth the trouble of putting it on.
Bill, going through your journal was a nice trip. You did a lot work on that.
I am curious about the very different rough stone on your waterfall....It almost looks like petrified reeds etc. Is that a native stone? From a distance, it almost looked like broken concrete which can be made to look beautiful with a lot of hard work but in the larger pictures in your journal, it looks very different.
My son had way too much fun with the back-hoe while digging my pond which is between 5500 and 6000 gallons. The hole just kept getting bigger. It is quite deep to insure the Koi will survive the winter should we get a bad one. My grand kids love swimming in the pond in the summertime so it turned out to be a pond slash swimming pool which was not my intention.....but perhaps was my son's intention. He'll never tell.
Bings...Thanks for the complement on my journal,it's defininatly a back- aching labor of love and a constant work in progress as it is with most plant people.Most of the rocks in and around the waterfall are coral rocks, very easy to find anywhere in south florida.
