New Wildlife pond - are larvae eating my pond plants?

[eslick]

Hi there!

We've had a new wildlife pond set up for a few weeks now and all was going well. Got a good selection of oxygenating plants and lots of larvae in the pond. However this week the plants have all been totally decimated. My dad did top the pond up with a hose by about an inch which is initially what I thought might have caused the problem, but then I looked closely and could see the pond is full off black larvae - possibly midge or mosquito larvae and think they might be eating it all?

Does this happen? If so, how can I restore the balance in the pond? Will I be getting lots of mossies and midgies in my garden now?

My son is keen to put in fish but I know they will eat the widlife - but wondered if some sticklebacks may not be a bad idea if they controlled the larvae a bit!

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Dogghound]

Mosquito larvae (infact most aquatic larvae) dont feed on plants. If the pond is this new its unlikely to be larvae causing the problem as they wont be established in such numbers. Do you have pond snails?

You wont get loads on midges etc when the pond becomes established they will be food for other animals. Try adding oxygenating pond plants this tends to reduce their numbers (in my experience).

I would leave it to nature and not put fish in, but its upto you, sticklebacks will breed quickly and eat alot the the life in your pond, which means it wont be as interesting from a wildlife point of view.

[eslick]

Hi!

I think we may have one small pond snail I have seen so far (must have been on teh plants we put in) but the pond is full of black wriggling larvae which is why I thought they may be the problem. I did put some water from our water butt in as suggested on other websites and not sure if this has had an effect.

I have got hornwort floating around and also 3 other oxgenating marginals - but they are the one's that seem to be getting eaten!

Should I buy some more and see what happens - just think they might get eaten again?

If not snails, anything else if could be?

Thanks