New pond - advice needed!

[Claire1402]

Hi, this is my first post - sorry if it's a daft question!
We're building a wildlife pond and have got as far as filling it with water on Monday which has been topped up by pretty heavy rain everyday since. We haven't planted anything yet so basically at the moment its a giant puddle! This morning we noticed more than a dozen maggoty looking larvae at the bottom - not a very technical description I know but we are complete novices! They're greyish in colour and about 1" long. Any ideas what they might be? I presume we should just leave them where they are. A bit mystified how they got there as at the moment I wouldn't think it was very enticing to any kind of wildlife. All knowledge gratefully received!

[Hedge Witch]

Daft question, but are they alive? It's very soon to be getting any insect larvae so I wondered it they might have fallen in, in which case they may have drowned.

Otherwise, they may have been in the water you used - unless it was from a hose

[Claire1402]

Thanks for replying. They seem to be alive at the moment - we wondered if they'd fallen in from somewhere else but there's just so many of them couldn't think from where. The water was from the hose so really hope they didn't come from there!! Will keep an eye on them and see whether they die off or develop!
Thanks again

[Kayleigh]

They sound like rat tail maggots I they are a drone fly larvae...
The fly would have lay eggs in there don't worry about them I got them when my pond was new I think something keeps eating mine as I have not seen any since..

Welcome to WAB..

[Claire1402]

Thanks for that. Hoping to get planted up this weekend so fingers crossed won't be too long before we have a few more welcome visitors!

[tom00_uk]

your sure its not a few worms

[agrumpycow]

Originally Posted by tom00_uk

your sure its not a few worms

That's what I thought. Our new pond had quite a few in the bottom soon after filling it.

[Hedge Witch]

Originally Posted by Claire1402

Thanks for replying. They seem to be alive at the moment - we wondered if they'd fallen in from somewhere else but there's just so many of them couldn't think from where. The water was from the hose so really hope they didn't come from there!! Will keep an eye on them and see whether they die off or develop!
Thanks again

I'm fairly certain they didn't come from the hose, at least I hope not

[Fishermick]

They sound like daddy long legs larvae
I quite often find them in my pond
But you would have to look them up
To be sure

[Fishermick]

just found a photo of one is this it hope this helps also called a leather jacket