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disappearing plants

I have an outside 30 gallon pond that looked similar to this
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about 3 weeks ago. now there is not even the water mint left only a few floating pine needles and 2 or 3 snippets of plants less than 1/2 inch long. The only living creatures in it are a large apple snail, about 2 inches in dia, and a crawfish. Both of which had been in the pond for weeks prior to the plants disappearing. The pond is insdide a fenced in area of our fenced in yard and is above grond so only animals that can jump at least a foot can get to it. Any ideas on what could cause this. I was planning on putting in a larger water pond but if this could happen again I don't think I will risk it. On a postive note my ponds inside my greenhouse are fine.
 
sounds to me like you had a theif
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anybody around shown special interest in the Utics?
 
Aquatic Utricularia form turions for the winter rest. This seems like it happened very quickly in your case though! Still, who would go to the trouble of stealing pond scum? (which is what most people would see this as) Any curious kids that you showed the stuff to and maybe told what it is? It's a funny world. Pyro mentioned having some plants ripped off that were being sent to him by another member. Maybe CP are getting to be hot items in the black market trade? I dunno. Look to see if there are any little hairy green balls lying on the bottom. These would be turions, from which next seasons growth will come. Once they form it doesnt take long for the plant to go pffffft.
 
I think that if it had been a person they would have taken plants out of the bog next to the pond as most people I have shown the area to were more intrested in the venus fly traps in the bog. I did not see any turions at the bottom of the pond and the weather has not realy changed that much, I am in the Atlanta area. However a large amount was U.gibba which does not form turions. Could a change in PH cause a mass die off?? I have not had a chance to check the PH.
 
Just a WAG, but you haven't had any water fowl (duck or geese) pass through the area have you? I don't know if they would eat your plants but then I've seen ducks eating stuff in some pretty strange places.
 
Ducks eat Utrics.. and so do Moose and other wildlife in my experience. I've seen them munching on the plants several times... but then again, moose will eat anything. We can't put pumpkins out on Samhain any more because the moose eat them
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Maybe deer would too? I've never seen a deer so I wouldn't know.. but they are related to Moose..
Do you have any kind of wildlife in your area that could have done this? Maybe waterbirds like BCK suggested?
 
Purplesundew,

Off topic, but you mention Samhain! It's nice to see the proper name being used!
 
just a thought

it could be caddis fly larvae. i just had a few caddis fly larvae wipe out my whole aquatic utric collection. i didnt even notice them and i didnt notice they were eating the turions and what not. it happened quite fast and it was only a few of the little buggers. if you had a population of caddis flys, they could wipe out a pond of utrics in a few weeks. just a suggestion.

-josh
 
Off topic but Tamlin that's the first time I've heard it called that. All Hallow's Eve & Halloween but not SamHain. Interesting stuff that.
 
  • #10
Samhain is the proper name really.. it's been around a bit longer than Halloween
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  • #11
Where I grew in North Yorkshire, England, Halloween was frequently celebrated under the name 'Mischeif Night'. No pumkins, no costumes, no candy or other treats, just tricks. A particular favorite of mine was switching the gates to peoples drives around, that used to make the grown-ups crazy in the morning! Got up to lots of naughty stuff, but I don't want to give the younger readers ideas. We never stole any Utrics though.
This custom probably owed a lot to the Celtic festival of Samhain. I don't know if Mischeif Night is still celebrated the way we did 35 years ago. I've a sneaky feeling that the commercialised version of Halloween has probably taken over as it has over the rest of the UK. Shame.

Vic
 
  • #12
Hey Vic,

Yor are around the New Forest area aren't you? Have you ever heard of Sybil Leek?

(apologies for the off topic post, but this is irresistable&#33
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Looking in my crystal ball, I see you did not get germination of the ping. seed I sent. (Actually, I had a negative report from a friend in NZ i shared the seed with.) My apologies in advance: apparently the germination window for the N.A. temperates is narrower than I had imagined. We'll try again if I can produce seed from my seedling plants.
 
  • #13
Hi Tamlin

I used to live very close to the New Forest up until 1995, and know it and its ecology very well. I am not however familiar with Sybil Leek, is it a person (possible and I dont know her), a member of the onion family (unlikely) or a location (most probable, and near a spring, hence wet and CP rich)? I don't know it, but have detailed maps of the New Forest and will try to find it.

On the subject of the Pings, your ball seems to be working well, actually I have been in comparing notes with the same person in NZ. I have no germination yet either, but won't throw them away just yet.

Cheers
Vic
 
  • #14
OOhps!
After scouring my maps and finding nothing (I was hoping I could write something like; Sybils Leek is just around the corner from Dead Man's Bottom (real place name)) I have just discovered (thankyou Google) that she was a famous 20th Century witch. No I don't know her, but I have frequently come across very strange alignments of stones or logs in the New Forest, which were almost certainly occult in origin and very recent.

Vic
 
  • #15
The New Forrest Coven is one of the oldest heridetary witch covens! How exciting to be there so close to it. Sybil did much to popularize the "old religion" and her books were, well, charming:) Thanks much for the info. My eyes got wide as soon as I heard of the New Forrest.

More bad news about the seed, another person I sent it to got no germination. Another perfect end to a perfect day. Sometimes you can't win.
 
  • #16
This whole week has been pretty rotten. Wish my friend still did horoscopes. I'd really like to have one done for this past week
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.
 
  • #18
I am inclined to belive in Josh's theory of caddis fly larvae or something similar. I am not sure of the range of the caddis fly. I do live near large stream/swamp so if they are native to the area they could be the culprit. The area is too enclosed, two fences and very shaded above the pond for it to be grazing or flying creatures. I have decied to put off adding in a larger pond and just keep the two remaining ones in my greenhouse.
 
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