Wildlife pond

KirstyWY · July 2023

I have a small pond (2m length, 1.5m width & 50cm deep) that seems to have suffered a mishap.
I largely leave it to do it's own thing and have frogs and tadpoles every year. There are plants in the pond, but only modest sizes.
Since the heavy rain a few weeks ago the water has become cloudy, there's a murky film on the top, and the tadpoles appear to have died. The smell is quite ripe! I also found a dead baby bird in the water which probably wasn't helping matters.
If I put a net in the water I'm bringing up pale brown silt and leaves (even though it is netted over winter).
It was last cleared out five years ago. Is it time for another clean? Should I do it now, or wait? I can't see that anything is still living in there, only insects which I would try to retain in buckets.

Fairygirl · July 2023

I hope you removed the bird - that will be creating the smell.
It's fairly normal for ponds to have an oily film , because birds bathe in it. Pigeons and starlings in particular.
Tadpoles get eaten by predators, so that's where most of them will have gone. The aforementioned birds love them, especially any members of the crow family.
Putting a net in will only stir up everything.
Wildlife ponds don't need clearing out - you're just removing what makes them wildlife ponds if you do that. It's different if it's a neglected pond that's shallow, or in an unsuitable site where you might give it some rejuvenation, but then they should be left to get on with it.

KirstyWY · July 2023

I did remove the bird, but the smell is still there, weeks later. I can smell it across the garden.
The tadpoles were floating on the top, looked like a lack of oxygen. I scooped them all out.

Fairygirl · July 2023

Something else must be causing it then. Rain helps ponds by oxygenating them so it's certainly nothing to do with that.
There may be other wildlife using the pond regularly which could be causing disturbance.

If you had some photos, and can give more info, that might help with further advice

srh13 · July 2023

Good morning,
The problem with your pond is now sadly familiar to us.
A few weeks ago, we had a thriving pond with tadpoles etc.
After some rain, the pond turned cloudy and smelt sweet/sour and sickly.
We are almost certain that the pond was contaminated with Aphid Honeydew of which there has been lots of all over the City.
We have Lime trees near the pond and after a dry Spring, the Aphids have thrived and created a sticky mess, even on people's cars parked under trees.
It rained and then washed this off the trees and contaminated the pond.
We were devastated but have since drained the pond and refilled it,washed off the pond plants and returned them and now two weeks on the pond is clear with bloodworms,midge larvae and Frogs swimming in it.
We've put a large clear tarpaulin suspended above it which isn't the look we wanted but hopefully this won't happen again.
Good luck to you,don't be beaten 🙂,
Simon.

KirstyWY · July 2023

I tried taking photos but there's so many reflections, they don't really show anything.

Simon, I think that's what has happened to ours as I was perplexed by it happening after heavy rain. There is a neighbour's sycamore over the pond so I bet that's where it has come from.
I have taken out a couple of piles of sludge, and added some sludge clear. I'd rather not empty the pond completely, but I'll give it a week and then see what it's like. There's still lots of insects in it, and the frogs seem ok, it just wiped out the tadpoles, sadly.

Fairygirl · July 2023

Interesting. We never experienced that in a previous garden where the pond was virtually under two mature trees - a maple and a lime. No shortage of heavy rain either, at any time of year.
We don't get huge amounts of aphids though - and as I've just said on another thread, we had bats around, so with the plentiful birds as well, most insects didn't stand much of a chance of hanging around for long.

Wildlife pond

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