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Ducks in ponds
Guernsey Donkey2
Posts: 6,713
in Plants
Are Mallard ducks a nuisance in your pond - do they eat your precious pond plants? We have a new pond with a visiting pair of Mallard ducks. She seems to spend all her time "hoovering" up insects or plants we are not sure which. Do they eat plants or is it just algae that she is feasting on?
We have just added some new oxygenators, lilies and marginal plants and don't want them to be gobbled up by the ducks, so should we deter them? Do ducks eat frog spawn - we don't have any, but we are interested to know all the same.
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I try to shoo the Mallards off when they visit, but they are very persistent and soon return (especially earlier in the spring before/while they are nesting). Mallards are obviously a natural part of pond ecology but they do cause a lot of disturbance and foul/stir up the water so they are best discouraged. They will eat frogspawn, tadpoles (especially the newly hatched ones when they're very vulnerable), newts, snails etc. Don't think they eat a great deal of plant material but they might damage/trample plants.
Thanks for the info Onopordum, we weren't sure what havoc they would cause. We were chasing them away from the pond area, but they would just keep flying off for an hour or two and then re-appear again so we have almost given up keeping them away now. We have a small pond with newts, frogs and snails which we have criss-crossed with strings so the ducks cannot get into the water, but with this bigger pond it just isn't possible to add strings.
I shoo our mallards away too. Why the can't stay on the lake is beyond me.
Not only do they hoover up frogspawn and other pond life, they're very fond of snuggling down on nice , emerging clumps of herbaceous plants to have a post feast snooze.