Garden pond

nlrkjos

I have a Koi pond in my garden, roughly 3m by 2m and .6 deep. Its a nice feature with plants and mulch. My problem is it is covered by midges for the last few months. It takes the joy from it, literally swarms of the feckers. Has anybody had this problem and solved it? I've tried jeys fluid on the mulch, lemon plants even fly killer ! Nothing is working for me...any help from gardeners would be appreciated.:(

recedite

Winter midges don't usually bother people. They only appear under certain weather conditions anyway.

macraignil

nlrkjos wrote: »

I have a Koi pond in my garden, roughly 3m by 2m and .6 deep. Its a nice feature with plants and mulch. My problem is it is covered by midges for the last few months. It takes the joy from it, literally swarms of the feckers. Has anybody had this problem and solved it? I've tried jeys fluid on the mulch, lemon plants even fly killer ! Nothing is working for me...any help from gardeners would be appreciated.:(

There was another post here on boards a while back about midges being a problem and someone claimed that bats are particularly good at eating midges with apparently one bat eating a huge quantity each night. The details for promoting bats in your area can be found on this linked page.

I have added a pond to my own garden almost a year ago and not noticed that many midges. I'd imagine they would also be eaten by some larger predator insects like hover-flies which can be attracted to the garden by growing more flowers and I have made a point in my own garden of trying to have something flowering for each month of the year. I put the flowers blooming in each month of the year in different playlists on this linked page if you are looking for flowers for any particular month. My own garden is on a north facing slope so somewhere more sheltered or south facing could get blooms earlier. I think jeys fluid and insecticide spray would be more likely to harm the predator insects and so be counterproductive in controlling midges.

Anther factor is the midge larvae in the water that would be predated on by water beetles, water skaters and other bugs that I was able to stock in my pond by taking a bucket of pond water from a natural pond near to my own garden and adding it to the new pond. I read before that in making a new pond this is important to help get an ecological balance established.

nlrkjos

Have done all except for the bats! the pond is well established as it's over 10 years in place. I might try a few frogs in it but would be afraid with two terriers prowling the garden. I got two dozen minnow to see if they would eat the midge larva but the koi made short work of them!!!I know the midges do no human harm, it's just they are a nuisance.

Discodog

The gas midge trap/killers are supposed to be excellent but they are expensive

America was first on the market, with machines designed mainly with mosquitoes in mind. In trials at Powerscourt Waterfall children's playground in the summer of 2003, a single Midge Magnet Professional machine from American Biophysics (costing round €2,000 and protecting about one acre) was estimated to have trapped an average of 88,000 midges a day for 80 days.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-hunt-for-weapons-of-midge-destruction-1.460439

recedite

Discodog wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-hunt-for-weapons-of-midge-destruction-1.460439

With running costs for bottled gas and attractant refills, such gadgets are beyond my pocket. I also gaze up to the miles of mountain bogs above my acre, from which strong, pipe-puffing men have fled in my memory, and wonder if, in the end, it wouldn't be like putting our dehumidifier out of doors to dry the sky.

Nice idea, but he makes a good point at the end


The only winter midges I see would be hanging out together in a tight cluster, hovering in some rays of winter sunshine on a still and calm day, not bothering anyone.
Summer midges I don't like. But I reckon the presence of a garden pond is not going to make any difference to whether you get them or not. Close to trees or wooded land is the worst place for them.

Lumen

88,000 midges a night is only about 20 bats worth, whereas a bat box can house many times that. Which reminds me, this year I'm going to finally sort the bat box.

Supposed to take a few years for them to discover and move in though.

magicbastarder

there's, uh, a special signal you can send...

listermint

Must be my singing voice. Because I noticed one sitting on my window sill as I was having a pee. He was sat on the sill staring at me. That scared he crap out of me. Took a good ten minutes to catch the wee lad and place him up outside. To this day no idea how he got in there.

Day Lewin

nlrkjos wrote: »

Have done all except for the bats! the pond is well established as it's over 10 years in place. I might try a few frogs in it but would be afraid with two terriers prowling the garden. I got two dozen minnow to see if they would eat the midge larva but the koi made short work of them!!!I know the midges do no human harm, it's just they are a nuisance.

Ah, don't try to have fish and frogs in the same pond: while frogs may well spend time around a fish-pond, the fish will eat frogspawn and tadpoles.

I am surprised that your fish don't eat up all the midge larvae, too.

recedite

Day Lewin wrote: »

I am surprised that your fish don't eat up all the midge larvae, too.

I'd say they do.

nlrkjos

recedite wrote: »

I'd say they do.

Yes they probably do, when I am home I don't feed them for the three weeks..starve the feckers and they eat the midge, but when I am away at work the wife feels sorry for them and throws them food, ruining my efforts, one suggestion I have gotten is buy a langerload of lemons get all the juice in a water can and drown the mulch after a few dry days. Seemingly midges don't like citrus.

New Home

Fish are unlikely to like that, too, though.

recedite

nlrkjos wrote: »

one suggestion I have gotten is buy a langerload of lemons get all the juice in a water can and drown the mulch after a few dry days. Seemingly midges don't like citrus.

Where is this mulch? Around the edges of the pond?

nlrkjos

recedite wrote: »

Where is this mulch? Around the edges of the pond?

Yeah and there's a barrier to the water..if this citrus fails I'm just going to dig out the pond surround and put stone of gravel there. Pity because the mulch makes it look better.