Habitat - Outdoor :: Can water bugs harm my RES?

[lydia_lady_fla]

yup they can get out of a lotta things,glad you had a pond next door(does your aunt have the water bugs too?

[melissa4324]

NO, that is what we don't understand. Her pond is right next to ours. Since we are family we took the fence down between us so her sons can swim if we arent' home. She doesn't have any fish or turtles in her pond. We used plants we pulled from some marshy areas and can't get it to clear up. Pokey was in there for about a week before we found him!

[soomc]

Oh how I happy I am that I live in a land locked state!!

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

lol i am in california and we dont have any bug problems.

[systemofadown_s8trchic]

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what the crapppp what cind of bug is that and i would neally go with sraykingfisher"S idea"s heavy dutysmashwithboot and fast acting armflailingscreaming i live in the city ariginaly but i spend my summers in the wild [in the middle of no were] and ive never seen 1 but i want to no ive seen leaches on turts what about that?

[sonyj]

Just a thought: I was letting my husband read this tonight because me and my daughter got such a kick out of all the funny ways to try and rid your pond of the mutant bugs. Not that we didn't feel bad for you, but it was rather funny. Anyway, he suggested citronella oil or a citronella plant (it's in the geranium family). It's a biopesticide that is commonly used to repel many kinds of insects and pests. We've used the oil to keep the neighbors dogs out of our yard and I have a plant in my herb garden out back to help with mosquitos by the patio. It really does work for those two instances. You would have to do some reasearch to make sure it wouldn't hurt the turtles though. The scent is what is supposed to repel the pests. Here is a link from the epa about it,

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopestic ... t-oils.htm

Hope this might help.

[melissa4324]

Luckily my turts appear to be eating them. All I know is the pond thing turned out to be a huge project. The turts were escaping so we had to fence them in. THen the water was getting too hot and we had to put an awning over the top. It looks great now but there was so much work. And those damn bugs gave me nightmares for weeks! I hate bugs and the fact that my turts were surrounded by them gave me the willies! But they are getting big enough and the bug population keeps dropping. And yes the suggestions were great! Kept me alaughing!

[marisa]

Wondered what happened to you. Glad to hear your turtles are enjoying the bugs and not getting harmed by them. Any pics of the awning-covered pond?

[STRAYKINGFISHER]

Yeah, I'd love to see pictures of your pond.

[Daniel's Turtle]

me 2