The Most Destructive Pest?

[laurence]

I vote for the Muskrat after my first experience with one. My pond level was down due to evaporation and a shortage of water . The surface , at this time of year,  was practically smothered with hyacinths and water lettuce and, because of that, it was a while ,apparently, before I noticed this guy chowing down among the vegetation. I won't go into details but I got rid of him as soon as possible. I've discovered that the rat chewed a 6" diameter hole in my liner just above the lowered water-level and then proceeded to borrow for about 15 feet  just under the exposed liner . It also ate a half a dozen of my best lilies, getting at the roots by chewing through the sides of the pots. Ditto for 2 large pots of Floating Heart. This was my first and hopefully last Muskrat experience.

[MikeW]

For me it is the raccoon, hands down - but your experience is worse.

I have raccoon visits about five nights a week now. They can't do too much damage (except for getting the dogs, and hence me, to run outside at 3 am) but they always play in the filter, and dislodge the slate of the waterfall, often causing the pond to start draining itself. I feel guilty adding 500 gallons weekly when we are being begged to save water.

I have now had my waterfall turned off for awhile, and run it only on sunny weekend afternoons when I am physically pondside. Have no place to rig a fido fence, but boy, when I do get even with these critters, it is not going to be pretty.

Grumbling away,

Mike

Adding a photo of the scrubbies that were liberated in a recent attack.

[Indiana Karen]

Yes, I agree, we've had every destructive animal you could think of, and the muskrat did the most damage.  The snapping turtle we had this summer came in a close second, mostly because you could never see it when it was doing its damage, to scare it away like you can a heron, raccoon, etc.  It finally left on its own, after biting off the tails of a lot of our koi and killing one large koi and who knows how many smaller fish. 

Mike, those scrubbies look quite colorful!

Karen

[miguynmkoi]

So far, knock on wood, I only have worries of possible pests.  I read about all the Ponders posts on their pests and I know there are the same pests in my neighborhood, minus the big herons seen here.  We have 2 families of egrets in the creek across the street from our house so I keep an umbrella up all the time. 

We have opossums that drink out of the pond but so far they have kept to themselves.  I keep a rabbit wire fence up when I go away.

Love your lily pads MikeW

[LeeAnne151]

Raccoons have cost me a lot of money tearing up plants. They also require me to have an electric fence. This summer alone they dug up and destroyed my Helvola waterlily and they also killed a Doll House that I hadn't gotten potted up yet. Pulled it out of the waterbowl and tore it up. They have dumped the pots in my sunken barrel liner pond several times now. Right after I cleaned it out and redid it. Another plant that I had just been sent by a friend was ripped out of the pot and consumed. It was a Kava Kava plant, mildly hallucinogenic. Bet they had funny dreams. They tore the blooms and many pads off Chrysantha and Joann Pring too. Got very few blooms and only one from Helvola.

[gmwoodturner]

Have to agree with the muskrat. Just had one decide to take up residence in behind my waterfalls. Destroyed all my water lillies, bullrushes, and up rooted six
marginals. He dragged all the plants through a small opening in the rocks leading to the back of the falls.He did all this over two days before becoming the victim
of a live trap and a quick trip to a swamp a few miles away for his new residents. A few days later I noticed a few dead frogs near the edge of the falls and as I went
to pick the first one up it didn't take long to figure out why they had died. I instantly felt the electric shock as he had chewed through part of the cord running to one of the pumps. As a new ponder I hope thats the worst and last .

[maryvonne]

Those raccoons and muskrat sure are destructive! We live on acreage beside a creek and forest and have both of those around but so far and, I touch wood here, they have left our ponds alone. The worst pests have been aphids and they are relatively easy to get rid of and certainly don't do the as much damage as your critters.

Maryvonne