My Science Project :-)

In the interest of finding out what, exactly, those little wiggly things are
in my pond I scooped out a couple and am leaving them in a container for a
few days to see what develops. I know mosquitos don't take too long to
'grow up' so I'm keeping my eye on them.

Got a bunch of interesting stuff out of my mini-pond, including dragon fly
larvae (yay!), those mystery wiggly things, small beetle like things that
look like grains of pepper cruising around, small flesh-colored things a
little bigger than those grains of pepper (tons of the black ones, like
100's and 100's) and a lesser, but still a good amount, of the fleshy
colored ones. Also a strange blood red worm about 3/4 of an inch long
w/what looked like pincer things at one of it's ends (but they looked almost
soft and useless).

I put everything back except the mystery wiggly things and a few unfortunate
pepper grains that are now part of my project. I think there are three or 4
wiggly things in my project container, and only 1 is behaving like a
mosquito larvae by hanging near the surface.

Anybody know what any of this stuff might be?

Thank you
LeeAnne
It's amazing what a couple scoops of water may yield.

PS - If I put mosquito fish (are those rosier reds or different?) will they
eat the dragon fly larvae? I'd much rather have the DF's.

--
------
If you're an insomniac, agnostic, dyslexic do you lay
awake at night wondering if there is a dog?
-----

Hi LeeAnne,

We could be sisters ;-)
I always have jars of critters in the house trying to figure out what they are.

The best way to view them is to pour some into a Wedgewood White china dish,
use a pen flashlight and a good magnifying glass.

The best book I have found for identifying odds and sods in your pond is a
little book titled POND LIFE by George K. Reid, Ph.D.
It is out of print but can be found for under $10 from Barnes and Noble lists
of used book dealers.

This is a good web page
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/con...s-general.html

I have seed shrimp swimming around in one of my fishless pondlets, they look
like manic sesame seeds on speed.

Let us know what you find out!




k30a

LeeAnne wrote PS - If I put mosquito fish (are those rosier reds or
different?) will they
eat the dragon fly larvae? I'd much rather have the DF's.

The rosies will eat them when the dragonfly nymphs when they are small enough.
Then the dragonfly nymphs will get bigger and in turn eat the rosie red babies.
So it probably all comes out even in the end.


k30a

I'd rather have the DF's than the fishies - do they sell mosquito fish at
regular pet stores or do I need to go to a pond place?

Also, as far as your jars go - how do you keep stuff alive, or do you just
examine and then release?

Oh, and I saw a snail, small w/a blackish shell. I figured he was doing
some cleaning. But I could be wrong - are they bad?

LeeAnne

"K30a" wrote in message
...
LeeAnne wrote PS - If I put mosquito fish (are those rosier reds or
different?) will they
eat the dragon fly larvae? I'd much rather have the DF's.

The rosies will eat them when the dragonfly nymphs when they are small
enough.
Then the dragonfly nymphs will get bigger and in turn eat the rosie red
babies.
So it probably all comes out even in the end.


k30a

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:09:21 -0400, "LeeAnne"
wrote:

Maybe you'll need a larger magnifying glass to find the one you lost? ;-)

I have a magnifying glass - but it doesn't really do any good as far as the
wigglers go.

Anybody know a good website w/pics of pond-wormy things?

L

http://academics.smcvt.edu/dfacey/Aq...uito_larva.htm

I cant find a really good picture...

jammer wrote:

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:09:21 -0400, "LeeAnne"
wrote:

Maybe you'll need a larger magnifying glass to find the one you lost? ;-)

I have a magnifying glass - but it doesn't really do any good as far as the
wigglers go.

Anybody know a good website w/pics of pond-wormy things?

L

http://academics.smcvt.edu/dfacey/Aq...uito_larva.htm

I cant find a really good picture...

Got a bait shop by you? G

I remember getting them before fishing for yellow perch, unsuccessfully.

A really good book for identifying pond critters is "Fresh Water
Invertebrates of the United States" by Robert W. Pennak. May be
overkill for what you're trying to do, but I doubt if you'll find
anything that isn't described here. Very well illustrated, too.

thank you for that link - I wish I knew how big or small that sucker is in
the picture.

Mine still don't hang at the top in the 'science project' container -
they're on the bottom.

Here's a website w/some shots of my yard - the "pond" is on the 2nd page
(scroll to bottom of first page for links)
www.chewedtoast.com

LeeAnne

"jammer" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:09:21 -0400, "LeeAnne"
wrote:

Maybe you'll need a larger magnifying glass to find the one you lost? ;-)

I have a magnifying glass - but it doesn't really do any good as far as
the
wigglers go.

Anybody know a good website w/pics of pond-wormy things?

L


http://academics.smcvt.edu/dfacey/Aq...uito_larva.htm

I cant find a really good picture...

You might check the following link:

http://www.ScienceOxygen.com/idea.html

It might not help you directly. But you might
start from there to collect some information..