That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that in the paper the other day. I only get in my pond when I've drained it down to my knees or thighs, but it is still making me consider investing in a pair of wading boots. Definitely no swimming for me. According to reports, once you're infected, that's it. There's no cure. It's fatal.

yeah.....pretty amazing isn't it?? You get it and you die. That is scary. I had to go diving in my pond about a month ago and REALLY hated doing it....but filter modifications meant I had to block one of my bottom drains from the pond side. I worried about getting an eye infection or something....that was before I read about this brain-eating amoeba. If I had read that article first, I would not have done it. It really frightens me to see how many people let their children swim in their water gardens though, and how many people are actually building huge water garden swimming pools that are not clorinated. The're just relying on plants to purify the water for them.

If you notice, 23 people have died in the US over 9 years and I guess 6 got it this year.

I suspect most of our garden ponds with decent filtration will not have this problem. My pond seldom gets warm enough to hit the temps the ameobas like. Perhaps ponders in warmer climes have to worry but it is still a very rare disease.

What an awful way to go to have your brain eaten by a single celled critter.

Would this also be a problem just reaching into our ponds without gloves? Or our dogs drinking out of them?

The article I read say's "the water containing the amoebas have to be forced up the nose." Like when diving or summersaulting in the water or perhaps falling in over your head. Where the amoeba attaches and starts to eat, eating it's way into the brain. It said this can be avoided by using a nose clamp or guard when swimming, but I wouldn't take any chances. I don't care if they didn't have but 1 or 2 cases in 20 years I wouldn't take that chance. Glenda

It is very annoying to write a message and have it disappear when you look for a link. Does any one else have this problem?
Catherine, it is a gamble with ever changing odds. You have to use common sense and do your ponding defensively. Do not allow pond water to touch an open wound such as the scratches gardeners often have. Keep your mouth closed so a splash of water is not ingested. Protect your eyes. It is still a gamble. Aquarium workers and professional fishermen often have nasty infections from contact with non chlorinated water.
I try to remember to wear vinyl gloves but often forget except when taking out a mechanical filter. I wear glasses but I still feel an occasional splash get by. Any redness on the skin after working in the pond needs to be attended to. I know I have had several staph infections since I started gardening. ALWAYS wash your hands and arms after contact with pond water. Sandy

Here is a link that might be useful: Pond critters

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "Why you should never swim ANYWHERE in fresh warm water"?

Naegleria fowleri certainly has a bad reputation, but it (to my knowledge) has never been traced to backyard fish ponds or water gardens. That isn't to say that it couldn't be in there, but the fact is in every case history ( that I know of) it has been traced to natural bodies of fresh (warm) water. So to start threads like this are really misleading, since THE FACTS show Naegleria fowleri is more likely to be found in natural bodies of fresh warm water than backyard ponds.

Misleading?? I don't think so....I never said you could ONLY catch this in water garden ponds. But since this IS a water gardening board, I didn't think it was necessary to discuss what could happen to you in a warm lake or river. That sort of discussion might be more appropriate on a lake forum.

The fact that it CAN occur (along with a lot of other things) is enough to make me not allow people to swim in my pond, especially children.

They claim that this amoeba is in every body of fresh water here in Florida but that it is only a problem during the summer months when the water gets very warm. Warm water in Florida generally means 88+ degrees.

I think people need to keep a sense of perspective about the danger of it. 6 people (nationwide) have died from it this year. If you think of all the people in the southern states that have gone swimming in fresh water this year, probably more of them died in traffic accidents, so I wouldn't let the media get you too spun up.

Yes, by using "Why you should NEVER swim in garden ponds" as a title makes it sound like a near certainty that you are going to get this amoeba in your brain and it will kill you if you swim in your pond, and it creates an unwarranted hysteria among new or naive ponders and possibly even turn people right off ponding for good. After all, who in there right mind would create and maintain a habitat that would harbor such a deadly amoeba, regardless of whether you swim in there or not.
If you don't want to go swimming in your pond that's fine, but statistically you would be about a million times more likely to die by drowning in your pond than by this brain eating amoeba.

The facts below are taken directly from one of the links you provided.

Naegleria fowleri is found worldwide. Most commonly, the ameba is found in:

*Warm bodies of freshwater, such as lakes, riversGeothermal
*water such as hot springs
*Warm water discharge from industrial plants
*Poorly maintained and minimally chlorinated swimming pools
*Soil

Chicken Little: "The sky is FALLING! We're all GONNA DIE!!!!!" Read the article. And now, the sky is falling b/c a few kids have died after infected water being forced up their noses in high temp. lakes, so you shouldn't swim in your pond. I'd be more scared of gettting an E. Coli infection from a public pool. Remeber the "FLESH EATING VIRUS" of a few years ago? Must be a slow news day. . . . .

If ya'll want to go swimming in your ponds, go ahead!! I really don't care! I just thought I'd post some information that some people may find as interesting as I did. If you don't want to read it, you really don't have to.

No good deed goes unpunished, right? As you said - you shared the information and for what it's worth, either people are interested or not. I learned something and I appreciate it. My stepson lives in Phoenix so I'll definitely share this with him if he hasn't heard about it yet since the one death occurred in Lake Havasu not far from where he lives.

It's not that the information isn't good or appreciated (for my part anyway), but as babalu aye said, people need to keep it in perspective and the title of the thread throws it out of perspective. As I mentioned before, if threads like this go unchecked they tend to create hysteria among the naive.
While 6 people may have died from this amoeba in one year (none in a backyard pond), on average 800 children die annually in USA from drowning, and 10% of those die in bathtubs, which may very well make bathtubs statistically much more dangerous places than your backyard pond.
So Nancy when you call and warn your stepson make sure you ask if he has a bathtub.

Childhood Drowning Facts
My good deed for the day. :)

hysteria? Oh come on....isn't that a little dramatic? I do not see anyone running for the bulldozers to fill their ponds in or chlorinating their ponds because of the title of this thread. And if someone WAS dumb enough to do that JUST because of a thread they read on GW, they probably don't need a pond to begin with!!

MUCKY!!!!!! So nice to have you back! I missed you!

I myself only use the waders when the water is cold. I could get frostbite... When it's warm, I like going in. The feeling of having your goldfishies nibble at your toes is priceless.
Then I spray off with the garden hose. Common sense.

:) Mary

I checked, no bathtubs! He's probably more at risk from his treks through the Grand Canyon. ;o) If you read the local AZ papers, they would make you freak out a little from what he said. Some want to close the lake to swimming. Ponds aren't an issue. Seems to be concentrated in large bodies of fresh water that maintain a very intense heat which the southwest has had in abundance this year. Personally, I wouldn't swim in my pond anyway. Too funky.

Your more likely to get some sort of worm parasite then some brain eating ameoba when swimming in a pond. All the same though I choose not to spend my life fearing the what ifs. I have been swimming in the local field ponds my whole life and yet here I am. Healthy, strong, and gettin old. If your gonna deny yourself what may be a nice experience for fear of those 1 in a million odds then you might just want to get inside and hide there forever. Otherwise just try not to go sniffin up the mud at the shallow end of the lake.It's a perfectly good subject to post out and all. Use caution in all things but by all means go swimming like man has been doing since before he was man.

Oh, good grief! No good turn ever goes unpunished. I appreciate the info, ccoombs. :) Sandy

I don't get it, who is being punished, and how are they being punished? Now that is being dramatic.
Just because a few people happen to disagree with the conclusion that ccoombs reached that "nobody should ever swim in their pond" simply because of a few extremely rare deaths from an extremely rare amoeba found in some warm lakes, it doesn't mean anybody is trying to punish anybody. And nobody is saying there is anything wrong with the information or that it is not appreciated. If ccoombs had just titled the thread differently there probably wouldn't have been any objections at all, and just because there are a few objections doesn't mean you have to take it personally. It's a discussion group, the more viewpoints you get, the more interesting it is.

Hi Mary :) You are too sweet! I'm still around and read this forum fairly regularly, I just don't post very often (only when I want to punish somebody) LOL

so should I just send you all my thread titles before posting them to make sure they meet your approval?? Man, you people are tough!! All I did was try to offer up some information and because I didn't put the right words in the title, I am causing hysteria. Well, excuse me!!

"so should I just send you all my thread titles before posting them to make sure they meet your approval??"

Well, if you want you could submit your thread titles to me for approval, but I gota warn you, I have had far worse reactions to some of my threads then you are getting here, so there is no guarantee the threads I approve for you won't get any sort negative responses. It's just the nature of public forums. Throw some words out there for everyone to read and sometimes you are going to get a response that maybe you didn't expect.
I suggest you just keep posting and try to roll with the punches, and not worry too much if people don't always agree with you. (or your thread titles)

Can you tell I have some extra time on my hands? lol

You maybe should have said "One of the reasons" you should never swim in your pond. Here is another one. I also maintain a clear clean pond, but My German Shepherd loves water. He used to like to lay in the water that I drained from my pond when I did water changes and washed the filters from my skimmer. Twice he got a very angry looking raw spot on his tail. I had to take him to the vet for medication and it took a while to get him over it. I stopped him from getting in the water when I drained my pond or washed the filters from my skimmer. and he hasn't had any problem since. I know this was something from the pond, could have been some kind of amoeba or parasite or a leech that feasted on his tail. It must have itched pretty bad the way he gnawed on it. Glenda

I appreciate the posting ccoombs. On another pond site I read, there was a posting about never putting hands in pond water without washing thoroughly afterwards--the poster wrote, just look at a drop in a microscope and you will never touch pond water again--one drop is filled with little critters of all sorts. Fish, having their slime coats, are protected.

There's nothing wrong with being careful.

I am not saying a word, not one word , no sirreee, not on your life. Not one word, not one. Sandy

All kinds of nasty things out there to be aware of:

Here is a link that might be useful: Raccoon Roundworm

OMG she can't state what she read, and try to inform people about this? Geez, if you don't have anything nice to say then DONT say anything! If you can get it from a poorly maintained SWIMMING pool, then in my eyes you can get it from a backyard pond in which you NEVER put chlorine.. Supposedly some of you say "only" in "natural" warm bodies of water...well, the way I see it is that if your pond is around long enough you can pretty much call it a "natural" environment for the things that have been living in it for years. With everything we put in our ponds..fish that may have parasitic problems..plants from nurseries where god only knows what was in their water..plants you yourself go into a streambed or wherever and transplant to your pond yourself..birds and other critters dropping by after being in a "natural" pond or lake, ALL of these could very easily bring these amoeba ( and god knows what else) into your lil safe backyard pond. Also, backyard ponds tend to warm up faster than "natural" lakes and ponds because they are smaller, so maybe they can breed there faster...So IMO there is def a chance of these amoeba being in our lil pond sanctuaries in our backyards...unless your ponds are in safety bubbles, anything can be in there.
That's just my 2 cents..Oh I could go on , but someone needs to feed these children who call me mom, and for some reason the lil critters claim it's my responsibility, so I'm off..
Daniella :)

Daniella:

A properly biofiltered, aereated, planted pond with good circulation is a lot healthier than a poorly maintained pool.