Any moving water- fountain or fall? NO Any filter? NO Edges, Rocks or logs around? ROCKS WITH SPACES UNDERNEATH AROUND THE POND, LARGE WOODPILE COVERED IN IVY ABOUT 3 FEET AWAY FROM THE POND Type of weed, STARWORT, AND THAT REALLY COMMON BORING OXYGENATOR WHOSE NAME ESCAPES ME RIGHT NOW... How much sun, ONLY ABOUT 6 HOURS IN WINTER, SUMMER GETS SUN MORNING AND EVENING (NOT FOR ABOUT 3 HOURS MID-DAY) Density of weed- how much clear water? 2/3 When do you normally first spot newts and babies each year? THIS YEAR LAST SAW NEWTS IN NOVEMBER, AND NEWTS APPEARED WITH FROGS LATE JANUARY How tidy is your garden? NOT VERY! BELIEVE IN SEMI-ORGANISED CHAOS Do you also have frogs or toads? YEP!! Do you also have ornamental fish? NOPE Do you also have native fish ie sticklebacks? YEP Do you feed fish in this pond? NO How long have you had newts? or how soon after building pond did they appear? I THOUGHT I SAW THEM AFTER ONE YEAR (SPRING) BUT CONVINCED MYSELF IT WAS A FAST STICKELBACK AND MY WISHFUL THINKING. SAW THEM FOR SURE THE FOLLOWING YEAR (ABOUT 6 INDIVIDUALS), SO I THINK IT WAS A FLASH OF NEWT I SAW THE FIRST YEAR AFTER ALL. Mine are common newts (although a mile away there are great crested newts, so I keep hoping). Garden is triangular with two sides busy road, so I am amazed they found the pond. Other corner backs onto gardens which back onto woods/lake. Never seen babies, but that does not mean they are not there, as each year there are consistently adult newts about. I think though that the main predator would be the big dragonflynymphs. Deepest part of pond is 3 feet, so glory knows what happens there. Noticed that the newts congregate near the rocky houses, and some extra holes between the rocks have appeared near the water surface.... What is your situation?

After reading your posting Kate, I looked up information about the great diving beetle so I could be sure to recognize one when I see it. I noticed a picture of a rather spiky beast at the same time. Anyway, later I was staring into the pond, and noticed some vegatation moving about and realized I had just seen a picture of it--Caddis fly larvae! Never seen one before and was amazed by the complexity of its very intricate glued together tube of tiny twigs. Fortunately not as voracious as your beetles, (who by the way may stretch my 'let nature get on with it' philosophy). Anyway, good luck with the beetle problem.

My pond is teeming with newts (and toad tadpoles)! There were at least one dozen fully grown palmates and smoothies a couple of weeks ago, and recently a whole lot of little ones have moved in. I also find tiny little ones under logs and stones in the garden (they live on land until big enough to mate). Not shy, either - they come right up onto the shallow end. I have no idea what the secret is - my previous tiny pond also acquired newts straight away. All I ever put in my ponds was water, plants, pebbles and gravel. - No fish, though.

'My' newtlets are between 2 and 6mm long now, translucent, and almost invisible. They hide in the silk weed, or lie motionless. If you look closely at a shallow sunny patch in the pond, you can spot them after a while - but it does take very careful looking, preferably lying or kneeling very close to the water!