A 1 1/2 acre pond is too large to police and will eventually become a haven for wildlife unless it's posted No Trespassing.

It's probably a juvenile turtle and may have been injured by a predator hawk, heron, raccoon, etc.

Yes, fish eggs and other pond creatures do travel on waterfowl.

When I was a kid, we swam in the Little Wabash river and it had leeches, but these were found only in certain locations. We did not see leeches in early spring; those seem to appear later as the water warmed. We never encountered leeches in running water. The leeches in that stream preferred warm, still water. Small side pools that became very warm in the sun were loaded with leeches and we learned to avoid those. When traversing the stream valley, if we should wade through a side pool, it was wise to immediately check out feet and legs to remove any leeches before they attached. Occasionally, we might get an attached leech that we'd remove. No harm ever came from those leeches, but that was way back then. I can't say what conditions are today. That little prairie stream has become quite polluted as compared to years ago. Back then, we ate fish taken from that stream; I don't recommend that today.

As to your pond, I suspect its leech population explodes when the water exceeds a certain temperature. Also, it may not contain other creatures that eat and reduces leeches. I'm with you for being skittish about swimming near snapping turtles. The stream that I swam in had soft-shell river turtles and these never bothered swimmers. These gray turtles avoided humans; It was difficult for a human to get near one. When they saw a human, they'd dive into the water and swim away. A snapper is a different animal.

Snapping turtles eat dead, decaying, smelly prey. It's unlikely a snapping turtle will bite you while swimming unless you smell like death. They can become aggressive, but only when provoked.

Maybe the dead turtle was a blessing in disguise. sending a message........DO NOT SWIM IN THIS POND.

While I agree that it is unlikely that any turtle will bite you unless you step on it or come close snapping turtles do eat live fish and other things.

Not a fan of pond swimming! When we lived in St Louis, a good friend used to invite us out to their large extended family's farm. It has a pond and a dock so one can get to the deep part to dive. I never put my toe in that muddy mess! My children were too young and I was grateful for that. Midwest ponds can have cottonmouth moccasins in them as well as snapping turtles. Thank you, but I prefer a pool or the ocean.

Yeah, we don't swim in our pond. We did once and it was weird as it has springs with really cold water and then warm spots. But we also have copperheads and snapping turtles and eels and the water is murky so you can't really see where or what you're swimming into.

If you have a natural body of water, then you're going to have natural creatures show up. I have heard that leeches only appear in very clean water supplies so that's probably a good sign anyway. But they're nothing I'd want to swim with.

Turtles and fish eat leeches.

Bob, I hope your friend's fingers are okay. Not the best weekend ever, huh.

How often are swimmers attacked by turtles in your area? I live in Florida and mostly swim with snakes, manatees, gators and some snapping turtles - have never heard of a problem with turtles.

Reminds me of snorkeling this year. Once we arrived at the spot (open water) chick said, are there sharks? And I answered, if there are they're likely to be lemon or Caribbean reef sharks which aren't really aggressive. Not really a guarantee, but satisfied, she swam away. Diving dude who ran the tour and I LAUGHED. Did she think there was some kind of barrier to keep sharks out? It's the freaking ocean!

I kayak small streams populated with water snakes, snapping turtles, river otters, gnats and deer flies. The only pests are deer flies and gnats. Some morning I'll take a picture of several water snakes sunbathing on a boulder in the middle of the stream.

Even though it's a pond meant for swimming, there's no way to keep the wildlife out. They are going to find a body of water that large.

A couple of summers ago, the husband of a friend of mine was kayaking in a nearby lake. He saw what he though was a stick floating in the water behind him only to be very startled to find a rattlesnake trying to climb into his kayak a few minutes later. He knocked it off with his paddle and put some distance between himself and the snake. Ever since I heard that story, I keep a sharp lookout while kayaking in the area.

It is indeed a man-made pond, in fact I've read that there are only two non-man-made lakes in the entire state of Virginia. The previous owners built the pond and the party gazebo and dock at one end and the beach, "life-guard" stand and zip line at the other end. It is also stocked with minnows, blue gill, and bass. I have never heard of an instance of snapping turtles attacking someone but I can imagine innocently dangling toes in front of one and it biting off a couple. I'm sure it was not a juvenile turtle since its shell was about 1 foot wide by 18 inches long. It the leeches weren't the cause of its death it may have died from old age, or perhaps a zip liner landed on it.

The pond is spring fed and deep so the depths can remain pretty cool even after a string of 100 deg F days. Mostly though I will just sit on the beach and read or kayak around, or simply wade in to waist deep to cool off and the get back out.

Our friend came over this evening and reported that her ring finger is broken between the second and third joints and the third bone of her pinky finger is broken

I'll try to remember to post some pictures of the pond tomorrow.

Pictures would be awesome!

What a lovely feature to have for your enjoyment and your guests. Life is dangerous that is for sure. Sometimes like this pond--it's probably worth the risk!!!

It could be worse. You could live in Chicago. It could be worse.

Bpath, I agree. While he does have a really cute smile, I don't think I'd be happy to find him swimming in my pond.

I don't know much about leeches, but I do know about snapping turtle. They won't bite you in ponds.

I agree with others....what I have heard about ponds...I wouldn't swim in one. There is some nasty amoebas and bacteria you can pick up in them. We used to have 6 farm ponds and I grew waterlilies in them, so I did get in them, but I didn't put my face in them and stayed in the shallower edges.

I posted, went to edit to correct spelling and lost my post.

I don't kknow much about leeches but I do know about snapping turtles. They won't bite you in ponds. We had 6 farm ponds at our old place. I grew waterlilies around the edges. Had lots of turtles...which I fed. Snapping turtles and sliders. Never had a snapping turtle bite me.

I think there are much bigger dangers swimming in ponds than snapping turtles.

I had an alligator snapping turtle as a pet when I was a child. The little boy down the street stole it, then let it go in a nearby creek when his parents wouldn't let HIM keep it. lol We found leaches in the creek. I was in Estes park photographing pond lilies and could see leaches in the water.....all the way up there....in a mountain lake! I don't embrace everything nature has to offer.

I like the idea of growing lilies in your pond! I think swimming is a bit too much with what you now know....

Caution on the water lilies. If you grow them plant them in a container and sink the container into the water. One of the plant people I talk with on FB is Carlos Magdalena and I have seen pictures from him of lakes taken over by water lilies and you really can not see the water. There are many different sizes of water lilies. His book the Plant Messiah talks about some of his searches.

Nice! I hope you get it all in balance so you can enjoy it as much as you want

What a beautiful place you've created!

Some lovely shots there bob!

Beautiful!

Wow!! Gorgeous property!

It is beyond beautiful...but I'd be sitting on the banks watching not swimming...

What a wonderful place to call home. If it were mine, I'd never want to leave!

Beautiful!

It is an interesting point that the less protection the shell provides the turtle the more aggressive the turtle tends to be as in Alligator snapper with its very small plastron(underside of shell) is the most. Regular snappers have a larger plastron but still are vulnerable. Soft shell turtles can be very aggressive and have very long necks so can get you when you try to pick them up in the middle. The most totally placid is the box turtle-it can hide its whole body in its shell.

leeches creep me out

I would put fish in it.

Sue

Sorry to hear about your friends mishap - and the leeches. I'm sure you've already researched how to get rid of leeches but I happened upon this when I googled "what fish eat leeches' - my favorite part was the leech trap baited with raw chicken.......

https://blog.thepondguy.com/2015/03/27/leech-control-4-steps-to-remove-leeches-from-your-pond-learning-center/

It already has fish in it.

One friend reported catching 17 fish in 30 minutes. Or perhaps the same fish 17 times in 30 minutes.

Are they catch and release or do they sometimes become dinner?

Any pond that doesn't have fishing pressure will usually produce many strikes and catches in a short period of time. A pond that is fished often, strikes and catches will diminish over time to 0 on some days and a few on good days.

Since there's at least that one bass, it's easy to estimate there are thousands born each season. Most of which become bait fish for the yearlings and older bass. On a sunny day, the larger bass will be under the dock, in the shadow of the trees, or deep.

I would be happy to swim in your beautiful pond. Probably wouldn’t drink the water, but swimming would be fine.

bob_cville

Of
course fish can feel pain. To think otherwise is to try to avoid
feeling guilt for injuring and killing them. I have no interest in
personally killing fish, so fishing for the purpose of keeping and
eating the fish holds zero interest for me. And the idea of catching
fish with a plan of then simply letting them go makes even less sense to
me. It seems an attempt to prove your superiority over smaller, less
evolved creatures. Since the goal is to end up with no fish, and since
you start with no fish, why not simply declare "mission accomplished"
at the beginning and save all that time.

Why do you permit such a thing to happen on your privately owned dock?

Michael I was getting ready to take you to task for telling me how to deal with the fish that happen to live in the pond that I own. But then I noticed that some of the phrasing in the quoted section seemed familiar, especially "It seems an attempt to prove your superiority over smaller, less evolved creatures"

I then found that you had merely quoted my own words from a previous gardenweb post, back at me. LOL.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5183511/i-deleted-my-post-with-the-5-lb-bass/

Occasionally we have guests who pay to camp on our property (through the website HipCamp.com ) some of them are interested in fishing, and so I allow it. As far as I know they all do it merely for fun, and release the fish back into the pond. The above picture with the fish was actually posted by hipcamp guests, who were fishing with their two young daughters. I trimmed the daughters out of the picture before re-posting it here.

Although fishing (especially catch and release fishing) is IMO a waste of time, and is painful for the fish, IF that pain causes them to be more wary in the future, and thereby avoid the heron that sometimes visits, then perhaps they are doing the fish a service.

In even more seriously distressing news about the pond: The super cute inflatable unicorn pool float was blown out of the pond and down to the bottom of the dam by a recent storm. And now it has a hole in it somewhere and won't hold air :-(

:( indeed.

Oh no.......not the super cute unicorn!

I hate it when that happens to the super cute unicorn floatie thingy!

Mayhaps you want a giant flamingo or peacock to replace it?

A word about removing or not removing fish from a pond. A healthy pond has a mix of sizes so that the larger ones eat the smaller ones. In this area we have a problem with ponds that for whatever reason have fish of similar size. It may take 5-10 years but the fish become smaller and stunted there are also more than the pond can support. I would like to suggest that you contact your state DNR or Conservation Department for suggestions on how to manage your pond for the benefit of the fish and other things that depend on a healthy environment.

A suggestion that many are not aware of is that there are barbless hooks.

I believe this is an image of the exact model of Unicorn float.

If so it seems that you can purchase one at Home Depot for $ 35.28

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intex-Mega-Unicorn-Island-Pool-Float-57281EP/305477817

or you can purchase Two of them for $ 109.98

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intex-Mega-Unicorn-Island-Pool-Float-2-Pack-57281EP-02/305477818

That doesn't seem like much of a bargain.

Two super cute unicorns means twice as much fun!

Personally I'd go for a rubber ducky --- or 3.

How about some paddle boat swans?

Beautiful pond and landscaping. Sorry to hear about your friends fractures. Ouch.

There have been a few articles in the last couple of weeks about (just one type) dangerous amoebas that can be found in warm ponds or fresh water. That species of amoeba is common and generally poses no problems for humans, unless it enters human nasal passages by splashed or inhaled water. Then, it is almost always deadly. The complex issue of how and why this simple organism can destroy a human in just a few days. It’s a biologically fascinating but gruesome series of steps. And a cautionary news point.

Be very careful to not inhale or splash or accidentally get warm pond water into your nose. Your pond may be below the temperature for this organism.

Here’s a link to an article that explains the biological mechanism.

1. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/brain-eating-amoeba-kills-again-heres-how-it-kills-and-how-to-avoid-it/?comments=1&post=37713315

2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri