Water Lily Pest - new shoots cut

by Michele
(Sammamish, WA, USA)

Something is cutting the new growth off our water lily. We live in the Pacific Northwest where the growing season is short. Every few days, all the new growth on our water lily is floating on the top of the pond. Any idea of what kid of critter could be causing this and how we prevent it? The pond in 18-24" deep.

Doug says this sounds like a muskrat. Or raccoon doing some digging/pulling. Preventing it ? Trapping or barriers to stop them from entering the pond. Tough to do in the city and even tougher in a larger natural pond. Muskrats cleaned out my entire natural pond before I could trap them all so I have a lot of sympathy here.

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Water Lily Pest - new shoots cut

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Have any ducks nearby?
by: Anonymous

Hi there,
we have a pond too, with water lillies.
We also have young female ducks. They have kindly cleaned out our pond of most of its plant life.
We banned them from the pond and now our water lillies are coming back and blooming nicely.
They now hang out with the hens and walk around eating the snails (that is a great thing).
Everything is working out well now.
But I was thinking that it could be that wild ducks are also visiting your pond and enjoying all the vegetation that you are providing.
I hang strands of lights over our pond to keep the wild ducks from stopping by. It mostly works to keep the wild ducks out and it is also beautiful at night when they are lit.
Good luck,

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Doug Green