No tadpoles in my pond!

[Lucy Robyn]

In the spring I had lots of frog spawn but it didn't develop into tadpoles. It just sunk and disapeared. There was no frost, I don't have fish but do have lots of newts. This has happened the last two years. All other wildlife is fine. My brother, also in Bristol, had his develope into tadpoles but they all vanished (he has fish).

Any ideas whats wrong?

[The Chili Monster]

Hmm, don't know what's happened to your tadpoles, but in this neck of the woods we've alway regarded both newts and goldfish as potential tadpole predators.

[Millymollymandy]

I never had any frog spawn. We kept looking but never found any. However all of a sudden there are tadpoles galore, about ten times more than last year! Don't know where the frogspawn was hiding!

[eeksypeeksy]

Do you have dragonflies in your part of the country? Dragonfly nymphs feast on tadpoles. Have you seen any little buggy swimmers in the water?

[Lucy Robyn]

Yes I do have a few dragon flies. Maybe it's them and the newts together feeding on the tadpoles.

[Batfink]

I've seen a few Dragonfly nymphs demolish vast quantities of frog spawn - why do you think dragonflys are so big???

We've also lost a fair amount of frog spawn from the farm pond this year - we suspect dragonflies are the cause - although we've not really got any idea as we've not been checking it as regularly as we should!