So now that it's stopped raining for the most part this season, it's time to drain the pond in the backyard again. In case you've forgotten, we have a very large koi pond in our backyard that fills with rain water over the fall, winter and spring, and becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes, midges, and -evidently - a lot of other things in the summer.
This morning liam and I dragged the ol' sump pump out of the garage and began draining out the majority of the water. The pump we have can only get the water level down to about 2 inches deep because of it's design. I decided to try to bucket out the rest of it, but that wasn't going so smooth, so we decided to see how the sun would do this week, as it's supposed to be hot, before we went and rented a shop vac.
Whilst getting out of the pond, I noticed a sort of tampon looking thing, about an inch long floating in the water. I poked at it with a twig thinking it was some kind of worm, but it didn't move. Looking around though, I saw a couple more, and they were very alive. I pulled them out and got them into a jar. I tried to find out what they were for over an hour on the internet and came up with nothing. Behold what science has yet to discover:
notice it's mouth is leech like, but has a super long tail which is not leech like. it's also quite caterpillar like in that it has "legs" along one end. It's also COMPLETELY TRANSPARENT. I also only caught 2 of them for the jar!!! Where did this new tiny one come from? That thing they are eating is a seed thing from the tree above the pond. In the next clip you can see that the bottom ones tail extend from the bottom of the jar all the way to the water surface, probably about 2 inches or so. It's clearer towards the end of the clip.
There's also some blood worms (midge larvae) in the jar, and some other tiny black fast things that are really tiny and I don't remember catching at all. Makes me a little nervous that I was down there scooping up the water with my hands (they were gloved). I caught one to preserve so I could bring it to school on weds. and put it in a tiny little specimen jar with alcohol. It's dead now but it took over 6 hours for it to die in 70% alcohol. If you know what they are, let me know. I will know what they are in a couple of weeks after the keep growing. Then I will let you know.
Krisha came over and we bbq'd and tried out the fire pit thing we got on sale at target today. It worked pretty well, but the firewood we got from WinCo last winter still will not burn. We had an enjoyable Kindling fire though. I smell like a campfire now, which is great, and yolanda things is REALLY great. Also, the people that make the good pumpkin beer, Buffalo Bill's from Hayward, CA, make an Orange Blossom Cream Ale, and it sort of tastes like a beer and a creamsicle, but it's actually pretty good.
I got some pictures of the baby ladybugs. They are progressing slowly. The moth larva still hasn't hatched yet. I feel itchy. I uploaded some more pictures of them to my creepy crawlies album, accessible there on the right under "other pictures." There, you will find some stills of the wormy things suitable for your desktop.
I am very sleepy and I realize now that I forgot to finish some graphs for our plant growth lab paper due on weds. I guess I'll do them in the morning. I also have a lot of dishes to do and the last japanese howework of the quarter, and for me ever, which I don't need to turn in.
UPDATE: I found out this morning. Turns out that they are syrphid fly larvae. Boring!
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent525/water/aquatic/pages/20_jpg.htm
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