Herons and fish ponds.

Has the local heron visited your pond recently? One of the main perils facing today’s fish pond owner is the constant danger that their pond could be on a herons list of places to dine. This can cause a multitude of problems, the two most prominent are the loss of fish and risk of a liner puncture.

This post covers the various options available to people who need to protect their fish pond from the water gardening public enemy number one. The most common form of fish pond protection is the trusty pond net cover, they can be made to fit most ponds and are a sure fire way to keep the heron at bay, the problem with this option is that it can take away some of the enjoyment associated with pond keeping.

I have mixed feelings about how effective my next choice is but it is a popular choice so it would be unfair not to include it. The heron decoy should be situated by the pond, the idea behind this is that herons are territorial and will be scared away by the decoy to avoid confrontation. I have had many customers say that the decoy heron works for them. I have also had more than one customers say they have seen the heron land on the decoy and use it as a perch for its fishing. Do they really work? The choice is yours.

A recent addition to pond protection is the pond electric fence. Some people might think this method a bit cruel but rest assured that the voltage is very low and designed to scare not harm. The fence is fairly easy to install but an obvious down side is that you need a power supply. I can also recommend a cheaper friendly option. You can make this yourself. Buy some fishing wire and bamboo canes. The canes can be set in the ground around the pond at around knee height. Wrap the fishing wire around the canes at three different heights. I find this method to be fairly successful.

The last choices are quite new on the market and have yet to prove themselves as credible options. I can say that the infrared fountain spray looks to be the most promising of the two but it has the down side of needing to be constantly plugged into a hose pipe. These are the main ways people deter herons and quite often they choose to employ more than one form of defence. If you have an ingenious way to deter herons not listed above please feel free to share it with us in the article comments.

By Neil Murkitt