Beware of yellow globules masquerading as snail eggs.....

Last year I had yellow fat-like globules in the pond which I thought were snail eggs (the aquatic centre told me they were), and eagerly awaited hatching. But they didn't and just got bigger, multiplied like mad, and no one was able to identify them on the website either. Finally I found a scientist up north who studies algae who asked me to send him a sample, which I did. It was a type of blue-green algae similar to the poisonous type that can make dogs ill, but not the poisonous type. He also made some suggestions about getting the plant ratios right. What I had to do was get rid of them (there was quite a lot by that time), and as it is was all over pond and in the pondweed, it was quite a job. By the way, that year there was no blanketweed!

Thankfully this year there has been no return of the dreaded yellow globules, not a huge amount of blanket weed (preferable to globules as the critters like it) and right on cue, the water has cleared in early July as predicted.

Size wise, the globules started out as little round balls that would elongate and double back on itself around an air bubble. It would be quite rigid and fat getting up to the size of a 2p (but round). When it dried though it would disappear into nothing.

If you manage to take a picture of them, I can tell you if they bear any resemblence to my nightmare 'The Attack of the Yellow Globules'.