In a continued effort to keep our ponds clean while minimizing the chemical inputs, we added some grass carp, also called white amurs, to our ponds. We have some grass carp in a few of the ponds on the course and we noticed that the ponds with the carp and tilapia were the cleanest this summer. With this in mind, we restocked all the ponds with carp so that next year we can have even better success with our pond management. Grass carp can live 12-16 years and feed on many different aquatic weeds. The reason why they work well with the tilapia we have in the ponds is because they clear out the weeds that the tilapia struggle to swim through, making it easier for the tilapia to get the the algae they love. This is our first year of using fish for aquatic weed control so we are really just getting a hang of it. We learned a lot this year and while we struggled a bit early keeping the ponds clean, we have a good idea of what we want to do new year and think the ponds will continue to improve and save us a bit of money at the same time.
White Amur for aquatic weed control.
Grass carp hanging out in the sun.
The other thing you may have noticed are some areas in the rough that are a torn up. This is from our nocturnal friends, skunks and raccoons, digging for grubs to eat. Any of the areas that we treat with insecticides are not torn up because there aren't any grubs to eat. We will generally let these areas go unless they are close enough to the course to affect play. To solve this problem we simply kill the grubs and the skunks and raccoons have no reason to tear the grass up and any areas that are torn up will be raked level and fill back in quickly.
Who's that digging in my yard?
Torn up spot by pond.
Ian
