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Small red worms in my pond filter

25 10:00:41

Question
I keep getting very small (1/4") tiny red worms in my filter of my pond. It's a self contained pond about 200 gallons.  Do you know what might be causing this?

Thank you.

Billie


Answer
I've gotten this question a lot lately!  They are bloodworms which are the larvae of a midge.  Bloodworms are no threat to people or any pond animals.  They like to live in low oxygen dark areas in the filter.  They are read due to hemoglobin which lets them live in low oxygen areas.  One day, when you open the filter, the midges (like little gnats, in fact, they are gnats!) will fly out.  Fish will eat any bloodworms you put in the pond.  Because fish love to eat them, you won't usually find them in the parts of the pond to which the fish have access.

Robyn
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