But not all beetles are fast movers: some can’t fly at all, or only when its unusually warm – so can’t easily move from one pond to another. These species are often some of the most endangered because if the place they are living becomes in some way unsuitable they can’t move to a new home. You can see how I've wired the device in the picture I've provided. If for some reason yours doesn't work with the same wiring, which would be amazing, just change the wires around. Your most likely problem will be with the rheostat. Notice I only use two of the three leads from that device. Flies and worms also get a bit of a bad reputation because as well as always being present in the nice ponds they can live in some pretty horrible looking places too. They are nature’s hoovers for rotting organic matter. But this is such a diverse group of animals that you can find just about every possible different way of living amongst them: from docile grazers to fierce predators. Don't be worried about lining up the holes. As long as you have the motor in the center you can mess the rest up. Also, on the top of the cream cheese lid (where the label is) you might see a circle imprinted. That circle happens to be the right size for the motor.

Wiggly Jiggly - Space from Deluxebase. Large super squishy

Water slaters have to get around from pond to pond by being moved on plants, or by birds, or floods. But get around they do, although they will probably take quite a few years to arrive naturally in a new garden pond. There’s nothing to really worry about if you don’t have them, and no special need to introduce them. Nice idea, and nice use of the recycle container. As other have noted, you do need to work on a more power efficient system than using a rheostat, though. Your system looks like it'll draw around 100ma, which mans a set of batteries will only last 25 hours. There are only two likely to seen in Britain, and by looking closely at them you can actually tell them apart quite easily: the common water slater ( Asellus aquaticus) has two white spots on its head, whereas the more uncommon, slightly classier, one-spotted water slater ( Asellus meridianus) has only one spot on its head. It’s the common water slater that usually is found in garden ponds: we’ve never seen the one-spotted water slater in a garden pond, though given how little we know about garden ponds it wouldn’t be surprising to see it turn up. Once you've done this step have fun turning it on and off for a while. I know I did! Play with the rheostat to see how fast and how slow you can get the motor going. You'll notice that by turning the resistance all the way up you can actually stop the motor. In a good wildlife pond there should be lots of different kinds of water beetles. Between a third and a half of all the species of animals you can see will be water beetles. In running waters there will be fewer species, but they should always be present.The last piece is the wiggler. It's just a piece of the wire hanger that I attached to the motor with generous amounts of glue from the glue gun. I found this to be the hardest part of the project as I'd never really attached anything to a DC motor before.

Wiggly Jiggly - Pond Life from Deluxebase. Large super

One last thing, and this is critical: The water wiggler is supposed to stand on the three legs in a body of water. I don't show that position very often, but that's how it works. Don't try to float it in the bird bath upside down. It might scare or injure the birds you want bathing in your bath. Water slaters suffer from a common prejudice that they indicate pollution – they don’t. They are a perfectly normal part of the animal community of any fairly alkaline pond or stream. They don’t care for acid water though, so you don’t find them in more mountainous uplands, nor usually in the acid heathland ponds of southern England. Next you'll want to put together the feet for this device. Ideally you'll make this into a tripod. You probably could make a set of four feet for it, but that might make the device more cumbersome.

What I did was to take apart two wire hangers and bend them into the shape I needed. Fortunately they already come premade in a fashion close to what I desired. I've lined up the pieces I took from the first hanger next to the second hanger so you can see where I got everything from. The feet are about four inches high.

Top Race Water Snake Water Wigglies with Colorful Beads Set of 4

Water bugs of one kind or another should always be present in a good quality wildlife pond. They’re not particularly sensitive to pollution: some can live in the most apparently inhospitable ponds including those with lots of bare polluted sediments and with no water plants.To attache the feet I put holes in the base about an inch apart. Then I bent the top of each of the feet pieces and pushed them through the holes. Make sure you bend the top of the feet at an angle towards the inside of the base. That way you can still close the bottom of the cream cheese container over it. A few years ago, someone made a device that was to kill mosquito larvae and eggs in bird baths using a form of solar power. It was a wire mesh made of two different kinds of metal. When warm, the mesh was flat, and stayed under the water. When cooled at night, the different thermal expansion characteristics of the two metals caused the mesh to warp into an arch, slowly lifting itself above the water level in the middle of the shallow water. This would lift any mosquito egg rafts and some larvae above the water level, drying them at night. The base of the water wiggler is the lid to the cream cheese container. It might be a good at this point in the process to make sure you've bought plenty of bagels. You'll need them so you have somewhere to put all that cream cheese. Maybe invite a friend over to help eat those bagels too!