Duckweed attacks

      As always at this time of the year a couple of the local drains are absolutely smothered in duckweed, the dreaded green plague and there are acres of it. Inevitably the drains are totally unfishable and even the ducks, coots and moorhens have a hard time ploughing through it.

      A persistent wind blowing along the drain will get rafts of it moving but only to the other end of the drain where it begins to heap up in the reeds before the wind changes and starts the process all over again.

      The invasion of the weed and the problems that arise because of it, such as lack of light penetration to the plants below, low oxygen content in the water and the weed's love of nutrients means that it never goes away.

      The nutrients are washed off the land and the lack of light into the water means that the good weed isn't producing oxygen and in all probability the duckweed won't disappear until some cooler weather and rain turns up.

      I don't think we'll see a frost anytime soon either.