All summer long, our inflatable raft was anchored 50 feet off the dock. In the fall, we arrived to find it in rough shape, damaged by a series of tears. We think they’re bite marks. Is that correct?—Tony and Lora, Gloucester Pool, Ont.
It’s not necessarily incorrect. From your description, it doesn’t sound like the raft went into the water damaged, so the assault must have happened while it was in the lake. We ruled out an aquatic mammal. “The marks do look like small bite marks,” says Franco Mariotti, a biologist formerly with Science North in Sudbury, Ont. “But they’re definitely not beaver, nor otter, nor muskrat. Those have larger teeth.”
What about a turtle? “I think that’s unlikely,” says Donnell Gasbarrini, the coordinator of the Adopt-a-Pond program at the Toronto Zoo. Hmm, water snake? Nope. “Snakes have very thin, fine teeth,” she says. “These tears are bigger than what a snake would leave behind.”
The folks at the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters ruled out fish. And they were “stumped” as to an alternative culprit. (On the plus side: “I’m a long-time subscriber,” says OFAH’s Mark Ryckman. “And I love seeing weird questions like this in the magazine!”)
Cottage Q&A: What’s wrong with this beech tree?
One expert floated—ha, get it?—the idea of a leafcutter bee. Which, sure. If the tears were above the water line, maybe the bee—they collect plant material to form the cells of their nests—thought the green raft was a really huge leaf. It’s a bee, not a genius.
“But when they cut, it’s invariably from the edges of the leaf, and they cut in a very characteristic arc-like pattern,” says Rob Currie, a professor in the department of entomology at the University of Manitoba. “This damage is in the wrong spot and is not of the right size and shape.”
No inflatable experts we asked could pinpoint what caused the tears either. The happy news is that, if you’re willing to spend a little money, Jay Millar, the owner of All Sewing Customs in Mississauga, Ont., believes it’s repairable. “It would probably cost between $125 and $250,” he says. (A DIY patch job may be worth a try, but because the holes are in a cluster, multiple patches, or one big patch, could leak.)
Sorry. We consulted nearly a dozen sources, but the question “Who messed with your raft?” remains unanswered.
But maybe that’s not such a bad thing, says Franco Mariotti. “It’s good to know that there are still mysteries out there.”
Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.
This article originally appeared in the Sept/Oct 2023 issue of Cottage Life.
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