The benthic invertebrates of three adjacent wetlands in northeastern Ohio, USA were sampled with a benthic corer during May–August 2001. The three wetlands consisted of a deep created wetland that overflowed into a shallow created wetland and a pre-existing natural wetland. The created wetlands were four years old and seeded with cattails. Forty-two invertebrate taxa were collected from all wetlands combined, and 11 taxa were abundant (represented >1% of total). Taxa richness, evenness, and community similarity were comparable among the three wetlands. Seed shrimp (Ostracoda), midges (Diptera: Chironomidae), copepods (Copepoda), fingernail clams (Bivalvia: Sphaeriidae), and water fleas (Cladocera) were the five most abundant taxa (38%, 13%, 11%, 9%, and 8%, respectively). Clams were significantly more abundant in the natural wetland, whereas no significant difference in density of other invertebrates was detected among wetlands. Laboratory inundations of soil taken from the rapidly drying basins of the natural and shallow created wetlands produced 10 taxa that survived the dry periods with desiccation-resistant stages and were dominated by microcrustaceans, Aedes mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), clams, and annelid worms. Our data indicate that the created wetlands developed benthic invertebrate communities that were similar to the adjacent natural wetlands in a short period of time (four years), but clams were slow to colonize the human-made habitats.