Major problems with breeding toads in pond this year

[big ron]

I have had a koi pond for 14 years and have loved every minute of it, however this year I am literally run over with breeding toads. I have had them other years but not this many . this year I have removed at least 30 pairs. They lay their slimy eggs in my floating lotus planters and when I divide them each year , what a mess. Does anyone know of a quick and easy way ( not suffering ) to euthanize them ( not freezing ) ? I am not an advocate of this method but this year has really tried my patience. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Some years there seem to be more toads than others, although I've found that over the years their numbers have slowly increased. I guess they return to breed where they were originally spawned? How do the egg chains affect your lotus division? They develop into tadpoles rather quickly once the water gets warmed up - can you simply wait a week or two to do the dividing? The egg chains also relocate really easily. Just dump them out into some other area of the pond to finish developing. I do agree with you - when they are at the height of spawning in mass, they do make quite a mess of the pond, but the crazed singing & stirring everything up only lasts few days (at least for the majority of it) and in a week or so it's just a bunch of tadpoles swimming around. My biggest 'problem' during the entire process is having to evict them from the skimmer baskets a couple times a day & relocate them to another area of the pond.

I pull them out of the skimmer & dump them into a large bucket, then move everyone to the upper pool of the pond where they can lay as many egg chains as they want! If I find any eggs in the skimmer baskets, I use a small hand net (aquarium sized) to scoop as many of them up as I can & relocate those as well.

 

[addy1]

I just let them do their thing. The lil toadlets are so cute. So tiny, hatch fast grow fast gone from the pond

 

[JMJ]

The first spring we were in our house I kept catching them and relocating outside our yard because of how loud and annoying the male gulf coast toad’s calls are. Then I thought about all the pest insects they eat in my garden and flower beds and let them have at it. My wife’s not as happy about them, but shares my desire to give our kiddos a chemical free organic yard.

 

[addy1]

When we bought this house, 08, overrun by black crickets, outside deck covered by them, flies, bugs.

Built the pond, flies, less, crickets, hardly seen, mosquitoes no chance to survive, hardly ever see one, on and on.

Tons of praying mantis. I save every egg case I find, when bush hogging. Walk the area first looking for them.

Toads, tons born, hop out, then poof, occasionally seen as adults, not over run at all.

Ponds rule!

 

[JMJ]

With as much time as I’ve spent outdoors over the years I’ve always lived in neighborhoods. We always had tree frogs, green anole lizards, ground skinks and gulf coast toads around all of the, but see a lot more forest and wetland critters around this house and most of them are always around the pond end of the yard and a lot of them disappeared while the waterfall was down due to burned up pump. in addition to the usual critters mentioned above I’ve also seen Bahamian anoles, five-lined skinks, bronze/green frogs, brahminy blind snakes, eastern ribbon snakes, 3 dragonfly species, and fishing spiders. Our part of the neighborhood lays between a bayou and some swampy shelterbelts and levees that contain a lot of wildlife so I’m sure the sounds of our waterfall advertises our oasis in-between.