Toad season

[Nepen]

This was the first winter for my pond and now that winter is over the toads moved in and played house. Now i have thousands or toad babies.

I know my fish don't eat them, saw the tads swim in the front taunting the fish and got ignored. I don't want to have thousands of toads in my yard (I rather have frogs!!! I'm bias that way)

Is there fish that eat toad's tadpole? Just to thin down the number a bit. I want them in the yard just not thousands of them.

 

[Lisak1]

You may not have to worry - once they grow legs ours disappear basically overnight. Here today - gone tomorrow!

 

[Nepen]

Haha i know they are gone quick, i just don't want to have thousands of them.

Toads have poison, i wonder what's their natural predator. i'm going to do a little more research on this.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Just as @Lisak1 said, as soon as they get all 4 legs and lose their tail (usually 4-6 weeks after they hatch), they'll no longer need a water source, so they'll begin to disappear and you'll never see them again.

If you want to thin the numbers, you could always collect them and put them in a bucket, bring them to a nearby body of water. They're really easy to catch. Toad tadpoles are much slower than frog tadpoles and can be netted easily. I used to catch them with my hands when I was a kid.

A Toad's natural predator is snakes. Probably herons, too. I'm not sure if any mammals could handle the taste of their poison.

 

[Nepen]

Thanks guys. I'm not super worried. My son loves them and I get to teach him to watch them grow so it's great.

They are pretty beneficial. I just dont know if they will attract more snake to our property or not. I hope no heron find my pond!!!! not even to eat the toads!!!!

I'll live with the toads

 

[addy1]

They do disappear quickly, I have thousands of eggs, get thousands of tads, they do grow legs hop out of the water and within days are gone. I see very few grown toads in the yard.

There are even more now.

 

[Nepen]

They are quite pretty in the water. I told my son the difference of toad and frog eggs. The toad eggs are pretty! I still hear their calls at night but I dont see more eggs. we got about 5 couples last week. now all eggs hatched.

Seems like they will just disappear so I'm not going to think about it and just enjoy seeing the little wiggly things.

 

[cas]

@Nepen , I also have had a couple dozen toads lay an enormous amount of eggs in my pond each spring. My liner will be covered with tadpoles, but once they leave the pond, I very rarely see them.

 

[merlin1970]

This was the first winter for my pond and now that winter is over the toads moved in and played house. Now i have thousands or toad babies.

I know my fish don't eat them, saw the tads swim in the front taunting the fish and got ignored. I don't want to have thousands of toads in my yard (I rather have frogs!!! I'm bias that way)

Is there fish that eat toad's tadpole? Just to thin down the number a bit. I want them in the yard just not thousands of them.

I also get a lot of toads but found out at the egg stage that a turkey baster works well to suck them up.
I put them in a pail and hike them to the creek about 1/2 mile away. Easy going down but all up hill coming back but at least he bucket is empty. Have a nice little backwater hole custom made for them.

 

[addy1]

I just leave them be, they come by the thousands, hatch by the thousands, eat a ton of plant matter, then leave by the thousands. We never have excess. They do not bother the water quality of my pond. Sort of enjoy watching them grow get legs and leave.

 

[lillysbaba]

Toads eat mosquitoes and where I live here in Houston we need all of the toads we can get! We have had a number of herons in our back yard that come to eat the adult toads during mating but it's not been a problem because the fish are bigger than the herons.

 

[avonisjan]

To Nepen - I know my fish don't eat them, saw the tads swim in the front taunting the fish and got ignored.
That's very interesting that they are not eating the tads and I had to smile because:
Last October just as it was starting to get below 50 degrees we had a large container full of tadpoles and so I took about a dozen out and put them in a smaller bucket were we could watch them. They started growing out their back legs and I didn't want them to die so I started each day putting some of them in my small pond thinking I was doing them a favor and saving their lives. Each day I was taking out about a dozen and this went on for about a week when my husband was watching me release them into the pond noticed that the fish were grabbing them the minute they hit the water. I felt bad these little fellows got eaten by was glad my fish were eating good!
I set up a tank inside and brought 5 of them in and we watched them morph into frogs over the winter. Now we are just waiting to hear the first sign of frogs come out of hibernation and we will release them in the pond. With the warm weather in the south that were having were surprised that we haven't already heard the local frogs yet. Does anyone know when that will happen?

 

[addy1]

Our frogs and toads have been singing for a few weeks now and laying tons of eggs. Up here in Maryland

 

[Nepen]

To Nepen - I know my fish don't eat them, saw the tads swim in the front taunting the fish and got ignored.
That's very interesting that they are not eating the tads and I had to smile because:
Last October just as it was starting to get below 50 degrees we had a large container full of tadpoles and so I took about a dozen out and put them in a smaller bucket were we could watch them. They started growing out their back legs and I didn't want them to die so I started each day putting some of them in my small pond thinking I was doing them a favor and saving their lives. Each day I was taking out about a dozen and this went on for about a week when my husband was watching me release them into the pond noticed that the fish were grabbing them the minute they hit the water. I felt bad these little fellows got eaten by was glad my fish were eating good!
I set up a tank inside and brought 5 of them in and we watched them morph into frogs over the winter. Now we are just waiting to hear the first sign of frogs come out of hibernation and we will release them in the pond. With the warm weather in the south that were having were surprised that we haven't already heard the local frogs yet. Does anyone know when that will happen?

Haha i had similar thing happened to me a few years back when bought (yes bought!!! from eBay) tree frog tads.... got them in the pond and my fish had $25 sweet dinner....

fish seem to love 'frog' tads but tend to ignore 'toad' tads. so when it comes time for frogs i'll put them in the stream to help them not all get eaten!

the different in the frog and toads eggs are toad eggs are in string like black pearl necklace and frog eggs floats in group

 

[Nepen]

Our frogs and toads have been singing for a few weeks now and laying tons of eggs. Up here in Maryland

i heard them but have not seen evidence of eggs yet!