How to lure frogs and friendly Amphibians to Your Garden? How do you encourage toads in your garden?
Do you like Frogs, toads, amphibians? Thinking about creating a backyard pool for them, here is the guide for you.
Many of us likes exotic pets but avoid keeping them indoors in vivariums or enclosures.
Since I have successfully created a bio-diverse oasis in my backyard. I am going to answers all these questions in this post,
If you are a Pet enthusiast and have sufficient space in the backyard, you can create a simple and self-sustaining ecosystem for nearby amphibians like frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders.
Before we proceed let’s quickly understand what are amphibians?
Amphibian word originates from the Greek word Amphibios, meaning “To live a dual life“.
Amphibian (Amphibia) is composed of 2 words [ Amphi’ meaning ‘both’ + bios meaning ‘life’].
Besides the ease of caring and looks, what makes them interesting pets is their ability to live both on land and in water.
Is it good to have frogs in your garden?
frogs and toads are very useful to the garden because they feed on a variety of pests such as cutworms, grasshoppers, grubs, slugs, bugs, beetles, caterpillars and a list is quiet long
Fun fact: A single frog or toad can eat 100’s of insects and 1000’s of mosquitoes every night.
They are natural insect controllers and pest exterminators for our gardens and backyards, keeping them is usually harmless
IF invitation reaches some poisonous frogs and they are lure reptiles like snakes, That may be the reason for worry for domestic pets and children.
10 Humane ways to lure Frogs in the garden.
Creating a pool (Bio-diverse Oasis)
Adding a Small Artificial Pond or water resource will make them happy.
you can make mini ponds from old sinks or scrap containers.even you cannot afford a new one.
keep one side of the pool sloppy up to dry-land, It helps tadpoles to easily navigate once they move on to their next stage.
All frogs and toads are nocturnal in nature, which means they venture mostly during the night and prefer living near water bodies. providing a water ecosystem helps them to retain in your garden.
Avoiding Chemicals
Amphibians breathe through their skin, harmful chemicals can leech through their sensitive skin and sometimes kill them.
Eliminate the use of Chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and herbicides from your gardening routine is a great thing to do.
Shelter for Camouflage
Create Shelter and Hiding Places for Amphibians to Hide and camouflage.
Providing cover around the pond edges with plants, stones, and vegetation.
Plenty of weeds, dead leaves, or tall grass helps them in providing an apt ecosystem for camouflaging.
Shed and Moisture.
Amphibians avoid direct contact with the Sunlight especially when the weather is really warm.
log piles, woods some plant pots where they can partially bury and hide them.
They need to keep their skin moist all the times as they breathe through it and save themselves from dehydration.
Garden Lights
Leaving garden lights on at night in your backyard attract insects and mosquitoes and toads and frogs’ prey on them.
Trimming garden grass
keep in mind that it is likely that frogs and toads will be lazing around on your lawn.
if you do not trim the garden grass regularly, it will be a mortal danger while mowing if they are lurking in the grass.
Plants Selection: Avoiding Poisonous Plants
Choosing Proper Aquatic Plants, Moss, and Grass Lure Toads and Frogs into Your Yard.
Many plants are poisonous to frogs and toads, if you have a flower garden avoid planting oleander honeysuckle, azalea daffodils, hyacinths nearby the shelter.
What plants attract amphibians?
Native plants work best Start off with grasses, clomping plants like ferns and water lily, and cover the ground with shrubs and vines around your frog pond.
Dense Gardening
Use complementary dense gardening techniques to create a diverse plant ecosystem for eggs, larvae and adult frogs to flourish.
Sounds Frequencies
Amphibians like frogs and toads do not like some pitches (frequency) of sounds and they avoid such places;
calm and moist environment imitates wild-like conditions and makes them comfortable.
peaceful surrounding helps them to communicate better and attract females through “mating calls”.
Water stagnation
Standing and non-draining water attract amphibians like frogs and toads. larvae and eggs develop fast in still water.
Amphibians needs to keep themselves hydrated and skin moist, they prefer to dip themselves most of the time.
Keeping predators away
Backyard Pond Ecosystem further attracts Poisonous reptiles like snakes and predatory birds like hawks and falcons.
They feed on frogs and toads and are dangerous to children and pets so, keeping an eye on them is necessary.
Hazards from pets & children
Kids are usually curious about their surroundings they may wreck the shelter for toads and frogs also if you own pets
they might treat them as they’re chasing toys and even like to have them as desserts
Household cats and dogs usually try to play and harm the amphibians, safety measures are a must.
Avoid Breeding Fish
Fishes usually feed on insects but they don’t hesitate to eat spawn, larvae and eggs of amphibians.
Keeping fish along with frogs and toads creates an unhealthy ecosystem as they prey on their offspring’s.
Winters Measures
Frogs and toads are cold-blooded amphibians and prefer hibernating in winters.
If you live in a cold climate, try to provide suitable hibernating shelters with ambient humidity and temperatures.
Compost and leaves
literally, keep in mind that even if frogs and toads reside in your garden.
they’re a population that can reduce drastically if you do not provide a proper food source.
one easy way to do that is by keeping a compost heap ready
For further reading
Do salamanders make good pets?
Why do frogs croak? (And how do frogs croak?)
Hi, I’m Mike, and I’m the creator of amphibianlife.com. If there was one word to describe it? It would be: passionate about Amphibians! Whether you want to know more about amphibians or have a presentation to give at school, you’ve come to the right place.
