A great video thank you! We're in the northeast US and we have a medium size pond (30 x 20 feet oval) that was created about 60 years ago. Its function is really to collect snow & rain run off from the mountain on our property and keep it from flooding our house and yard. In the six decades it's been in place it's become a wonderful haven for frogs, salamanders and dragonflies. Just this morning I saw a Little Blue Heron standing on the edge. There are no fish even though there are inlet and outlet channels and I plan to keep it just for frogs etc. It really needs to be renovated and this video is so helpful to get thinking bout what we might like do with it.
Fantastic video, thank you! I’ve inherited a few ponds here in Quebec, and “raised” a few tadpoles during the pandemic to show my niece the process. I’m hell bent on making my tiny pond a beautiful habitat this summer, this video was fab. Will be looking for more of yours that focus on wildlife.
I had a frogoo move to my new little pond a month ago, last few days another one showed up and this morning I was greeted at the sight of eggs all over the grass.❤️
Your videos are masterclasses on pond building with nature in mind, packed full of information and so well presented, thank you, I really appreciate that you share all your valuable experience with us. I'm very much a frog and toad enthusiast living in north London but my pond ( no fish) has been taken over by common newts to the extent that, every spring, they eat all the frogspawn. I used to watch them behave like little packs of cute hyenas chasing tadpoles and voraciously gobble them up. Years ago I started several 60 little nursery tanks to save the tadpoles from the newts. This works really well and I frequently see various sizes of frogs from previous years' nursery pools. I have found that toad tadpoles are much more sensitive and the mortality rate is higher. Whereas Newts seem to have very few predators and high survival rates. Nature!
Thanks you so much- one of my favourite comments yet!! Shame to hear of the demise of your tadpoles- despite the newts obviously prospering! The irony is many of my clients are surprised to hear they have newts in their pond and yet I find them more common then frogs these days. As you say- they are indeed voracious little predators; it seems they have adapted to feast on the frogs tadpoles, giving them a boost of high protein nutrition, before then spawning themselves- they have it all worked out!! Very best regards, Ed
Oh awesome-I'm SO envious! 😍 Frogs are my favorite animals. I left behind my gorgeous frog pond at the base of the Cascade foothills, and moved to the very East end of Washington-250 miles inland-and the frost level is 36 inches instead of 18-not favorable for creating a favorable frog-bitat as I call it. I have to dig beyond 36 inches in order to create and artificial hybernation pit. 😞💔
Frogs frequenting your pond is a great sign-be patient and at some point in the near future you should find some spawning pairs. Don’t be too tidy with the pond-allow a little sediment to accumulate, keep it well planted inside and around the peripherals and offer lots of hidy holes and I’m sure you’ll be rewarded with spawn in the near future! Good work!
Many koi keepers discourage frogs with steep sided ponds, lack of plants, "No Frogs" signs etc. Its believed that frogs carry parasites such as trichodina and flukes. Is that the case? I have 2.5 ponds. A koi pond, a wildlife pond and a bog garden. The koi pond used to be a garden pond. At that time, we would get a lot of frogs in the garden and A LOT of frogspawn in both ponds. Then I got the koi bug and made the top pond much deeper with steep sides. But the frogs still had the middle pond with plenty of plants. Then a few years ago, they vanished. No more frogs. No farewell message, no note, nothing. I have no idea why since I left the middle pond as it was, so I would have assumed at least some of them would have stuck around. It's covered in duckweed but it always was. I still see the odd newt near to the middle pond. The knock on effect of that, is that the garden is infested with slugs. There are so many that it puts me off going outside at night. I'm not a killer of things. So I won't do anything to kill the slugs. I just wish there was a way to discourage them. Hedgehogs too. There were always hedgehogs in the garden but I can't remember the last time I saw one in there. Next door both sides have put up new fences so I dunno if it's that. The only wildlife I very occasionally see is the odd badger and it delights me that they dig under the fences.
Thanks for your comment! Although unlikely and not something I’ve heard being an issue I guess it is entirely plausible that amphibians could spread a parasite. However, in a healthy pond such stowaways would be unlikely to cause any issue. It’s only if conditions in ones pond are such that even a minor introduction could cause trouble that there would be a cause for concern-and really the emphasis should be in ensuring the pond balance is regained, rather then having any concerns towards pond visitors. 99% of all pond fish woes can be tracked back to poor water quality, overstocking, over feeding, poor husbandry etc etc. I suspect in your scenario once you changed your pond from a typical garden pond to a koi pond you lost much of its biodiversity. Initially frogs would come back to Spawn-as they tend to In their birthing pools-but quickly the numbers of larvae that would reach adult stages and go On to breed would reduce due to this bio diversity reduction, less places to hide, less natural available food source, more likely to be preyed upon by fish and other would be opportunistic feeders. Newts in particular are voracious predators and frequently outcompete frogs by eating their tadpoles. After only two or three years of this reduction suddenly the generation chain is broken and no more frog spawn. A koi pond is lovely-but form a nature/bio diverse aspect it’s pretty limited. Best, Ed
Hi there, thanks for watching and commenting! You’d be surprised how much wildlife even a small frugal pond will support-something of this size in an established garden could comfortable attract literally dozens of frogs, not to mention newts and lots of other aquatic insects and invertebrates. Best, Ed
Hi there, thanks for watching and commenting, although what a sad comment 😢 where abouts in the world do you live? Do you have particular cold winters? Frogs that are overwintering still require access to the ponds surface and long periods of ice can be a problem. Additionally ice prevents gases created from natural decomposition (CO2 for example) leaving the pond via gaseous exchange at the ponds surface, creating a build up under the ice which can be deadly. Keeping an area of a pond free of ice is important, via either moving water (pump/fountain, air pump, cascade etc) or a pond heater (not the sort designed to heat the whole pond but a simple device that floats on the ponds surface and keeps a small area from freezing). If none of these devices are available to you then melt a hole in the ice with a hot pan of water. Never break ice, as this sends shockwaves through the water which can be distressing and even harmful to livestock. Hope this helps, Best, Ed
We have the opposite problem: occasional frog-apocalypse in the neighborhood. I would need to trim them not to exterminate. People suggested koi, but now I see they can be "hugged" by the male frogs.
I actually had a bad summer last year because of bull frogs. They were so bad they were eating all the butterflies, part of my fish, and drowning small birds. They will try and eat anything that will fit in their mouth.
Voracious buggers aren’t they?! Thankfully we don’t have many bullfrogs in the uk- i’ve yet to see one, although there have been confirmed sightings… Thanks for your comment! Best, Ed
I just added a small wildlife pond to my garden....what's the best way to get frogs in it.....put in tadpoles from the wild in or wait until they come themselves?
Hi there! Thanks for your query and well done for going to the efforts of making a pond-the wildlife will thank you! In general it’s best not to move around spawn/tadpoles from other sources, as there is a risk of introducing disease into your pond. I’d say the risk is low, but (certainly in the uk) frogs have been hit with some nasty infectious viral diseases which have depleted their numbers... Provide the right environment-plenty of surrounding planting/foliage and pond planting and they will find you😁 Best regards, Ed
Silly decision. Mankind causes much of the environmental damage that leads to droughts so we should absolutely intervene to save a species, researchers or not.
Spent the summer getting rid of frogs from the ponds, we had a total infestation of them and they were ruining the fish ponds... been a few months now and no frogs so hopefully they don't return in spring
Hi there, thanks for watching and commenting! In answer to your question- I don’t. Quite the opposite-I’d be hoping and praying that frogs spawn in my pond!! Owning a pond will attract all sorts of wildlife that we shouldn’t discriminate against- frogs and other amphibians should be encouraged, they only do good for the garden, are massively in decline and very really cause any issues to other life in a pond. Very occasionally I’ve witnessed male frogs latched onto a fish during breeding season, but they’re easy enough to dislodge with a poke from a fish net!! Best regards, Ed
Ah! Cant offer much advice I’m afraid not having any experience with species in your neck of the woods!! A quick search online seems to suggest Cuban tree frog tadpoles eat waterlily pads, not something we have issues with here in Blighty! Perhaps introducing a predatory fish to feed on the tadpoles might be helpful?.. good luck! Best, Ed
I have a small goldfish pond and two young female frogs showed up in mid spring and they are growing nicely. Another young female showed up a few days ago too. The problem I have is to many baby goldfish, some of which are bigger than frog food while the smaller ones are fish dinners for them. I need to get many of the bigger babies out.
