On 22/3/05 7:28, in article ,
"Terry Pinnell" wrote:

Yesterday I was astonished to find a dozen or two frogs spawning in
our small pond. Hadn't even known we had any!

I'm apprehensive about the impact of these. In particular, what about
our 6 small goldfish - presumably they're sharing the natural food
supply? I removed half a bucket of spawn (awaiting delivery to a local
stream), but my attempts with a net have so far (groping around in the
oxygenating plants) resulted in the capture of only a single frog!

I don't understand why you want to get rid of them. They're fascinating
creatures and great friends of the gardener, eating nasties you don't really
want in your garden. Frogs undergoing the loss of many ponds, dewponds etc,
and giving them a habitat is a highly desirable thing for all of us.
And please *don't* put the spawn into a stream. It will die.
Your fish are more likely to eat the tadpoles than the frogs to harm the
fish in any way. One of our ponds here is a haven for frogs and the other
night, we went out with a torch and had at least 36 heading that way and we
are thrilled to see ever one of them, as is The Grand Daughter whose
favourite pursuit at the moment is "hunt the frogs"!

What else, if anything, should we do? What's the usual life style of
your typical frog anyway? After mating/spawning, do they settle down
to marital harmony in their existing habitat? Or hop off somewhere
else? If the latter, hopefully not our flower beds?

They usually go off to some dampish spot in the garden and hide away under
bushes or pots etc. The worst they can do if you find one in the flower bed
is make you jump a bit!
Please - just leave yours alone and worry about some really potential nasty
in your garden - like creeping buttercup.......or poking your eye out on a
bamboo cane - far more dangerous things than frogs!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)