Frog Bogs

[Heather]

K30a and all Rec Ponders:

I just took a look at K30a's pictures and frog bog. For those of you who
have frog bogs perhaps you can tell me what size your bog is (gal. width and
depth) and if the frogs just hang out there or do they lay eggs there as
well? All details would be great!!

Thanks for your help,


--
Heather
SW Ontario (Zone 5)

[K30a]

Hi Heather!

Are you ready for endless frog bogging?
I love my bog!

The frog bog is about 10' by 10' and cost
five pizzas and one James Bond rental to dig.
(we are blessed with lots of boys around here.)
800 gallons.

It is also about 10-12" deep.
It is covered with river sized rock (2") which I would get smaller rocks if
there were to be a next time, easier to plant in.
All plants are planted directly in the rock.
And it is a bog - the mud stinks when slathered over a labrador.
The plants have totally taken over and will have to be yanked out in the fall
for a severe weeding.

This is a still pond, no water movement. No fish. I use mosquito bits. I have
lots of damsel and dragonflies nymphs living in it and around it.

It used to house bullfrogs who have all left or died off after five years.
This year I am raising Pacific Treefrog eggs in there adopted from jj's pond.
JJ did this with eggs she adopted and the babies came back to breed. That is my
hope.
I've talked to a wildlife biologist from our state fish and wildlife program
and they thought it was an idea to try. If I can get success like jj did I may
take it on as a project (Adopt - what, an Egg, Eggs, bouncing baby froglet...)

The pond has all sorts of plants in it. Cattails, lizard's tail, evil parrot's
feather, pennywort, aquatic forget-me-nots live on the edge, pickerel, even hot
pink blooming waterlilies. And best of all a volunteer plant showed up via
birdy poop - a carnivous bladderwort with delicate yellow orchid like blooms.
The plants are thriving, the lily pads are deep green and glossy. Not like the
poor lilies in the pond who don't look nearly as good (they don't get
fertilized - that's another story).

All the food the frog bog gets is last year's decaying plants and they love it.
The bog has never gone green and it is full sun.

My DD and I go out and fill a jug full of bog water and see who is in that
sample. We get damsel and dragonfly nymph, mayfly nymphs, bloodworms, seed
shrimp and other critters. We keep the deck ponds full of sample water so we
can watch the critters more closely.
We've collected out of the bog and donated them to the biology teacher at
school....

Can you tell I'm a bit batty on the subject?




k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/index.html

[Dave Fouchey]

On 07 Aug 2003 21:22:56 GMT, (K30a) wrote:
>
>k30a
>and the watergardening labradors
>http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/index.html


A very admirable project, wish I had the space to do that myself.

Good luck with your Froglets.

Dave
Dave Fouchey, WA4EMR
http://photos.yahoo.com/davefouchey
Southeastern Lower Michigan
42° 35' 20'' N,
82° 58' 37'' W
GMT Offset: -5
Time Zone: Eastern

[jammer]

On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 03:37:35 GMT, "Zeuspaul"
> wrote:

>One of my Pacific Tree Frog ponds might be considered a frog bog. It would
>be about 12 feet long and six feet wide if it were full of water. Rain
>will fill it up once or twice a year if at all. Most of the time it has
>about 12 inches of water in the center and gradually slopes to the sides.
>The water area in the low state is about 6 feet by 3 feet.
>
>The pond has no liner. I dug about two feet till I found clay and then
>about a foot into the clay. The clay holds the water rather well. However
>the water wicks up the side of the mud pond and evaporates at a pretty good
>rate.
>
>In the rainy cool season the pond doesn't need much water added. Most of
>the year it gets a dose of water five times per day from an automated
>sprinkler. I tried omce a day but the evaporation rate was too high due to
>water creeping up the mud sides. Watering with a sprinkler several times
>per day keeps the sides wet and reduces evaporation due to the wicking.
>This reduces the amount of water that must be added to the main body of
>water. If I add too much water to the main body I fear the chloramine
>level would rise excessively.
>
>The pond is strictly mud, it is clear and has no filtration or bubblers.
>Mosquitoes are controlled with mosquito dunks. There are stacks of rocks
>in it to shade part of the pond and provide cover for the frogs. There is
>a group of hyacinths that have rooted in the mud. The adjacent areas are
>cultivated as frog habitat...logs, vegetation, rocks and some dampness from
>sprinklers.
>
>The frogs seem to like the mud pond...although they seem to like my
>preforms too. I rarely see the frogs in the preforms...they mostly hang
>out in the rock and log cover adjacent to the preforms. I would guess
>there are several hundred frogs hanging out near the ponds.
>
>If I go to the mud frog pond in the evening..just as the sun sets...I can
>see the frogs jumping out from their daytime hiding places into the water
>and swimming to the edge of the pond. They like to sit about half covered
>in water. Then they start to croak.
>
>One of the keys to successful wildlife ponds is gently sloping sides. I
>have not noted any wildlife drownings in the mud pond. The preforms with
>steep sides have taken the lives of lizards and bees and some kind of
>unidentified rodent.
>
>The frogs are in no way captive. They come and go and breed as they
>please. The local Pacific Tree Frog poulation seems to be on the increase
>if one can judge by the evening chorus.

That's very cool! I wish i had something like that. I am not sure
whether i want to add onto my small preform, make it the VF as Rhino
suggested, or use that as a water garden (Thats what it is anyway) and
make a frog bog. I really want something that the toads will love.

[BenignVanilla]

"Zeuspaul" > wrote in message
news:01c35d5e$e7c0ff40$491b500c@zeus1...
<snip>
> One of the keys to successful wildlife ponds is gently sloping sides. I
> have not noted any wildlife drownings in the mud pond. The preforms with
> steep sides have taken the lives of lizards and bees and some kind of
> unidentified rodent.
<snip>

Over the past months I have found two frogs dead, with no apparent damage.
It just occurred to me, both times they were in areas of the pond, where
getting out of water would be difficult, and also areas where we do not
typically see frogs. I wonder if these little guys drown?

BV.

[Bern Muller]

"K30a" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Heather!
>
> Are you ready for endless frog bogging?
> I love my bog!
>
> The frog bog is about 10' by 10' and cost
> five pizzas and one James Bond rental to dig.
> (we are blessed with lots of boys around here.)
> 800 gallons.

The idea of a frog bog is very appealing. However, in this day and age of
West Nile Virus, how do you keep mosquitos from breeding vigorously. In my
lilly pond, the fish keep the mosquito larve population down without
depressing the number of frogs around.

[K30a]

Bern wrote >>how do you keep mosquitos from breeding vigorously.<<

I use Mosquito Bits in the bog and six other fishless pondlets.
I also toss it into a moist grassy area in the big pond where the water level
rises and falls but fish can't get in.
So far so good. I made a homemade tester like I've seen the control board use.
A small container at the end of a long pole. I dip it in and see who is in the
cup. So far, no mosquitoes.
I apply Mosquito Bits every two weeks. They are the same product as Mosquito
Dunks but in the plant dense bog I think the bits get into more nooks and
crannies.



k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/index.html

[Axolotl]

"Bern Muller" > wrote in
:

>
> "K30a" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi Heather!
>>
>> Are you ready for endless frog bogging?
>> I love my bog!
>>
>> The frog bog is about 10' by 10' and cost
>> five pizzas and one James Bond rental to dig.
>> (we are blessed with lots of boys around here.)
>> 800 gallons.
>
> The idea of a frog bog is very appealing. However, in this day and age
> of West Nile Virus, how do you keep mosquitos from breeding
> vigorously. In my lilly pond, the fish keep the mosquito larve
> population down without depressing the number of frogs around.
>
>

I am in Canada and I use a product called Aqua-Bac; the active ingredient
is Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, which attack the mosquito lava and
is safe for use in ornamental ponds.
I don't know if the product is available or approved for use where you
are, but I do know it is very effective. I had a problem with a section
of my pond where there wasn't much water movement, I applied some of this
stuff to the pond 24hrs later no lava.

Product data sheet is avail as a PDF at
http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/infosheets/AquabacBulletin.pdf

Hope this helps
Axolotl

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>"Heather" wrote:
>I just took a look at K30a's pictures and frog bog. For those of you who
>have frog bogs perhaps you can tell me what size your bog is (gal. width and
>depth) and if the frogs just hang out there or do they lay eggs there as
>well? All details would be great!!

In my case the frog pond isn't a bog, and actually has the hardware for an
eventual outside the pond filter. Two reasons for it were to grow lilies
and a place for the Pacific Treefrogs. Around the 1st of March I catch any
baby goldfish out and clean the bottom. Then the frogs come.

This year the first frog arrived around the end of March, with the whole
group there by mid-April. Weather depending I put fantail goldfish in
sometime in June when the frogs are pretty much done spawning and the
taddies are too big for them to eat. Tadpoles eat mosquito larvae too.
~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
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