Frogs b gone

On the subject of frogs, This is my 3rd year of having tadpoles & frogs in
my pond. The first year I had 2 frogs and I found one dead in the spring the
next year I had 5 frogs in the fall and found none in the spring. Are they
being ate by the Raccoons? Are they just hopping off ? This last spring I
bought tadpoles and 4 turned into frogs and already I can't find any of
them. I heard they dig themselves into the mud for the winter. But the pond
has a liner so are they coming out and digging holes elsewhere and just
dying?

wrote:
: On the subject of frogs, This is my 3rd year of having tadpoles &
: frogs in my pond. The first year I had 2 frogs and I found one dead
: in the spring the next year I had 5 frogs in the fall and found none
: in the spring. Are they being ate by the Raccoons? Are they just
: hopping off ? This last spring I bought tadpoles and 4 turned into
: frogs and already I can't find any of them. I heard they dig
: themselves into the mud for the winter. But the pond has a liner so
: are they coming out and digging holes elsewhere and just dying?

Frogs are amphibians - they go on land as well as water!
They need somewhere to shelter rom predators, try this, put large rocks etc
around your pond or other similar cover for them to hide under when they are
threatened, some where out of the hot sun and preferably damp, cool etc.
Pile lots of rocks on top of each other and they will use this as a hideaway
for winter when they are susceptible to frost and cold, you could use logs
or anything else you think will provide shelter, and they will re-spawn
every year in your pond afterwards instead of disappearing.
They like plenty of pond weeds too, so that their spawn/tadpoles are
relatively safe from predation - if you dont want weeds, simply put a roll
of wire mesh in during spawning season and take it out when the tadpoles
have grown front legs.

HTH

I've never had frogs, and for 18 months I seem to have lacked newts as well.
Is it possible I just haven't seen them, or might I have done something to
scare them away?
Got 2 ponds, one still for lillies one with pump & fish

Jon

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
wrote:
: On the subject of fr

Oxymel of Squill wrote:
: I've never had frogs, and for 18 months I seem to have lacked newts
: as well. Is it possible I just haven't seen them, or might I have
: done something to scare them away?
: Got 2 ponds, one still for lillies one with pump & fish
:
: Jon

I'm not sure, they are wild animals after all...they may have felt
threatened by other wildlife, or some other weather related threat and
scarpered!
Newts will be taken by herons and any other fish eating birds, so maybe they
need a hiding place?
a net or some other type of protection (maybe a few dozen small lengths of
plastic pipe at the bottom of the pond would afford them some confidence to
stay?)
They do like still water - we used to catch them when we were kids, in an
old stagnant pond full of discarded oil drums!!
The water was cleanish and weedy (if a little rusty!) and quite a lot of old
tyres etc, maybe these was their saviour?
Newts will eat tadpoles and almost any other live or dead animals they can
fit in their mouths, so if you want to encourage them, you've got to
encourage a natural food source - bloodworms, earthworms, mosquito larvae
(these non biting UK variety will lay masses of eggs in stagnant water in
summer, when they hatch, the larvae are usually seen on the surface but a
slight knock will send them 'spinning' to the bottom!) virtually any kind of
bugs that live in water will encourage newts to your pond.

HTH

Hi
After the froglets have left your pondwater it takes 3 years for them to mature. They live in dark damp areas of your garden i.e.. under sheds, log piles. Don't give up. We need all pond owners to encourage wildlife into our gardens as a lot of its natural habitat is being destroyed.
Check out our website: www.gardenpondclub.co.uk
Bye for now,
Brian.


wrote in message gy.com...
On the subject of frogs, This is my 3rd year of having tadpoles & frogs in
my pond. The first year I had 2 frogs and I found one dead in the spring the
next year I had 5 frogs in the fall and found none in the spring. Are they
being ate by the Raccoons? Are they just hopping off ? This last spring I
bought tadpoles and 4 turned into frogs and already I can't find any of
them. I heard they dig themselves into the mud for the winter. But the pond
has a liner so are they coming out and digging holes elsewhere and just
dying?



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Not that I am an expert, in fact I joined this news group hoping to learn
more about frogs and newts.
To try and help you with your query. I understand that frogs will return to
the pond in which they were spawned to breed (much like salmon) so if you
introduce tadpoles they may well leave your pond and try to return to where
they were spawned. If you want to encourage frogs to stay and breed in your
pond then you have to introduce the frogs spawn to your pond. However a
couple of things to be careful of, you should really only take spawn from a
pond which is overrun with spawn otherwise you may upset the balance in that
pool. You should not take from a pond in an area that has redleg disease
otherwise you will spread the disease.

For the last two years I have tried to introduce tadpoles, they have all
grown to frogs but once released I have rarely seen them again, except for
when the cats catch them and bring them into the house. This year I
introduced some frog spawn from a friends garden. I will keep you posted on
my success and or failure if any one is interested?

I don't know much about raccoons but generally speaking, they like peanuts,
sweets, fruits, bread and peanut butter but are also especially keen on cat
and dog food so they may also eat frogs.

Anyone with facts or advice on frog, toad or newt keeping please post here.
I am also curious to here an answer to the initial posting Frogs b gone
and the digging in the mud query.
Nick

wrote in message
gy.com...
On the subject of frogs, This is my 3rd year of having tadpoles & frogs in
my pond. The first year I had 2 frogs and I found one dead in the spring
the
next year I had 5 frogs in the fall and found none in the spring. Are they
being ate by the Raccoons? Are they just hopping off ? This last spring I
bought tadpoles and 4 turned into frogs and already I can't find any of
them. I heard they dig themselves into the mud for the winter. But the
pond
has a liner so are they coming out and digging holes elsewhere and just
dying?