New visitors. Frogs!!

Archeron

Hi all,
I posted this in error in the DIY/Gardening section. I hope its okay to post it here.

I was refilling a pond in my garden last night, and I noticed a rather large frog sitting on the side of the pool. Not wanting to hurt or scare it, I moved the flow of water to the other side. Next thing, he plops into the water, and appears right under the pouring water and sits there looking all happy. Then another one appeared and the two of them just sat there looking chuffed with themselves. These are big things as well, maybe 7 inches from front to back. They're quite a dark green and have a kind of marble effect in their skin with lighter green color through it. They didnt seem to be afraid of people at all. (everyone was fascinated by them and they had quite an audience!)

I am happy to see them, coz I think frogs are cool little yokes, but just wondering, are any species poisonous in Ireland? I have two dogs in the garden who dont have any access to the pond, but just in case one of them jumps out to the dogs, I want to make sure it wont make the dog sick. Are there any potential problems with frogs, like perhaps a swarm of them taking over? Also, is there anything I should do to make them comfortable, presuming they are harmless?

thanks

mustang68

Cool, its nice to have frogs. don't worry aboout a plague of frogs, they have a lot of natural preditors and you don't normally see frogs in large numbers in ireland. They are very good at keeping slugs and other nastys undercontrol in your garder.

I don't think that any frogs are poisonious in ireland, I'd be more concerned for the frog then your dog if they meet up!

As an aside, they don't need to be in water all the time, we had neighbours who would find a frog in their back garden (no pond) and bring the frog down to us in a panic thinking that the frog was going to "dry out" or something. frogs love compost, leaves, hiding under pots etc.

New Home

Hey, have you tried to visit: www.ipcc.ie/frogfacts.html ? They have a "Frog Watch" Survey, and I'm sure they should be able to tell you if there are any poisonous species in Ireland!

:oD

Archeron

New Home wrote:

Hey, have you tried to visit: www.ipcc.ie/frogfacts.html ? They have a "Frog Watch" Survey, and I'm sure they should be able to tell you if there are any poisonous species in Ireland!

:oD

Thanks for that New Home. I found that as well by googling "frogs Ireland", its amazing what they have sites for now :rolleyes: I think my own little froggers are just common garden variety frogs, and I learned a lot off of that site. I now know not to cut the hanging bushy things that they live under.

Being an ex city dweller, its amazing the variety of life that takes residence in the garden if you provide the basics for them. We have hedgehogs too!!

mcgarnicle

There is only one species of frog in Ireland and it is totally harmless in fact they are, as has been pointed out, extremely useful for keeping down the number of slugs etc in your garden. They only come to water to bread so you may find some frog spawn in your pond soon, they tend to live in long grass etc. Once I was cleaning a back garden and there was a rockery with jam jars pushed in here and there, they had taken on little bits of rain water that kept the humidity up between the rocks, we took out about 30 frogs, no exageration.

Archeron

mcgarnicle wrote:

There is only one species of frog in Ireland and it is totally harmless in fact they are, as has been pointed out, extremely useful for keeping down the number of slugs etc in your garden. They only come to water to bread so you may find some frog spawn in your pond soon, they tend to live in long grass etc. Once I was cleaning a back garden and there was a rockery with jam jars pushed in here and there, they had taken on little bits of rain water that kept the humidity up between the rocks, we took out about 30 frogs, no exageration.

Both of my ponds have 4 goldfish each in them and I think they will eat the spawn. I'd love to get some frog babies in the garden as well, so is there any options for doing this? I cant remove the fish, but I though maybe if I dug a third really small pond, that might give somewhere safe to spawn. Do you think that would work?

mcgarnicle

Archeron wrote:

Both of my ponds have 4 goldfish each in them and I think they will eat the spawn. I'd love to get some frog babies in the garden as well, so is there any options for doing this? I cant remove the fish, but I though maybe if I dug a third really small pond, that might give somewhere safe to spawn. Do you think that would work?

Doh, just realised it's halfway through August and the chances of a frog still breeding is pretty unlikely, but not impossible. I'm guessing your garden is suitable for them already as they seemed to have settled in on their own. Chances are the frogs you have are just keeping cool before the winter sets in, or perhaps they could be scoping out your pond so that they can hibernate at the bottom for the winter, thereby ensuring they have the best spot for mating come next season.... anyway on the chance that they do produce spawn yes your goldfish will eat it. Sure making another small pond would work, an easier option could be to simply take out the spawn and put it in a bucket, the tadpoles should be fine there. Just make sure to put a rock or something in so that they can escape from the water as once they lose their gills they won't last long at all. They are simple enough to look after, regular fish food will do them but be careful not to give too much as they will engorge themselves.

Roen

Aren't frogs a protected species now? Not sure but I have a feeling they are.

Occidental

They are indeed protected, though the spread is uneven and they can range from rare to abundant, depending to where you live.