General Chat

Karen, Can't do better than to quote Ann Yeomans on my 1841 lookup thread - made me smile ! "Mwaaaah mwaaaah Hugs hugs hugs" Rick.

How true that one is !!

Lynda - as the saying goes "you have to kiss an awful lot of frogs.....". Rick ;-)

Hi Karen, It's an old wives tale. Warts are caused by a virus (not transmittable from frogs). Rick.

Hi Rosi, I wish I had a clue !! I have the smallest pond in England and it's only my second batch since I moved in. I read somewhere that you should let them get on with it without disturbing them - seems like good advice for most things ! I wouldn't worry except last year I didn't see any grow legs. Rick.

Thanks Rick. I spose I should be encouraged that even last year when I had originally quite a lot of healthy spawn and taddies 'hatched' before (probably) being eaten by fish, there were enough frogs to provide this years spawn in such quantity - although as stated the quality seems a bit doubtful! Mmmm- yes the hail and high winds can't have done it any good- the patch I have that looks fairly okay is in a more sheltered position in the pond. Should I remove the disintegrating stuff - or leave it? Rosi

Jeanie ! There's a load of Iris up one end of the pond for the froglets to climb out of it. The cat chases the frogs around but only ever "pats them on the head" with a paw - she never brings them in or tries to hurt them ! Rick.

Hi Rosie, I think the heavy rain and high winds were to blame for breaking up a lot of my frogspawn. Very little of it stayed on the surface & I though I'd lost a load. Quite pleased today to see so many swimming about now. It seems less than last year though, despite having much more spawn to start off with. Hope they grow legs & hop out this year ! Rick.

I was thinking of asking folks on here about my frogspawn - and then found the frogs header - must be something about minds thinking alike. I came back from a few days away about 10 days ago to discover more frogspawn than ever before (and later than previous years) in my garden pond. For a day or so it looked healthy - but now it seems to have disintegrated - and there are thins water splodges of ex frogspawn over the surface of the pond. There is possibly one patch that may be still developing into frogs - but even that doesn't look quite right - it should be heaving with black life by now before the tiny taddies wiggle away. There is a lot of blanket weed in the pond, along with oxygenators, and the water is reasonably clear where the blanket weed isn't! I have left the blanket weed in as a sort of protector for the small fish (and I hoped developing taddies) that I have seen in the pond. Thing is - should I let the non viable frogspawn decompose in the water as it is doing, or remove it? Will it do any harm if I leave it.? And should I make inroads into the blanket weed to increase the oxygen in the water? Advice anyone knowledgeable out there? Rosi

Just make sure the small frogs can climb out of your pond or they will drown, also keep buckets upturned or they can get trapped in them and die. When my cat attacked a frog it gave the most pitiful scream, an other cat used to bring them into the house, I looked up from reading and there were two jumping in the hall!

Looks like they've all hatched now ! The birds don't tend to come up this end of the garden because of the cat. She keeps going and drinking from the pond - must like the taste of tadpole soup ! Spent almost all day in the garden - can we have this weather for the rest of the year please ? Rick.

Hi Rick, Glad to hear at last you have some swimming tadpoles, Take care when the birds start to get near your pond as they like a bit of tadpole, so you will have to watch out for them. Have a nice day. Tat Tar June.

Theres a stream at the bottom of my parents garden and the garden was often invaded by frogs! The cats favourite game was to play solo tennis with them I not been able to go near them since I accidentally ran over one with the lawnmower! Feel really guilty! Rach...

In fact everyone can have some......... http://cat.nyu.edu/~biermann/homepage_white/tadpoles/ :-)

Lynda, I'll email them to you ! Rick.

We have tadpoles ! I can see at least a couple of dozen of them - that was quick ! Rick.

Convulvulus I read in a garden mag recently - train it up a bamboo, treat it with systemic weed killer by rubing it down all the leaves stems etc, using gloves of course. it said you may need to do this several times before the roots die. If you dig up the roots and bits drop they will take root too. It is a nightmare!! Good luck Ann Glos

Thanks for the advice folks. The "frenzied activity" in the pond happened about 3 weeks ago. Tons of frogspawn there now, but no tadpoles as yet. I'll post some progress reports as & when something happens ! Rick.

we have loads of frog spawn, the tadpoles are just starting to wriggle. we just leave them to it. takes much longer than six weeks though before they are frogs. you will see each stage and it is fascinating. then the little b------ are hopping about everywhere. should add that hubby keeps the pond crystal clear, checking filter reguarly and pulling out the weeds. also we have lots of oxygenating plants. other than that nothing.

Hi Rick, Dont worry I still have frogs, and I would not harm them at all. Infact I am as daft as a brush when it comes to wild life. I feed all the birds and I even feed the fox that comes most nights. Bye now June.