How many frogs is too many?

[WhoFedTheFish]

moved into a house with a pond. Fish (koi) in the pond. This is our first spring here

noticed three frogs a few weeks ago. Delighted to have them

now it would appear we have ~25 frogs!

Where have they come from? Are they here to stay?

Has anyone got any frog knowledge to say whether this is normal?

My wost nightmare is a frog my biggest fear is a frog no matter what size they are.
Id rather face a tiger snakes just not a frog.
I once pissed on a snake thats a whole different story.
Id have to move out and burn the place down the fear would over take me.

Our pond has sadly declined over the years. I think climate change has affected the spawning.
Anyway... when we had that many frogs sometimes we had to remove some spawn as there would be too much. The fish will probably do that for you though

Lucky you, we used to get lots of frogs in our garden but not so much now.
Your pond is like a big sex party right now but most if not all of the participants will hop off when done.
Tadpoles can be a bit viscious though, not to humans but they happily cannibalise eachother

Nature will take care of it if there are too many.

We had a defunct ornamental pond that we had to get rid of as it was leaking. As the water ran low I could see hundreds of tadpoles. I fed them peas until they had legs and then moved them all to our wildlife pond. I couldn’t mow for a long time! But over time, lack of food or predators will restore the balance. If you have lots of frogs though, make sure your Koi are safely netted, as the Herons may not be far behind.

The chickens were causing a commotion yesterday and I can’t one of them slamming a frog into the ground trying to eat it.

@profiterolesarelovely yes they always try and get back to the original pond .....i expect the ones raised in school will have a long journey

My parents had hundreds in their pond!

The following year, they gathered up most of the frogspawn in buckets and drove it to a lake.

Okay another question for you 🐸 experts…

there is no slope into the pond, just a fairly horizontal side around the pond, with liner about half way up the 8 inches or so between water level and the edge of the pond.

do I need to make some kind of ramp for the frogs to get out?

(just had another look out there and I think there are a couple of dead frogs (floating upside down at the bottom)

have tried to attach a pic showing some of the frogs

This is a better pic to show edge of pond

I think making a slope would be a good idea, our old pond had very straight sides and I don't think they could get out once in (although they obviously survived), but again, making a slope (or placing large rocks) will make it easier for other animals too, predators and those just wanting a drink. It's a balancing act. When they mate, they sometimes drown each other - they can drown fish too when they mistake them for other frogs.

You have an actual sex pond! As opposed to the MN description of a hot tub 😂

They only come back to their ancestral pond to breed. After they have laid frogspawn they will leave again.

Sounds like a v successful pond!

God yes, you need a couple of ramps to help them get out. Some floating plants for them to sit on and shelter in would be good too, and maybe some flat rocks.

Also, frogs can get all tangled up in the netting - could you lift it or even remove it? Why is it there?

I haven't rtft but get the frogspawn and tiny tadpoles away from the koi. Put them in one of those large garden containers with handles if you have to. The tadpoles will literally be breakfast for them. In our experience big tadpoles growing legs were big enough to survive

The 25 year old debate between me and my husband about fish pond versus wildlife pond is another matter. I've finally got my way and it's tadpoles central at our house! Yay!

They’ll eat the tadpoles, too.

Yes, please! 🙌

This ! Is the netting recent ? As it looks tricky for those frogs to get in and out, I wonder if they were hibernating in the pond ?
Netting isn’t great, it can be a tangle hazard for wildlife. Ponds need ramps, for hedgehogs as well as amphibians.

I don't want to be that poster but really, they shouldn't do this - guidance states that wildlife shouldn't be transferred from one body of water to another as the second pond/lake/whatever can be contaminated with diseases/toxic algae/pondweeds present in the first one. You don't know what you might also be pouring in alongside surplus spawn, so it's a total no-no.

I really thought this was going to be a thread about how many frogs you had to kiss before you found a prince 😂 But it was actually about frogs. Much more interesting 🐸 🐸

So we inherited the ponds (we actually have two) which came with fish and netting. Think netting is there to stop herons getting the fish.

we have the pond cleaned out last summer, new filter/ pump etc fitted. .

there is a lack of plants etc in the pond, and adding these was a plan for this spring.

I can’t see any frogspawn at all on either pond, just shitloads of frogs!

Will go to the local pond place tomorrow and see about some plants and advice on some kind of exit arrangement (ramp or similar).

if we do get frogspawn, I hear the point about taking some out to avoid it getting eaten by the fish) can I just keep it in a big tub or does it need anything special? (I do recognise google is my friend here, but as you’re all here 😜)

I brought ten tadpoles to our pond from the school pond, not thinking much about it apart from the school pond was rubbish and in danger of running dry over time due to poor design.

20 years on we have a thriving froggy population. They are NOISY at this time of year when getting it on! The cat loves watching the tiny froglets when they hop around the pond but is scared of the full sized frogs after the first time she tried to catch one and it made an horrific noise in self defence.

The pond is deep enough for them (and the fish we had before herons came along and emptied the pond!) to over winter. And is about 2m by 2m.

When we emptied it one year for maintenance we had 75 frogs in there, not including however many had decamped elsewhere!

Everyone that's loving the frogs.....you are a better person than I! I have an utter phobia of them. I would rather I didn't of course and I'm well aware that they can't hurt me but if I have seen one in an area I can't go to that area....of my own garden!

I've come to the conclusion I really shouldn't have opened this thread 🤣

I must admit newname when I took a look this morning and saw all the frogs I was a bit creeped out, which is what prompted me to ask here if I should be alarmed!

We have this, but it does not last that long. We just wait it out. The grass grows a bit longer, hey ho. The space clearly belonged to the frogs first.

They don't do that here now. It is not at all ok. You can spread illness ans damage them apparently.

Re plants. I read about people throwing supermarket watercress into their ponds and it taking. So I tried it last year and it worked 😊