Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Exploding Frog Population

Hi all,

Seeking some advice for a friend on a dense frog population that has become somewhat of a nuisance in a 1 acres pond. Any ideas in controlling the population?

I hate it when the frogs start exploading. Makes such a mess.

On a more serious note, I've heard LMB like to eat them, so maybe a healthy bass population might provide a longer term solution.

I'm guessing though there is lots of cover for the frogs in this pond? Might try to reduce the habitat for them.

My experience is the populations tend to come and go, depending on environmental conditions prevailing that particular year.

A good frog population means good water. What species of fish are in the pond, and wnat size are they?

I'll take every frog I can in my ponds...they're another option for forage for the fish at all but the largest sizes, and to me they're just another benefit of pond ownership. I love hearing the spring peepers in the early spring and the bullfrog croaks later into summer.

They are a forage option for sure. When cleaning my dam, the frogs jump in the pond as I trim. The LMB will follow me down the bank, and wait on them to hit the water.

Yep LMB love frogs. In fact I think they enjoy attacking them. LOL I you have bass their shouldn't be too many frogs.

I have had big frog populations for 20+ years. The frogs really exploded around the 3 ac. pond when I cleaned up around the pond a couple of years ago and just left light cover right at the waters edge to prevent snakes from hanging out. I have had concerns about physically unhealthy children (cancer, ect...) contracting disease because of the excessive frog poop around. This year I decided to take maintenance a step further for other reasons. I now mow around the entire 3ac pond every 2 weeks and weed eat to the waters edge 1 time a month. The side effect of weed eating to the edge is that the frog population has decreased to a much lower level. I believe The removal of the weeds right at the waters edge exposed the frogs to a level that they no longer felt comfortable from predators. Now I have a few million frogs at the ponds nearby (1 is 700', and 4 others between 1200' to 1500' away) that has growth around them.
Also note I have observed BG eating frogs as well. The smaller frogs now hop into the water when I am weed eating and the BG will hit em fast.

I have leapord frogs. When I walk around the bank, they hop into the water but immediately get back to the shore. I guess they figure that I am a safer bet.

The owls hawks egrets and herons seem to do a more than adequate job, I tried stocking some bullfrog tadpoles, not sure how many are still around. Was cool to see a hawk feasting on frog legs though. The kids loved the thousands of tadpoles, baby toads and frogs hopping around everywhere this spring/ summer

Too many frogs = Dinner

First world problem solved

Once when Bill Cody was at my pond he said you hae a frog pond. I never thought of it that way but that's what I have. Lots of frogs which I like and lots of vegitation that is some of the cause. Because I have so many frogs I can take my boat out in the pond and look in any directon and take frog pictures.

Looks like there are plenty of bullfrogs in Montana! I see suppliers in Michigan trying to source more young bullfrogs to sell them. Maybe we can grow these in our ponds or even in 'frog farms' and then outsource to gourmet restaurants?

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/10/0...hreaten-native/

Us PBers are obviously a very seriously demented group. SNRUBS's comments could have been submitted most any of us.



I love my bullfrogs -- and I don't even eat them. I consider them friends. Since they all look and act a little different from each other, I feel I know many personally. Many have been given names.

They serenade us many months of the year.

There are always a few who act like heart fibrillators to keep me going.

For a few years we had a big bull frog living on the northside of our main pond. He lived on the "wild side". It is the shoreline I only bushhog/weedwhack once a year.

That frog nearly gave me a heart attack every time I fished that edge of that pond. I'd get within inches of him. He'd let out one of his bloodcurdling sounds just as he'd jump about 4-6 feet into the pond.

The last time we saw each other, he had been about 20-30 feet back from one of our encounters. I guess he swam back to shore.

As I was casting, I heard a major commotion in the tall grass where we had our encounter. I saw a huge bass flopping around in the grass and weeds. The fat bass flopped his way back into the pond.

I never again saw my big silly buullfrog friend, Mr. Amphibious Infarction.

Ken

Great frog picture John.

Snrub, ponds have uses besides the obvious. I never thought I would become an armature photographer as a hobby at my age all because of a pond that has all kinds of interesting camera shots. It’s funny, I build a pond that I managed and in the end it seems to manage me. I’m just along for the ride. As a result I just joined an art society and will enter some pictures at the end of the month. All because of this hole in the ground that holds water. Funny

My condolences Ken.

I can relate to that completely John.

The last time I was fishing (with the exception of some spearfishing in the 80's) before building a pond in my back yard was about 40 years ago when my kids were small. And I did more baiting hooks than fishing then to boot. I've been fishing more in the last year since building these ponds than in my entire previous life.

One of my closest friends that I've known for years mentioned over lunch the other day, "I just can't imagine you fishing".

Go figure. I would have never imagined me getting this involved with ponds, but I'm enjoying it.

I'm not sure what fish are currently in the pond. Would stocking LMB help reduce frog numbers?

LMB will definitely eat frogs given the chance.

The big variable in my non expert opinion would be what type of shore line cover there is for the frogs. If there is lots of weeds and grass for the frogs to use as cover, the bass might not get very many opportunities to eat the frogs. So the LMB might not make that much difference. But if the frog jumps into open water and there is a LMB hanging around big enough to eat it, the frog is likely going to be a goner.

If there is such extensive habitat for the frogs to eat, lay eggs and reproduce the LMB might not be enough consumption to make much of a difference. So it depends.