Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Toad tadpole infestation

It all started one night with an overpowering humm originating from my sweet,innocent, lovable pond. Doing recon on the pond the next day I observed thousands (no exxageration) of horny toads enveloped in a mass orgy...it burned my innocent eyes!! I had to look away!! The afterproduct, masses of dark eggs on strings quickly evolved into a plague of biblical proportions. There were small toad tadpoles EVERYWHERE. Easily many tadpoles per each gallon of water. Must be upwards of 2-3million of them I had once thought that they would quickly succumb to the feasting of the predators in the pond (BG,LMB,Channel Cats)...But NO! The predators seem to be ignoring them. I guess they just aint very tasty or something. Does anybody know what the future hold for me? Do the tadpoles at some point become tasty little snacks? When they mature into toads will they then become prey? Or am I just gonna have to deal with a yearly assault of a million toads? If this cycle persists in a geometric fashion it could be a sign of impending armageddon... OK... I admit....I was getting a little to carried away there, but does anyone know when these tadpoles are gonna start getting munched on? My current plan is to lure a few dozen local elementary school kids to the pond an give them dip nets and tell them to have fun... and bring what you catch home to momma....I will be expecting some interesting phone calls after that. As always, any ideas, thought, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Toad tadpoles are likely to be quite poisonous as munchies go, I dare say the fish experienced quite a turn off when they pecked at them

Leave nature to take it's course and they will all hop off to be killed by droughts or frosts, until the next rains and the toads are at it again...

If the tadpole numbers are excessive, you might have an oxygen depletion problem at some stage as they develop

Regards, andy
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In Oklahoma, they make great trot-line bait. Every year we wait for the spring rains to bring out Sand Toads. The first time my father in law asked me if I wanted to go "toad-pickin'" I thought he was nuts, right along with "perch-jerkin'". But these toads, best to get them smaller than the palm of your hand, magically turn into a 20 pound catfish when hooked onto a trotline or bank pole by the light of a full moon in a rising river. I say let them grow up and have fun fishing!

Ahh, the all-toad live sex show and it's result. They certainly are intensly high-spirited little 'phibs, be it the lonely singles, the common couple, or the shockingly large number of Menage-a-Toads.

A few years ago we gathered up some toad eggs to temporarily repopulate a 5 gallon aquarium that was down to just a medium-large snail. I had no idea what percentage of the eggs would hatch, but wanted to be sure and have a few toadpoles to observe, so I put about 200 eggs in the aquarium.

Soon we had 199 toadpoles wriggling underwater, looking for something to eat. We put in filamentous algae, and it disappeared! So toadpoles will eat FA, but don't cancel your planned tilapia stocking. As noted above, they're lousy forage for most fish.

The snail ate scores of toadpoles and quickly grew to perhaps 3 times his former size - he was the biggest aquarium snail I have ever seen. But the tables turned as the remaining toadpoles got bigger and hungrier. A snail can't outrun toadpoles, and they ended up eating him (even as he tried to defend himself and snack on a couple of them). Positively Darwinian.

Anyway, if your toad tadpoles are the same species as ours (Bufo americanus, I believe), they don't grow very big before they transform into toads. Soon the millions of toadpoles should be millions of startlingly tiny toads, which will hop away from your pond looking for bugs, rarely to be seen until next years all-toad orgy.

We have the same thing happen to our pond here in Michigan every year. Although I've never witnessed the toad orgy (glad about that). I've seen the after effects. As the tadpoles develop and begin to emerge from the pond it seems that they always want to head in the direction of our house and yard. Let's just say that this makes for some mighty fine stepping. The wife also will not mow the yard during this time as it is impossible to not run over dozens and dozens of them each time. I sort of feel bad the first few I run over but when that quickly ends. One year I did a little semi-scientific test and averaged 4 small toads per square yard.

My livestock tank is full of them like youa re talking about. I have always heard that the presence of frogs is a good sign. They are environmentally sensitive so they are a good gauge that you have a healthy eco-system.

Theo has this situation pretty well summed described. Toad tadpoles (Bufo genus) will be in the pond consuming alots of attached algae as they grow larger in to a small tailess toad. Emergence from the pond is in about 6-10 weeks after egg hatching. Development time depends primarily on temperature units. A very low percnetage of the tadpoles live long enough to reach maturity which often happens with prolific spawners including fish.

Tadpoles are good for the pond because they do a spring clean-up of the attached algae in the pond and remove some of the algae nutrients from the pond in thier exit from the pond.

Sarchasm - How about coming back here when the tadpoles disappear and let us know how long it took for them to leave your pond in your growing zone? They disappear around July 4th in northwest Ohio ponds that are deeper. Wetlands are a different story due to ambient water temps.

BC,
I will reply with an update in a few weeks. Thanks for the replies everyone.
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