In my nearly 68 years on this earth, I've seen almost no downsides to having any kind of frogs or toads where I fish and garden.
I wasn't too fond of the "giant bufo toads" we had in Hawaii that would hide during the day in my cucumber patches. I'd think I was grabbing a cucumber, and it would be one of those critters. They secreted a nasty substance that was supposedly a poison. I'd just wash my hands good after grabbing one. The hippies of the 70s would lick them to get a psychedelic high. I never tried that.
As a kid I used tadpoles for bass bait underneath the cranberry bogs along the south edge of the 80-acre lake on my uncle's farm. The tadpoles produced monster bass (for Northern Wisconsin) in June and early July. I think they were probably leopard frog tadpoles.
I mostly have bullfrogs throughout the summer on my bass/bluegill/CC/HSB pond. Just not very many.
The only downside was one big bull frog I named "Heart Attack." He was rather large and lived in the high grass on the north side of the pond. I'd get with about step of him, and he'd let out a croak, noisily spring several feet into the water, and nearly give me a heart attack.
One day, after he did that, I'd moved about 20-30 feet away from where he resided - after he'd done his act. I saw and heard all kinds of commotion in that area. A big bass had jumped into the grass and grabbed him, and then the bass flopped its way back into the water. That was the last of my friend "Heart Attack".
That pond has a limited number of smaller bullfrogs. Near sunset I regularly hear bass going up into the grass to grab them. (I keep about 12- to 18-inch wide swath of taller grass all the way around that pond for critter habitat. When I weed whack, I don't trim it less than about 8-12 inches).
I have a grow-out pond that is filled with RES and FHMs this summer. It is really filled with bull frogs. One is especially big. I've named him "B.P." for B.P Richfield from the old TV comic series "Dinosaurs".
Now and then, something goes in there and cleans out a number of the bullfrogs. My RES and FHM population also takes a toll. I'm thinking it is probably some kind of snakes. I just never see them.
My put-and-take HBG/HSB/CC pond has a few tadpoles, but virtually no frogs, but the settling pond that feeds that pond is loaded with bullfrogs and green frogs. Right now the settling pond is a slimy algae mess, but the frogs seem to like it.
I have toad houses made from old flower pots in the north shadows around the house. Most stay occupied. I figure thee toads eat a lot of bugs. I water the houses a couple of times a week with a hose.
In any case, I love having the frogs and toads around.
Snakes -- not so much.
Ken
