Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations If anyone says toads are scarce, it’s not true

They are all in my pond. This may have happened before, but I’ve just never witnessed it. Came up to mow today and I could hear a strange whining noise when on the JD 540 mowing near the bank. Then I noticed the toads.. Lots of toads. About one or two every foot along the bank. Many were coupled together. Sorry, no pics of toad porn.
I took of my headphones and shut off the mower. Holy crap! They are loud!
So, if anyone is missing some toads, I know where they are. Hopefully they will leave here soon. I should have toad tadpoles by the bushel load soon. I’ll put them on eBay. Haha!
Hopefully you can’t have too many toads.
I was wondering if toads were a sign of the apocalypse.

Jeff

I had them like that last year, I couldn't believe how many. A few weeks ago I seen some around but nothing like last year but I do see lots of little black tadpoles. I was thinking the LMB might of kept their numbers down this year.

SetterGuy that is great news! I'm assuming you have American Toads as they live on land but do their extremely loud mating calls and mating in a body of water. We have been privileged to live at the pond and so can watch for that moment when seemingly all at once the woods empty out of toads and the water starts boiling with animated lovemaking. Some years we get a nice stretch of warm weather and the activity goes on day and night for about 3 days and then they are gone. Some years a cold spell comes in and puts the mood on ice. This year we heard the frogs in the woods but then the cold put a stop to it so far. I hear the screech starting up in the woods again tonight as we have a balmy warm day.

Really fun to see the action take place every year as if on cue. I also notice that once the activity is going on the owls move in and have a feast. The eggs start out as barely visible strands but over a few days get larger, more gray, and more puffy looking.

The 'toad poles' seem to be exempt from predation in my pond. Swarms of little black blobs with tails get bigger and bigger and more mobile. They feast on the algae in the shallows and you will notice much clearer banks if you have algae there to eat. They eat right down to the sand in my pond.

Then one day they all sprout legs and start hopping through the grass towards the woods again.

We are past the toad mating (which occurs in th shallows) and thousands of little black tadpoles are everywhere. When they leave the pond in droves, we cannot even walk near the pond without avoiding stepping on them. Our spring peepers are often so load in the early spring that their calls hurt my ears. I think its a good sign for the habitat.

Our toad days started a month early this year, then put on ice. This means the toad spring will be stretched out over time. By back a few weeks ago, hundreds of them bobbing about awkwardly in the water looking for a good time. It is amazing how during the rest of the year, I almost never see the larger toads. But in the spring, they all come out. The driveway is a popular spot to get after worms during the spring, so we are VERY careful mowing and driving this time of year.

What I don't' understand is..With the thousands of tadpoles (at least 4 varieties and probably 10's of thousands) in my pond every spring...I should be shoveling the emerging hoppers like a 10" snow, but I don't see near as many as I would expect. They are there, just not in numbers that closely represents the numbers of tadpoles. I would think you could see the exodus from space...lol. The fresh hoppers must be forage for many land critters as the tadpoles don't seem to be tasty.

In my pond, whatever swims eats toad tadpoles. I can have an acre pond ringed with a black band of toad tadpoles 2 feet wide around the whole pond, and until they grow legs and hop out of the pond they are constantly getting hammered by fish. Bass, Bluegills, etc., it doesn't matter.

esshup, Just like that today on a very nice warm day today the pond and nearby lanes to the woods are buzzing with toads coming, going, sunning, swimming, or in some way all doing their thing.

As I walked around the pond I wondered to myself is LMB eat the mating toads too? I have no LMB in my pond but for those pondowners who have large mouthed predators, aren't the toads easy picking by the larger LMB or are they left alone while mating?

The toads have a glands right behind their head that secrete a milky white substance that deters many things from eating them.

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/american-toad-parotoid-glands/

I have observed birds having a feast on baby toads in the grass as they leave the pond. The little buggers are tiny, and are easily missed/squished if not looking close. A few years back, the grass around the pond was swarming with them.

The causality rate for critters like this are astonishingly high to reach maturity. Just like fish. Kind of sucks to be born on earth for many species.

We’ve always had masses of the much smaller toad tadpoles in the pond. I guess they’ve been doing this “gathering” orgy every year. I just happened to stumble into it this year for the first time. I had no idea there were that many toads around. I won’t worry so much about grandkids catching them, and then “loving” them to death. Ha!