How do I get rid of bullfrogs in my pond?

send them to me

ZEP, I hear ya! My first thoughts are large mouth bass and/or snakes. I'll take the lmb over the snakes every time.

Love my monster bull frogs and can’t imagine getting rid of them.

I have never heard of anyone trying to eradicate a pond of bullfrogs. I guess that's why I have never heard of a bullfrog trap, but to my surprise...they exist! A quick web search for "bullfrog trap" and there they are. If my pond was full of sizable bullfrogs, I would not have a problem getting volunteers to hunt them, however, I doubt you could wipe them out, just reduce the croaking.

What's in your pond besides frogs?
What size is your pond?

I am amazed at the amount of tadpoles that have been in my new pond over the last year, but I do not see anywhere near the amount of frogs and toads that should come from the massive numbers of tadpoles. I have plenty of snakes around, a few green herons, a GBH on occasion, and the elusive raccoons and opossums. I guess they do the trick as I do not have enough bullfrogs to hunt, maybe two or three that would be worth harvesting.

And, I have to ask...how many frogs do you have? What's are your concerns regarding too many frogs?

Loretta,
You can ship some to me too I actually BOUGHT bullfrog tadpoles to try to get some started by me. I have lots of tadpoles but don't see very many adults. I know we have 2 barred owls that hang out by the pond and probably scoop up a lot of adult frogs on the fly.

also, my adult bullfrogs never get much bigger than maybe 4" all stretched out. The ones that you folks in the south post pictures of (where it takes two hands to wrap around their neck andy they are 12" or more from stem to stern boggle my mind!!) Those seriously must be a different species as there is no way our bullfrogs ever would get even half that size.

What is your concern for the bullfrogs?

And welcome back after 2 years of no postings! it is great to have you back!

Quarter, the reason you don't have a lot of other frogs is the Bullfrogs are eating them when they arrive. That is how the bulls get so big, they devour everything! When I didn't have a lot of bullfrogs, I had loads of every other species. Now that I have a lot of fat, green dinner plate-sized frogs, they are about the only ones. Only thing they don't seem to eat is toads.

Why don’t I want bullfrogs? IMO they are invasive and harmful to a pond. Nothing IN the pond eats them or their tadpoles. Bullfrogs eat anything that fits into their huge mouths including fish, minnows, crayfish etc., forage for my desired fish and they produce 20,000 tadpoles vs 5,000 tadpoles for a regular frog. They must poop a lot too, biomass that I don’t need. Since the arrival of bullfrogs my algae mass has grown incredibly.

My pond is 1/4 acre with yellow perch, red eared sunfish and 4 walleyes. I don’t know how many adult frogs I have, there’s quite a few. When you walk around the pond they jump in and screech, they startle me all the time, so annoying. The tadpoles are so numerous that when I set a fish trap I get predominantly tadpoles, close to 50 in a small minnow trap. I started trapping the tadpoles and have removed a couple hundred but it’s not putting a dent in their numbers. I was fantasizing about a fish survey using electrical current to shock them and then remove them. Trapping would take forever. What other ways are there to catch a bullfrog.

While I like bullfrogs in my pond, there are quite a few folks who like to gig and eat them. You might check around with your friends and see if they have interest. This would preferentially remove the large ones that seem to be the source of your biggest complaint. For me, I would need to know the person that I let on my pond. I actually had two people at my Memorial Day picnic talking about gigging frogs and how wonderful the legs are when cooked up from fresh frogs.

TY Canyoncreek for the warm welcome! Good to see you out here too.

The GB herons kill the bullfrogs around my pond, and leave them lying on the bank with a spear wound.

I've posted this story before about one of by bull frogs. I named him "Heart Attack". He lived on the swampy side of my 0.7 acre pond that includes LMB. I keep the grass between 6-10 inches high on that side of tha pond.

I can't remember if he was there for one or two years. But, he started with me in the early spring. I'd get with inches of him, he'd let out a loud croak, and air-launch himself 2-3 feet into the pond -- always giving me quite a startle.

One day after he had pulled his fun activity on me, I had meandered about 20 feet further down the pond edge. All of a sudden there was all kinds of commotion in the tall grass where he liked to hide.

There was a large bass flopping around in the grass. It flopped itself back into the pond.

I never saw my friend Heart Attack again.

Hahaha, that is good story. These bullfrogs practically give me a heart attack every time, you would think I would learn.. I never did have a problem with them when I had a large mouth bass pond but I don’t want to go that route.

I have read and heard contradicting claims whether fish will eat tadpoles or not. At any rate, my fish will not get big enough this year if they wanted too eat the bull tads. So, I have more than I need if anyone wants to come catch a truck load...



These overwintered in my pond and are starting to take to land.

Get rid of them while you can, lol. My bullfrog tadpoles are golf ball size, yuk. I bet they excrete a significant amount too.

Loretta,

You might enjoy the video on this site.


Tim and Rodney -- The Frog Kings

Heck, maybe you could hire Tim and Rodney.

They’re good. Watching them get speared was gross. So you catch them at night?

I've taken them during the day, but at night with a flashlight is the easiest.

It probaly takes some practice. It isn't difficult. I think I learned it when I was about 5-7 years old. I'm not sure if frog catching as an adult is like trying to teach tricks to old dogs. I also learned how to pick bucketfuls of night crawlers about then.

All you need is a good flashlight, good knees, moderately quick physical reflexes, and something to hold/carry the frogs. Some people use gigs. Some use small nets.

I've always done it by hand. The flashlight will show their eyes in grass. Grab just ahead of their head, taking a handful of grass with the frog.

These days, the best flashlights are the cheap multi-LED lamps that are frequently free with a purchase.

If you don't wish to enjoy them for dinner, I'm sure you have plenty of neighbors who would love to have them. Just keep them relatively cool and moist when storing them alive until they are ready to clean.

Our area used to be loaded with bullfrogs. No longer and I don't know what happened. I suspect a drought got them. We also see very few leapord frogs.

Bullfrogs are easy to catch during the day with a rod and reel, just throw a Texas rigged rubber worm up on the bank near them and "twitch" it. Your bait needs to be "moving" or they won't see it.

Careful what you start... "There once was a woman who swallowed a fly".

I bought a net. It will be a night mission. The rod and reel method seems the most sporting but I don’t want to have to touch the bullfrog.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

You should be able to remove a steady stream of tadpoles with a minnow trap. My SMB-YP-BGxRES pond has a bumper crop of Bullfrog tadpoles this year; I'm getting a couple dozen a day with a minnow trap hanging from the dock about 2 feet down in the water.

It won't eliminate all of them, but its ergonomically correct.

I'm trying to understand tadpole biomass and nutrient loading and the balance between the two...The tadpoles have got to be eating something. They seem to peck at the floating FA which leads me to think they are eating "stuff" like micro organisms, algae, bugs, etc. This stuff constitutes nutrients in my mind which the tadpoles are breaking down (this is good right?). Then, the tadpoles add their waste to the pond (this is bad, right?). They do not take up DO as they breath air by gulping at the surface. They do not seem to be interested in the feed at all.

What gives? Where's the proper balance?

Once the tads grow legs, they exit the pond and take some biomass and nutrients with them (this seems good too, right?)

It sure seems like popular opinion is to reduce the amount of tadpoles IF you have ALOT of them which I do, but are we overlooking a benefit?

I'm trying to decide if I should join the "tadpole haters club".

We like listening to the big frogs calling. We’ve had them thick in the pond since it filled. No I’ll effects that I’m aware of. I always thought too many frogs would attract snakes, but that hasn’t been the case. My SMB don’t seem to go after frogs. Nobody seems to mess with tadpoles. I think the kingfisher has picked up a few by mistake. He always spits them out on the dock. Just a little momemto to let me know he’s been by.

Good info I did not know even kingfishers did not like BF tadpoles. LMB will eat BF tadpoles when other foods are scarce or non existent.

Tadpoles breathe with gills like fish until they begin to develop lungs. I believe they eat some FA. IMO they do no real harm to a pond's ecosystem. They are a natural part of it, native to the USA.

John, I stand corrected... I did not know that they have gills in their early stages.

Bill, I have bullfrogs in my CNBG only forage pond, but almost none in my LMB heavy main BOW.

And I've had good luck catching bullfrogs on topwaters, especially frog imitators. Very territorial!