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toads
Posy
Posts: 3,601
I have a small garden pond. Every spring, toads come to spawn in it, but rather than a happy sign of good things to come, it is soon a scene of carnage. For every female toad there are many males - I counted forty males and three females one year - and the poor things are mobbed and drowned. Most do not even spawn. I have to fish out the bodies before they poison the water. Is there anything that can be done to improve this situation?
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Not really anything that can be done Posy, once they are mobbed, this is a natural part of their life cycle. It is always sad to see the exhausted and dead females.
I do not know of any solutions once the females are mobbed. It is extremely difficult to 'rescue' a female as the males hold on very tightly and the stress of trying to help probably won't do any of them any good. In fact if you try to remove the males, they will just grip even more, it is a natural reaction they have to stop other males dislodging them from the females.
There does seem an unusual balance at your pond though, many more males than females is normal, but your situation sounds extreme. Is it a fairly newly established population? I'm just wondering as the males will mature a year or so earlier so there may be lots of females to come in future years if it has only been going for two or three years.
Probably the only effective solution would be to go out at night with a torch and intercept females and single males before they reach the pond, then place them in something like a cut down water butt that the other males can't get into
Hopefully this way you would get spawn and save the females from being mobbed and drowned.
PS There is a list of local reptile and amphibian groups here:
http://www.arguk.org/local-groups
and you can always ask at
www.herpetofauna.co.uk/forum/
Though you might find it is me that answers again
Can't be of much help but wish I had a problem with toads .I had 1 last year and he looked after my hosta s a treat.He must have devoured every slug around the pots because the others across the garden looked like lace plants .
I introduced a very small pond in the garden last year hoping it would invite frogs and toads into the garden to feast on the slugs and snails. But , as yet not a single amphibian !! Will they naturally progress into my garden ?
The usual advice is to let them colonise naturally. Introducing spawn to a pond could spread disease or invasive plants so is not usually advisable.
So it is best to let them find their own way.
I can't promise though they will come, it depends if there are local populations and if the pond conditions suit them.
Thank you for all your suggestions. I think contacting local wildlife groups sounds like a good idea and possibly trying to intercept females before they reach the pond. I will certainly give it a try.
We made the pond more than 20 years ago and the wildlife just arrived. At first we had frogs, toads and newts but newts eat frogspawn so the frogs now go somewhere else. Generally speaking, it gives us a great deal of pleasure, but I do feel sorry for those poor toads - gang rape followed by murder - who needs EastEnders?
I've always thought watching nature has more drama than EastEnders or reality TV
Would love to know Posy if you come up with a solution. It does seem that getting spawn successfully will be the solution in the long run, in the hope that more females are produced for future years.
I will let you know!