Sunday, July 5, 2009

Frog Update




If you read my previous post, we've had frogs in the pool. Not just one or two - 20! at a time. Some of them have laid eggs in the pool. I keep scooping out frogs and eggs. If I don't scoop them out quickly, the chlorine kills them. I'd much rather scoop out live frogs than dead ones. Except the live ones are very lively, and often jump out of the scooper net and land on rocks, or, right back in the water. Very athletic, these froggies!


Anyway! We also have desert toads out here in the wild west. They hibernate all year, and come out only during monsoon season, which is now.






I found this one in the pool, sitting on the steps. He was HUGE. Not as big as a dinner plate, but almost.

I scooped him out very carefully (thought he was going to break my net) and lowered him to the other side of the fence.

Sad to report, he didn't make it.



:0(
By the way, desert toads are poisonous. If your dog licks it, he will die. If YOU lick one, you will hallucinate. The Native Americans used to use them in ceremonies.
You have to be very careful letting your dogs out at night. Put on all the lights, and carry a flashlight, and monitor them really closely.

Anyway, I much prefer these little guys.

2 comments:

Judy said...

oh, such ugly creatures! They are so big...I would not like fishing them out of the pool. I have heard about the frogs that when licked caused hallucinations I just never knew where they existed.

Waterrose said...

We've had them on our back patio lately. Thankfully not to many...since it's hard to keep track of the dogs in our back yard. In the fall we had little green frogs launching themselves at our garage doors and killing themselves....it was very weird!