Frogs - not even one!

[polygro]

Why would a wildlife pond not have any frogs at all?

We dug our small pond (8x3 feet) in May 2006 and immediately got 2 species of damselflies and common darters (which emerged last year). Last summer we had a lot of newts who produced young. The occasional frog visited then too. But not now.

Is it possible that too much weed might put them off? Is there anything we can do to attract them to our garden or do they just prefer our next-door-neighbour?

Any thoughts please?

Cheers

Polly

[Dogghound]

Theres no frogs in your garden? or theres none breeding? do you use slug pellets ect? have you got alot of ground covering plants? they may be there you just may not be seeing them, they are quite crepuscular.

[polygro]

There are absolutely no frogs at all in the garden, that I can see. I go out at night with my torch but only see newts.

Around half of the pond is short grass but the rest is meadow with plenty of cover. We garden organically, encouraging all manner of mammals (including nightly visits from badgers), birds and insects.

But no frogs...

[Dogghound]

Very strange. And there are frogs in other locations locally?

[polygro]

Yes, there are loads of frogs in next doors' garden and frogspawn in a pond a few houses away.

[Dogghound]

So are the frogs not breeding? this wouldnt be to strange due to more established sites locally. Frogs not being in your garden full stop is very strange. Even if there isnt a pond you still get frogs. Do you have lots of cover? i presume you mean in they arnt there in summer.

[Kayleigh]

I get newts and toads breeding in my pond (10ft x 3ft) but not frogs..I have a barrel on the patio, the frogs breed in there..I think frogs like a small ponds and will not breed if there are newts as they eat the tadpoles.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

I get newts and toads breeding in my pond (10ft x 3ft) but not frogs..I have a barrel on the patio, the frogs breed in there..I think frogs like a small ponds and will not breed if there are newts as they eat the tadpoles.

I had the same situation with toads, newts and goldfish all breeding but never had frogs, except one year but the frog spawn never hatched. Now Im luck if I have any newts let alone toads and frogs

Originally Posted by polygro

We garden organically, encouraging all manner of mammals (including nightly visits from badgers), birds and insects.

But no frogs...

Maybe the badgers ate them lol

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

I get newts and toads breeding in my pond (10ft x 3ft) but not frogs..I have a barrel on the patio, the frogs breed in there..I think frogs like a small ponds and will not breed if there are newts as they eat the tadpoles.

It's not true about frogs not using ponds where newts breed, though you are right about them being important predators of tadpoles. I have several dozen frogs breed in my (not very big) pond + also have breeding Smooth Newts, which help control the huge numbers of tadpoles. Sadly I have no toads, though did introduce some unwanted toad spawn to my pond a couple of times but never saw any toadlets.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

It's not true about frogs not using ponds where newts breed, though you are right about them being important predators of tadpoles. I have several dozen frogs breed in my (not very big) pond + also have breeding Smooth Newts, which help control the huge numbers of tadpoles. Sadly I have no toads, though did introduce some unwanted toad spawn to my pond a couple of times but never saw any toadlets.

I read toads like bigger ponds so I was surprised when they bred in mine just 3 months after the pond was built..I read frogs would not breed where there were lots of predators like newts..But frogs don't read books