2 dead female frogs

[zculmer]

I recently moved into a rental house in the kent countryside. It soon became evident that we we overrun with frogs, they were wandering about in the garden, many mateing, and we wondered where they were heading as there was no sign of any ponds or water around. We were devastated to find out that the landlord had filled in a very large pond that had been at the location for about 20years as he didnt think that tenants would appreciate it.
I worried immediately that all these frogs would dry out or die of exhaustion looking for some water to breed in and my fears were realized when one of our drains blocked. After i fished out a bag full of leaves i also found handfuls of frogspawn all covered in soapy water from the washing machine and opaque looking.
I immediately went out and bought a half wooden barrel and filled it with water and pond plants and a large treestump that floated on the top so that the frogs would have somewhere to rest. I found a couple of mateing pairs nearby and put them on the stump. All day they appeared quite happy, locked together and i was really please with myself.
Today though just one day after my elation, disaster!! I looked in the barrel and found that both the female frogs are dead! One was flat on her back in the bottom and one was hangeing onto the side just ontop of a small rock.The male frogs are nowhere to be seen so must have hopped away. What have I done, i see no evidence of frog spawn and there was easy access in and out of the barrel. Why did they die, i feel like it is all my fault,have i killed them with kindness?
i fully rinsed out the barrel, it only smelt a little of whatever alcohol was in there originally but this was cleane with fresh water, no detergents.

[Gill Catton]

Frogs do just die sometimes, but I wouldn't be suprised if there is a wood preservative (something similar to creosote) which would have leached out into the water? You could empty it and get a bit of plastic/rubber pondliner to put in before filling with water again, this should solve the problem.