Common Toad?

Countrylass · #1 (**permalink**) 24-09-2011, 06:09 PM

I found this little guy under the trays my runner beans had been in while I was clearing the vegetable patch ready for next year. I think I've got another toad living in my greenhouse under the tomato pots - I've certainly not suffered with slug / snail damage whereas my toadless friend has had all the tomatoes in his greenhouse nibbled. Is it normal to have so many small toads in a garden without a pond?

Hedera · #2 (**permalink**) 24-09-2011, 06:30 PM

Yes, definitely a toad, nice one! They live around the garden and find a cool place to hide under something. Good for the slug extermination programme.

Dogghound · #3 (**permalink**) 25-09-2011, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Countrylass

Is it normal to have so many small toads in a garden without a pond?

Yes, toads are very terrestrial and tend to only spend the breeding season near water. The rest of the year they can range quite far away from water and have no association with it. They do need to be in a fairly moist environment though, much less so than in comparison with frogs though.

Billabong Karen · #4 (**permalink**) 29-09-2011, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Yes, toads are very terrestrial and tend to only spend the breeding season near water. The rest of the year they can range quite far away from water and have no association with it. They do need to be in a fairly moist environment though, much less so than in comparison with frogs though.

Look at this Dogghound - taken during some warm weather a couple of weeks ago! I was very surprised, as like you I thought toads dont spend much time in water.

I was even more surprised when this one gulped down a drowning wasp - I also thought they didnt hunt in the water! Karen

Dogghound · #5 (**permalink**) 29-09-2011, 03:33 PM

Yes, toads sill still visit ponds it is not as black and white as toads breed then never return until the following year, they just tend to be more terrestrial.

I have never seen them taking insects from the surface but could imagen it and in shallow water. They tend not to feed when they are fully submerged unlike newts.

Billabong Karen · #6 (**permalink**) 30-09-2011, 09:13 AM

It was great to watch (though not so great for the wasp...). The wasp dropped into the water and flopped around about two feet away from the toad, who sllooowwwly moved through the water towards it, and then BAM! gulped it down. I was stunned and felt like David Attenborough witnessing a lion kill or something...