Sunday, January 26, 2014

How you can help frogs.

Do your part to help out your native frogs! Here in Florida we have so many invasive species that just devastate our local wildlife. One of the worst in my book is the Cuban Tree frog. They are White, unnaturally large, and are everywhere! As much as I don't believe in killing anything, sometimes it is for the better good. I had a pond at my old house where I had catfish, Every morning I would go out into my yard, looking inside the elephant ears, gutters, and bromliads and snatch up the little devils and feed them to my catfish.

Over about two years I stopped seeing them in my yard! I started to see Native Tree frogs instead. It was wonderful. I hadnt seen any green frogs in a good 5-6 years. I was so happy to hear the noise of green frogs and bull frogs. I even started seeing a wider variety of insects which suprised me to be honest, I didnt expect that. I saw more moths than ever before. The papyrus around my ponds were packed with green frogs. This seemed an issue so heres my idea.

To give frogs places to hide, along places such as fences, and walls where you commonly see frogs, plant tall grasses! I did this and they loved it! The tall grass harbors insects and at night the bugs come out and the frogs are there to eat them. These grasses seemed to attract the most frogs

Pampas Grass: The sharp blades deter most animals but for the frogs it makes a perfect place to hide, it resembles sawgrass blades.

Fakahatchee Grass: This native grass has thick tall green lovely blades. It attracts insects with its thick growing style and frogs flock- hop, to it.

:::: These non-grass plants

White Bird of Paradise: The large green leaves give good coverage from bugs, and the flowers attract insects with all the nectar.

Canna Lilly: Plant these along ponds and it makes a perfect roost for frogs when calling for mates near water.

Bromiliads: These tropical plants hold water so the humidity helps keep frogs moist in hot sun, plant these under trees or if you can, stick them to the trees for a great look.


The best thing for frogs is to not use pesticide or fertilizer, they breath through their skin so they absorb all those nasty toxins. Let your bushes get a little crazy before you trim them, put those oak leaves under your bushes and plant to give insects places to live. Itl act as fertilizer too! If you have fruit that you dont fully eat hide it in your shrubs, your neighbors wont see it but the nats will feed the frogs. Frog populations are declining world wide so do your part to keep these cute critters around!

For more information check out this awesome website http://www.savethefrogs.com/actions/sharp-park/index.html

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