help! too many frogs

14 years ago

Please advise. My mom has a pond about 10'L x 7'w x 25" deep max, that circulates into a stream that flows back down into the pond. The last couple of years she has had so many frogs and tadpoles that they are clogging up all of her filters which than causes the pump to stop working as no water gets through the filters. The frogs don't get into the pump. There is about a 5 acre lake about 80' away from her pond. She is so frustrated with cleaning her filters constantly and I think has had to replace the pump at least once. Is there anything she can do? She was thinking of just having a pond with no circulating water with just a geyser type thing in the middle; or just filling it in and forgetting having a pond all together. I am not sure having just a pond would prevent her getting frogs. And I hate to see her fill it in. She really enjoys it when it works (don't we all). She did have some fish at one time. If she put them back in would that make a difference? Or does being so close to the lake mean she will continue to have too many frogs? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jodi in MN

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Comments (8)

sleeplessinftwayne
14 years ago
Jodi, the fish should reduce the frog population a good bit. You need some sort of predator. I am not the expert on these critters that other forum members are and I am sure they will have some suggestions. I have the opposite problem. I can't get a frog to show up and if I import them, they leave. Does that big pond have any fish? Does it have the same population problem? Sandy
mybusyfamily6
14 years ago
I hear bigger koi like the tadpoles, but I'm not sure if the water is deep enough. can you put some sort of screen over the pump area to keep them from sucking into it?
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garyfla_gw
14 years ago
Hi
I've found this too be the most serious problem I've had and found no good solution. I'm in s.florida so have the invasive cane toads. Fish will not work because the species is poisonous. Doesn't kill the fish they just refuse to eat them lol.
Fish might work in your situation what species are they ?? Don't think cane toads can live in your zone ??
maybe some wise person will jump in and give us both an answer!!! gary
groundbeef1
14 years ago
I got a prefilter for my pump, and that has reduced the amount of "junk" that gets to the impeller. She might try to put the pump in some sort of pre-filter enclosure that has progressivly smaller media in it so that the critters cant get to the pump intake.

A fountain in the center would simply have the same problem as they would get sucked into that feature as well. You need to prevent them from getting to the pump.
babalu_aye
14 years ago
I have goldfish in my pond that do a good job at gobbling up most of the tadpoles as long as they don't get too big (the tadpoles). The fish have a feast for a few days after the frog eggs hatch and then the tadpoles are mostly gone.

John
pondbucket
14 years ago
My goldfish are small in number and size for my tadpole population that is absolutely huge this year. I think we had about nine visiting American Toads lay eggs this spring. I fear what is about to occur as the tadpoles are growing larger and larger each day.
Martha Lyle
13 years ago
I've been trying to clear out cane growing in my pond. The pond is spring fed and run off fed, just a natural little creek flowing into the bay, that we dammed up several years ago. It gets pretty low during dry summers, but never completely dry. There's lots of frogs, algae, mosquito fish, and WEEDS! You can hardly see the pond for the weeds. My yard helper pulls them out, but they come back within a couple of weeks. Is there anything else that I can try?
comettose
13 years ago
My suggestion is to get a large pump sock or bag and line it on the bottom and sides with coarse filter material. Some come with both bag/filter media already or you can also just buy the bag and rig up using filter media of your choice. Make sure it is coarse and thick.

It is easy to pull out of the pond and rinse it off with the hose periodically. Most big pumps also come with a rigid pre-filter (I like) and some with a sponge filter (which I find clog too quickly).

I have a pondmaster 2400 and it is in a large fine mess bag with draw string and this bag came with a circular thick coarse filter that fits the bottom and a rectangular coarse filter I can wrap around the inside of the mesh bag. Then the whole filter, with it's rigid pre-filter, goes right into the bag (in the middle) and I draw it up around the pump with just the hose sticking out. It rarely needs cleaning other than a rinse and my pump doesn't clog ever.

Here is just one source with bags but you can find combo units all over the internet. Most likely your own brand of pump sells something specific to your pump size and shape as many manufactuers do. Mine was actually not built for my pump model but it is big.

Here is a link that might be useful: Possible Purchase Source

help! too many frogs

Comments (8)

sleeplessinftwayne

mybusyfamily6

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