How deep is your pond and do you intend to prevent freezing solid to the bottom because you can if you really want to do it even in Wisconson (heaters, stock tank deicer, covers, bubblers) and I mean a combination of the above. But only if your pond is over 2 feet deep would I try it. Your hardy pond plants might not make it freezing solid either.

Do you have a natural area (swamp or pond) nearby the frogs came from? Catch them and put them there. What kind of frogs are they? Bullfrogs need to go to the bottom of the water where it will not freeze solid to survive. They do not bury in soil next to the pond.

We need more information about your pond, it's location (sheltered spot), depth, what type of plants, what type of frogs.

Thanks ...the pond is only 2 feet at most. Sadly, I don't know what kind of frogs these are. We have had plants for several years, as the pond was being installed. The lilys I winter in my friends deeper pond, some are just seasonal ( hyacinth, lettuce) and some survive just fine ( reeds) I bought a few tropicals this year I will bring in.

There is a natural pond about a block away, and a wetlands in the park near our home. Last year we had a frog or two, but this year, there is a whole colony. DNR said they will burrow into the outer edges, but without knowing what kind of frogs these are, I think they just said that to appease me.

I am hoping they do, but I don't really know how long to wait before I start thinking about catching them and bringing them down to the big pond.

Sandy

I would take them there now and put them near the deepest water you can find that also has good frog habitat on the edges so they can hide and wait for insects. I may take a while to catch them all. Space them out a bit so they don't eat each other. Good luck.

My experience is that frogs will die if they try to winter over - I'm in St Paul MN, fyi. I find their little froggy carcasses some years (but not all) in my skimmer box. Leopard frogs, and few if any large adults. If I could move em, I would.

Thay are wild creatures. If they couldn't survive your winter then they wouldn't be there. Adult frogs breathe air. They hybernate in the ground. You need do nothing for them. I was excavating a church once and found a greenfrog lying belly up in a scoop of earth. Thinking it was dead I decided to freak my buddy out by putting it in his lunch pail. Upon opening the pail at lunch the frog climbed up on the edge and freaked me out. It was frozen solid when I first found it.

Hey stinkydogs, many different species of frogs out there but most indigenous to our region hibernate at the bottom of natural bodies of water. comettose gave you good sound advice all factors considered which includes your location and the depth of your pond. Stock tank heaters are very expensive to purchase as well as to run over winter and so are de-icers not to mention the costs of all the materials you need at the bottom of the pond to keep them from resurfacing in the dead of winter.

I don't know how big your pond is but there are people out there who have smaller pre-form ponds who place sheets of plywood over them to keep frogs out. Not a good idea to do this if you are overwintering fish or plants that need to photosynthesize in your pond but a quick fix for the basic water feature type pond. Very inexpensive fine mesh synthetic netting in 4' (folded which gives you an eight foot width) widths can be purchased at fabric stores and staked down around decent sized ponds. I did that one year and it kept them out pretty good but you have to stake it down taught. I found one big bullfrog sitting in the middle of my netting with his lower half sunk in the water but he couldn't get to lower depths and had to ultimately move on to bluer and murkier pastures so to speak. Butterfly nets work fine to get the frogs. The handles are long enough to chase after them under water. One other possibility is to offer any neighborhood kids a buck or two a piece to gently round them up.