Put up a small sign that says "NO FROGS ALLOWED"?

I too an anxious for suggestions to this post. I have a few and one very near and dear to my heart named Luigi and he was in the skimmer box last week sitting in the hole that goes to the overflow drain hose.. Cute but not a good idea as the pump is just underneath that opening. He was seen the next day so I know he didn't get chewed up but now I am worried. We are keeping everything (pump and waterfall) running all winter and there is about a 5 inch space between the netting to catch debris and the lid that is open and that is how they get in there.. I watched quite a few of my baby frogs sitting on the brushes behind the net this summer and have no idea how many of them made it since Luigi is the only frog I have that just sits there sunning when I walk near. I thought of making some sort of net barrier so they can't get back in there but haven't come up with any ideas that would be quick and easy.

The easiest way that I found was to put a net across the opening and secure it with twine, etc. to rocks or something. I've done this for years once I take the pump out for the winter.

Jan

I finally found a perfect solution by accident. Plastic chicken fence. I got this product to wrap around my compost bin, which worked great. Then I cut a piece to cover the opening to my skimmer. I secured it at the top of the box with DUCK tape. It just hangs in front of the opening and also makes removeing leaves a snap. Just lift the flap and remove the leaves. The skimmer lid covers the duct tape and the black matches the box. I'm very happy with this solution. It's called Poultry Fence. Here's a link.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100384027

Here is a link that might be useful: Poultry Fence

I had to share this picture of my Luigi. This is the first picture I posted on here so I hope I am doing it right. I'll post the link also so if the actual picture doesn't show up in the post at least you might be able to go see him another way.. I wish I knew what I was doing.. We shall see.. here goes

I would surely hate to lose my cute buddy. He lets me walk up very close to him unlike all my others that as soon as I walk out the door they quick jump into the pond and I rarely ever get to see them. I wish I knew a way to socialize them so they are more like Luigi. I pray he makes it thru the winter. This is our first year so we are living on a wing and a prayer and a lot of faith. Just wanted to share the picture. I wish we could get some more ideas for a barrier in the skimmer box.

1225223672.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:234562}}

I hope you can bear with me while I try a different thing. I really want to learn to put the picture right in the post. If it doesn't work this time if someone could send me some instruction I would appreciate it...

[IMG]http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/pp219/kimbra08/1225223672.jpg[/IMG]

Ok so I still didn't do it right.. It said to copy and paste this tag under the picture in photobucket.. I tried copy and pasting two different things and they must not be the right things. First I did the jpg number and then I did the IMG code thingy.. help!

I had the same problems with frogs going into the skimmer. Unfortunately one got shredded in the pump and parts of him ended up all over the watefall.

Someone had suggested that I put in one of those plastic egg crate sheets. Bought it at Home Depot in the building supplies aisle (with suspending ceiling stuff). It was $9.40 for a 2x4 sheet. We cut it with a jigsaw to size. I think the holes are only around 3/8" or 1/2" so we just put it in as is, and didn't put any additional screening. I leave the egg crate in all the time. It keeps my frogs out of the pump section.

The person who came up with the idea puts his egg crate up on the outside of the skimmer. The only thing I don't like about that is that you have to constantly keep on eye on it so that it doesn't get blocked up by leaves, etc. I can see this being a big problem especially now in the fall with all the leaves.
With my setup, all leaves just float into the skimmer and into the end of the leaf net bag inside, still allowing full flow to the pump.

You can see the egg crate between the brushes and the support bar in the photo.

{{gwi:234564}}

robin,
I've got a Savio skimmer.
I've had the same problem with the frogs getting inside the skimmer and dying. It hurts when you've fed and got to know them all summer and then that happens at the end of their first year.

I did similar to what jan and bradley did, putting a piece of heavy gauge aluminum screen in front of the skimmer opening. You have to be careful with this because if you have any leaves falling they will clog up that screened area much quicker than they would the skimmer basket. I also thought that by doing this just before the weather started to get cold that the frogs would figure out that the skimmer was going to be off-limits and they would head elsewhere.
Next year I'm going to try something a little different. I made a small piece of screen that slides behind the handle opening of the skimmer basket, so they can't get through that, and then it folds over the top enough so they can't get over the space at the top when the lid is on.
This way I can leave the screen off the front and the farthest they're going to get is into the skimmer basket. I won't have to worry about them getting to the area behing that where the pump is.

kimbra,
Try the HTML clickable thumbnails.

Also, give the frogs some time and they will get used to you. I feed mine crickets and nightcrawlers and they come right up to me now and they'll let me pick them up. Once you coax a few to within a few feet of you with worms others will follow.
I think you're always going to have some that just don't want anything to do with humans.

Witz

oH No... one of my frogs is half in and half out of the drain hole behind the pump.. It is 31 degrees here this morning and when I went out to check things there he is.. It looks like he is suspended there and I guess it is due to cold.. I am afraid to try to pick him up and scare him. Now I am more desperate then ever to screen off that section but won't have time today or maybe even tomorrow. Now another problem is I am afraid he will be in the drain tube when I do fence off that part. How can I be assured he isn't in there? That is 10 feet of pipe he could be hiding in.. I pray he doesn't fall out of that hole while in his suspended state since the pump is right underneath where he is.. I'm worried sick..

Reach in and get him out. You won't hurt him. And they move veeeeeeeerrrrrryyyyy slowly when that cold. Relocate him to a deeper part of your pond, preferably under some sort of debris/rock/plant. He will do just fine.