Carmen, that is good to know. I use Pinesol to clean my house all the time. I'll try it for the frogs too. :o)

Hi Katkin, I use Pinesola around my rabbit cages and it keep flies away so I thought I'd try it on frogs too.
carmen

The idea of spraying the walls of my house with Pine Sol appealed to me as I wouldn't mind removing the eaves and shutters of my house from the CTF's list of places to hide. It would probably help with curbing all the black splotches that trail down my siding not to mention controlling algal and fungal growth. I was thinking of mixing it into the soap tank of my pressure washer next time I cleaned my walls (and covering plants to protect them from overspray, but I changed my mind after this second part. The idea of adding it to my pond and bird baths bothered me. If the stuff is capable of killing tadpoles en masse 'instantly', then what else could it kill instantly or over time? Especially if any of those water sources ended up overflowing from rainfall. This line of thinking got me thinking about all the lizards and native tree frogs that also call my walls home, and I can't justify killing them all off to get rid of the CTFs, especially when some, the natives, are JUST starting to recover since I started controlling the CTFs. I can see it being added to certain controlled environments, like a fountain in the lanai, but I would still avoid this myself as I have lots of lizards that inhabit my lanai and keep the pest population down.

Now, I am not big on killing critters just because they annoy me. But I have said it before, controlling CTFs is more about trying to protect wildlife than destroying it. While there are a few snakes that will eat a CTF if they manage to catch one, most will spit them back out due to the mucus. If there were more natural enemies of the CTF to help control their numbers, I would 'leave it to nature to find the balance', but there aren't. CTFs outbreed the few snakes that eat them and those snakes themselves are often killed by paranoid people who think every snake is an evil creation that will bite and poison everyone for fun. And the CTFs will even eat the young of the those snakes. They eat almost everything, with the seeming exception of pests. Instead they eat the things that help to control pests. So yes, I believe it is our responsibility to nature and wildlife to reduce and control CTF numbers and ignoring the problem CTFs pose is, in my opinion, irresponsible. You can say, "The difference one person makes is negligible considering...", but that just makes you part of the problem. There are many people who claim to be wildlife lovers, but they refuse to do anything that benefits wildlife if it means having to kill another animal, so for these people to call themselves lovers of wildlife is very misleading. It is far more honest to say they are animal lovers.

And yes, Wallisadi, I remember you once posting on a similar topic that you felt that these Forums should be more about sharing pictures, but there are some of us who take "Florida Gardening" as a broader topic than just pictures. I love seeing pictures of people's plants and gardens as much as anyone else, but these forums can and should be used for spreading information, both good and bad, that helps to benefit Gardening in Florida. Whether it's improving soil, finding the right conditions for certain plants or, yes, handling pests that seek to disrupt the natural balance some of us are trying to find for our yards. Share your pictures, please. Enjoy the pictures others post. But when someone decides to post something that isn't a picture but more about controlling a problem, please try to control your urges to throw insults. If you have something constructive to add or even a well thought out criticism, then please share, but as my momma used to say, "If you don't have something nice to say..." You can continue throwing insults if you wish, but understand that every time you do, you fall more and more into the becoming a troll to be ignored, which would be a pity because you do post some really nice pictures. Just my humble opinion, take it (or don't) as you will.

I'll try Pinesol and thanks for the suggestion. I garden for butterflies and I don't see this as a threat at all. I won't put pinesol on my butterfly milkweed. I think of Cuban Tree Frogs as bullies.
theo

I love nature, I would never hurt an animal and I do my best to protect the good that nature has to offer.
Since I have been using pinesol I have yet to see any decline in all the other stuff , only the tadpoles in my enclosed porch water fountain died.
I have a beautiful butterfly and humming bird garden,a dog and until Sept 19,2014, 8 beautiful Bunnies and 2 chickens that I adored until a coyote came and tore into their well build cages killed them all. I also have an elderly mother who is 91 and loves to walk around in the yard. Now.... if mom had been out there when this coyote came, around midday, I hate to think what might have happened. All that said, I will continue to keep frogs at bay and I will be l on the alert for the coyote.
I must take care of me and my family, these frogs are causing us to be ill for lack of rest because of the noise they create. we live in the boonies and believe me there are plenty of Pest.

Sorry to hear of the damage the coyote caused. They are relatively new to the state. Back in the 70-80's we never heard them while camping. While camping I feel like John Wayne is going to show up at our campfire while the coyot's sing in the back ground. They have become a real menace to the cattle farmers too.
Thanks for the info on the CTFs. We have two bird bath in the backyard. I try to flush them out one a week to keep the skeeters down. Never have frog eggs in them but the neighbor is a slob. He let his old boat & hot tub fill with rain water and it was full of skeeters & tadpoles. Drained then out with the pests & all was well again.
Wish the coyote issue was that easy.

University of Florida recommends painting a Benzine chemical on the frogs back and putting it the freezer to kill it. Not something I want to do. I did see an article about catching the Cubans with gloves on and putting them in a 5 gallon bucket of bleach water to kill them.With a lid. Please don't kill all of the frogs indiscriminately. They are a natural pest control. You can also put 3 foot PVC pipes in the ground. The Cubans love to hang there. You can scoop them up and destroy them. Just remember to wear gloves. They excrete a skin irritant.

I got the email that this person had posted that message on here but it doesn't show up. I wish that person would go to EDIS and read all the damage the Cuban frogs can cause to electrical wires and how they stain your house when they poop. Again I repeat I don't like killing anything, but these things are a plague.

Good advice, Maggie, for not killing all the frogs indiscriminately.

I would absolutely love to wipe out all the CTF tadpoles while they are teeny in my rain barrels. But I have a hard time even using that water on my plants knowing the tadpoles might not live out of water.

Because how do you know they are Cubans and not future natives?
(Dear Heavenly Father, could You please do something to the little tadpoles that are natives, like make them glow or something, so I can tell which are which?)

Susie

From what I learned at Ag center, native frogs only get about 2 1/2 inches long. Cubans can get up to 6 inches long. I know nothing about their tadpoles. If in doubt please take a sample to your local ag center for ID. We've had people bring in frogs for ID that were not Cubans. Please don't kill any frog unless you know for sure what it is.

Also the Cuban tree frogs' back leg bones appear BLUE when held in front of a light, the UF website says. I have nine anbesoled Cuban frogs in my freezer as we speak!

I like the idea of the Pinesol. Does straight pine oil work faster than pinesol? I live in Orlando and these nasty things have taken over my back porch. They have taken refuge down in the top crown of my columns on the porch. There are so many of them and they keep laying eggs in my pool. So nasty. I guess I should just spray the pinesol/pine oil down into the columns? Do I have to spray the frogs directly or will they just land on it and die? Not sure how this works.

Wendy

I'm sad to say there will be no frogs in my freezer. I don't like killing any critters for the heck of it, I live in the country and there are more critters than I care to see,snakes rats,squirrels,gaters and millions of frogs. Yes I could move but this is not an option at this time. I use moth balls for snakes all around outside and I use pinesol for frogs. I spray pinesol around any area that I don't want frogs they don't like the scent and will stay away,pinesol does not kill the frogs but it will kill the tadpoles. I mix 1 part PS to 2 part water in a spray bottles and spray the nooks and crannies where I don't like them to hang out. It is not fun to open the front door and a couple of frogs fall on your head and even a snakes once.

Hello! Hey, Is there any research on this being safe around plant life? I have a pond they've invaded,,, they are eating the hell out of my water lilies that I have paid a bundle for, but I don't want to harm my water lilies! I want to kill them,, I've tried using some safer fungicide, and its probably killed the mosquitos, but they are still eating the leaves.

What does Pine Oil do to our gold fish?