Yes, they are here. Found one this summer in my front planter in Seminole. Check the toe pads. If they are elongated, it's a CTF.

D**n things,

Where's that purple gallinule when you need him?

I saw two frogs that looked like they could be Cuban Tree Frogs. One of them I couldn't catch and the other one I wasn't sure so I left it alone.

A Naturalist told me an easy way to identify them is to see if the skin on their head moves when you touch it, and if it doesn't (which means it's skin is fused to the bone) it is a CTF.

Because the coloring can be so variable, the only absolutely positive way to ID them is to check for the fused skin on the head. UNLESS they are full grown, huge, corpse-white, pasty, bloated, and thoroughly UGLY looking. Then you can pretty much rule out anything else. But when they are younger and can change color, it isn't as easy.

They do have larger toepads, but often you can't tell on the smaller ones. Every frog I catch gets the fused skin test before I dispatch them. I don't want to make a mistake and accidentally kill one of our fast-disappearing green tree frogs. (Which aren't always totally green, either, making it super important to double check.)

Marcia

Oh yeah...that's him....

In fact, the lady who grabbed him (much braver than I...), remarked at the toe pads, "oh, you can tell he's a tree frog...look at the huge toe pads!".

Funny thing, a few years ago I was overran by these things. I would find them in my bromiliads, in my orchid pots, behind the shutters, every where. This year I've seen one all year. I think it may be because of the cold snap we had, but the Black Racer that hangs out here gets one now and then. Probably more than I know about. It's nice to have a snake around the house.;>)

john

Wednesday morning we got a call from our 81+ year old neighbor at 5:30 a.m.. She said she had a frog in her toilet. She was reading an old World Book Encyclopedia and she thought is was a poisonous frog from South America.
I went over and pulled a cuban tree frog the size of the palm of my hand out of her toilet.
We are in Clermont about 30 miles west of Orlando and I see them everywhere.

Same with me here in Plant City. Last year the CTF's were everywhere....this year I've seen three that hang out on the house at night and eat bugs. I've seen alot more of our little green tree frogs too. I was thinking it was the cold snap as well. I've seen less snakes this year then in the past, so I don't think they're taking care of them.

I found a large cuban tree frog in my shed last week when I was putting away my lopers. It was big and a pasty corpse white. I just can't bring myself to hit anything that's not a bug with a shovel but I knew that I couldn't just let the thing get away so I chased it into a bucket. Then I transferred it into a plastic jar with an alcohol soaked cotten ball. We've been seeing more and more of these things around here lately. I keep wondering if the little green frogs that I have all over the garden are cubans or natives.

Ick. I had one in my toilet several years ago. I never used that toilet again.

I agree..snakes in the yard are GOOD things! I love it when I spot some of my black racers moving around, but they are getting more and more shy, what with two obnoxious dachshunds who think the yard should be theirs alone.

Lest anyone be confused, treefrogs are NOT all bad. In fact, they used to be WONDERFUL to have around. It's just the exotic CUBAN treefrogs that are bad for the environment.

And on that same note, for those who don't know, the habit the media has of calling the exotic and toxic Marine Toads "bufos," is a very bad one. All of our very beneficial native toads are also "bufos," since "bufo" is the genus name for over 150 different toads.

Bufo terrestris is our very valuable southern toad. But bufo marinus is the bad guy. The less confusing way to refer to these exotic toads is as Giant Toads, Marine Toads or Cane Toads. Please don't go killing all bufos.

Marcia

Cuba is a beautiful country... We have the best cigars here .Take a look to our online shop. Very cheap cigars. Maybe you will buy some packets in one day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cuban Cigar

To keep the frogs from getting in the toilets, you need to go on the roof and secure a piece of hardware cloth with a tie wrap over the vent that comes out of the roof. They get sucked down when you flush.

a couple of years ago i use to post pictures on the orlando sentinel photo/community page. posted a pic of these three tree frogs that have lived in our mailbox(unused one) for three years. sentinel asked if they could use the pic for an article they were printing. I said sure!!!! got all this hate mail(my name was posted below the picture) for promoting the cuban tree frog population. thought i was going to have to move to alaska! hopefully the three little guys will be back with the spring!