I'm in NE OK in Roger's County. I've seen two this year but no more than that.

I am north of Collinsville (on the Tulsa/Washington Co. line). I have numerous resident toads that are out almost every evening in spring and summer. I even saw one last week after a rain.

We have a very good population of frogs and toads at our place here in Love County, although it does cycle up and down from year to year. I haven't noticed a downward trend this year and we seem to have plenty of them.

Although fire ants may be an indirect cause, I don't think they directly kill frogs and toads in large numbers. We have (unfortunately) lots of fire ants on our property and I've never come across a frog or toad being eaten by fire ants even though it is said to occur. Immature toadlets are sometimes eaten by fire ants. Fire ants can harm frogs and toads in an indirect manner because they do eat athropods commonly eaten by frogs and toads, which means a decrease in the natural food supply for the amphibians.

The population of frogs and toads worldwide have been steadily decreasing since the 1950s, and many people believe the heavy use of DDT in the 1950s through the 1970s contributed to the trend. More than 1/3 of the known species of frogs/toads are believed to be threatened or endangered. Over 100 species of amphibians are believed to have become extinct since the 1980s.

Some of the reasons our amphibians are disappearing are loss of habitat and in particular the draining of wetlands; recurring droughts which also harm their habitat and can interrupt their breeding cycle; climate change,; pollution in general and the heavy usages of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in particular; competition from non-indigenous species sold in pet shops and then released into the wild,; and the emergence of several highly infectious pathogens, including ranavirus and chytridiomycosis, aka 'chytrid'.

To encourage frogs and toads to inhabit your property, you need to avoid the use of all chemical pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides that might harm them. You also need to maintain a wetland-type area for them so they can thrive and repopulate. Our frogs and toads are mainly found in and close to our ponds, swamp, creek and in the veggie garden and flower beds. The tree frogs mostly live in the woods, but some of them live around the house and barn/garage--I often see them on the side of one of the barn's exterior walls or hanging onto windows with their little suction-cup feet. I also keep a shallow bowl of water out for them in the garden all spring, summer, and fall and omake 'wildlife puddles' for them to, filling the puddles daily in summer with water from the water hose.

You have to have insects in order to have frogs and toads, so if you (or your neighbors) are doing everything in your power to eliminate insects on your property, that's part of the problem. To survive, the frogs and toads need for their natural habitat to remain natural as much as possible.

If you don't see frogs and toads come back to your property naturally, you can repopulate by catching toads or frogs elsewhere (with permission from the property owner) in your local area and releasing them on your land. Of course, there is no guarantee they will stay there. It probably is not a good idea to order toads or toad eggs from a biological supply house in an effort to repopulate because they likely were not collected in Oklahoma and would not be adapted to our climate.

Dawn

I too have plenty of frogs and toads of various kinds. And since both cats died and haven't been replaced, the leopard frogs have reappeared. The cats used to eat them.

We have spring peepers, tree frogs, plain old toads, and leopard frogs. I too keep water out for them. In the middle of a very hot summer the shallow dish I leave in the yard is full of tiny tree frogs after dark. I have seen as many as 10 at once. I also keep a shallow pan in the garden. And of course like Dawn don't spray and plant beneficials for the insects so have frog food.

Dorothy, Only one of our cats eats frogs but he is really big and fat, so I think he eats a lot of them.

Chickens eat frogs when they can get them, but I've never seen a chicken with a toad.

I'm glad you mentioned planting beneficials to attract insects, because I forgot to.

Dawn

Thanks so much for all the quick replies! Well, I do have plenty of tree frogs and regular water frogs around my place. I live by a small creek and also keep lots of water out year round for dogs, squirrels,etc. Also I sure had an abundance of bugs this summer(getting full eating my plants!)So, I don't know. I was thinking last year of getting some toads from my sister's house in Pittsburgh Co. This summer I think for sure I will. I just found this website and I love it! I can learn so much from all of you.

The problem could be snakes if you are in a rural area. I have seen hognosed snakes eat toads.

And welcome to the forum. We learn from each other here.

I think one of the main problems is the egrets. Since they moved in Oklahoma a few years ago they are steady eating all our frogs in NW OK. They even eat baby rabbits. We used to have millions of toads on the dirt roads after a rain, now you rarely see one at all.

Egrets here mainly follow cow herds around and eat the insects in the pastures, so they don't seem to have as much impact on the frogs at our place. But, we don't have cows, so we don't have egrets on our property at all, even though they are all around us. Maybe they're eating all the frogs and toads in the cow pastures and especially around the stock tanks and I just don't know it.

We do have a lot of great blue herons that stand right in or near the ponds and eat frogs, toads, fish, etc. They probably get more of our frogs and toads than any other type of predator does.

I haven't noticed snakes eating frogs here either, but that doesn't mean they aren't doing it. Most of the time the snakes here head right for the chicken coop hoping to get eggs, or a baby chick. Snakes are not especially picky and also like field mice and such, but our cats take care of those and don't leave them for the snakes.

In some dry years (or just when spring is very dry) you don't see many frog or toad eggs and won't have many babies in the spring, and we might have a significantly lower population that year. However, they always seem to rebound in the next rainy spring.

River, when you mentioned millions of toads on the dirt roads, that reminded me of another wild critter that seems to be in trouble here---tarantulas. When we first bought this land in 1997, we had tarantulas everywhere--and not just on our land. You'd see them in the road a lot, in parking lots, yards, etc. For several years---maybe from about 2004-2008, I didn't see many at all. They were very scarce. This year, I saw quite a few at one point, but they still aren't common on the roadways like they once were.

I suspect all these wild creatures go up and down in population numbers and it likely is related to the predator-prey relationship. We see that here with coyotes and cottontail rabbits--when the population of one is up, the other is down.

One odd thing we've had lately is large turtles digging holes in our lawn and laying their eggs there. In the past, they laid their eggs on the edge of the woodland, where the woodland meets the pastures. Of course, raccoons and other predators usually dig up those eggs and eat them. So, maybe the move to our lawn is an effort to find a place where the raccoons aren't looking for eggs. I don't know that it works since the raccoons prowl all over the place though. If they can't find food, the raccoons even come and look into the windows and sometimes tap on the glass to get our attention. I wonder if they're expecting us to feed them? (We don't feed them and we don't feed our pets outdoors, so they're out of luck.)

river22 - I haven't seen that happen, but I have been told that they eat the bull frogs and the baby quail. I wish they would just let nature take over and stop bringing in things that are not native here. Maybe I am stupid but I can't understand bringing in a bird that is a nuisance and will eat the native wildlife then having to hatch things that are native to replace (and feed) those eaten by the non-native bird.

A few years ago, there were so many egrets everynight on a vacant lot in Ardmore that the entire area smelled awful. It was near a school and a restaurant and the owner of the vacant property was not a local man. They finally got his permission to cut all of the trees. This moved them out of the area, but they just went to another place to roost, and in this case there were thousands of birds.

I like the wildlife, but I don't think it needs to interfer with safety and effect your quality of life. Wild things that are dangerous (and nasty to the point of being unsafe) to live around should not be protected.

We used to see quite a few imported cattle egrets here in Adair Co. but this year I didn't see any and I am surrounded by pastures and cattle. Didn't see any on Dad's place either with pastures and cattle 15 miles away. I asked Dad what happened to them and he didn't know for sure, but thinks someone may have poisoned them. They don't belong here so no big loss.

They are all over here. If you have cattle, you have egrets. I've never seen them stick around any piece of property that doesn't have cattle.

Even worse, flocks and flocks of them have been arriving in Love County for the last month. I don't know where they're coming from, but I assume they have migrated here from some colder place north of us....and they don't appear to be going further south. I think they are going to spend the winter here.

Actually, cattle egrets were not imported. It's really interesting how they arrived. I can't remember the date, but it was over 25 years ago, there was a VERY strong hurricane which swept a flock of 26 of them from Africa to Brazil. They were observed there first. They multiplied and started spreading...

When we moved here to our place there were almost no frogs in our pond. Within a year we had leopard frogs. We introduced some bull frogs and they took off. Now we have quite a few, though never many adults due to the regular visits of a Blue Heron. I've heard that the main ingredient in Roundup is particularly hard on amphibians. I bet that may have something to do with why we didn't have them at first. The previous owner of our place used lots of it, even in the garden.

We have plenty of toads and dearly love them.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Ok, I do have egrets around in the winter. So maybe they ate the toads. But for some reason I just think the fire ants have something to do with it because the ticks have also disappeared. And in the summer you used to get covered up with seedticks. But my husband has used alot of Roundup the last couple of years so maybe that's it. But a lady that lives in a town about 7 miles from my place has also said she has no toads!? I will lighten up on the Roundup this year and see. Hopefully between all of us we can figure something out. Thanks!

It is true that Roundup has been implicated as a cause of genetic mutations in frogs and it is one of the reasons that I hardly ever use it....for fear runoff containing Roundup residue might get into our two creeks and five ponds and harm our native amphibians, but even in primitive countries where there's not a lot of use of products like Roundup or even no usage at all, frogs and toads continue to disappear. I think the two diseases I mentioned in my first thread have been found worldwide and are believed to be a major factor along with habitat destruction.

I am not convinced that fire ants are a najor player. I have had to deal with fire ants since the early 1980s, first in Texas where they were a major problem in our neighborhood in Fort Worth as early as 1983 and later here in Love County and we've always had ooodles of frogs and toads, and even the occasional horned toad, aka horny toads both in Fort Worth and here. I do wonder if some of the ingredients in chemical fire ant treatments might be harming the frogs and toads though.

Dawn

What kinda frog is this?? We found it on our porch. I see them ALL the time.. and their people friendly... My daughter wanted to keep him. We put him in a tank til i could reserach himm.. Is it ok to keep him as a pet?? and if so what kinda habitat do I make?? food?? if its not ok to keep him ill let him go and buy one at a petstore...