You won't see any of the bufos in Sanford, they don't seem very cold hardy and stay down south. When we were little kids, we just called them poison toads. One year on Mother's Day, one of those killed the family cat, so they are not my favorite animal, thats for sure. I HAVE heard of someone who said (unconfirmed) they were in St. Pete, but I haven't seen them north of Palm Beach and Ft. Myers. Between these and the lubbers, we had all kinds of problems in Hollywood. One reason why I like living up here in Lakeland.

Thanks Tom. As it is, I am more central to central-north. The area I am in is one of the higher locations of this fairly flat state. According to historical data I have read, the area I am in is considered sandhills or pine sandhills. Both Slash and Longleaf grew here, but Longleaf has been far more extensively farmed to the point where one site, Floridata I think, stated that there are no longer ANY virgin stands of Longleaf. I am not trying to revert my yard back to pre-colonial times, but I do try to keep in mind what what naturally belongs here. The way I see it, God/Nature put those type of plants here for a reason, so the best I can do is try to incorporate them into my yard along with the exotics. And besides, it's hard for me to turn my nose up at the idea of free pine needle mulch! As far as my debate goes, I went out today and looked over my beds from various angles and it turns out that there was no debate. To try and incorporate three pines into the bed would have required a pretty massive transplanting effort of several plants that are finally to the point of being established. Something I was not really wanting to do. So now two grass-stage Longleafs are sitting in their new homes and starting their own establishment period.

I think it's possible to have a good lawn and property without necessarily having "everything" under the sun there that is indigenous to the area. As a more extreme example, I think grass snakes are fine but I don't want to find some other larger, possibly poisonous, snake in tall grass around my property. Or let's say squirrels might get a pass, but I don't want to see too many possums hanging around. Small black ants are all around, but I'll try not to have fire ants or carpenter ants if I can help it. Another example is that even deer and rabbits are cute and fun, awesome to see walking through the yard, until they affect some landscaping plants or gardening plants. At this point, I even believe that the mulch around the house harbors some of the same flying insects that I'm annoyed with on a hot, humid day. Depending on your housing community area, you may be compelled to keep it in check, also. I think it's OK to care for the lawn, and still have the kids learn to love and appreciate nature without man's strong interference. An example would be to create a lizard-safe or toad-safe environment in the backyard to help control bugs and insects there.

Thank you both for commenting. Yes, deposits are always in the same place. Annoyingly, right outside our patio door. There are no overhead shutters. Although I would be appreciative of bats, I haven't seen any. I can't imagine roaches are intelligent enough to have central poop area. I will ask the termite professional when he comes for our annual inspection. After I wrote the question, I did see one anole hanging out. However, I literally used to stumble over ten of them in the driveway....We are reining in our bird feeding to see if that makes a difference with the chippers. :)