They've been croaking here more this week, but I was hearing a few in Feb. and I saw the first eggs a few weeks ago. They went through a freeze, so I don't know if that affected them or not...time will tell. I don't think there will be as many as the last couple of years since we kept the water from collecting on top of the pool this winter. We heard some on and off throughout the winter. I noticed the Indian Plums were starting to bloom in the woods.

He tells me they are a toad, not a frog, all though I don't know the difference. Check the link below, colokid, as well as this one: How to tell the difference between frogs and toads I have always associated frogs with lakes or ponds, while toads were more of a dry land amphibian, but I think I have been mistaken! I wish I had toads in my garden, but with three mini-Dachshunds and a Shepherd/Malamute mix of my own, plus the neighborhood cats, no such luck. I've never actually seen one around here, but I used to have garter snakes in my garden, but if they are still around, they keep themselves well hidden. :-( Holly Here is a link that might be useful: Frogs vs Toads

Hi, Very sorry to hear about your dog, and yes you do need to find a solution. But getting rid of the frogs and toads will not be possible---and also too these creatures need all the help to survive too! However, how to keep them safe and your dogs safe, is to train your dogs to avoid toads. You can probably find advice on this from a good pet shop, as well as something to make a sound which the dogs won't like. What you do is expose the dog to a toad (at a distance where the toad will not be hurt) and at the same time use the whistle (or whatever it is that the pet shop has) as soon as the dog pays attention to the toad. The dog will associate the unpleasant sound with the toad, and so will avoid toads as a means of avoiding the unpleasant sound. This will make your dogs much safer. When you do it though, you do need to make sure there is nothing else distracting the dog, and blow the whistle as soon as the dog pays attention to the toad. Then make a fuss of the dog when it is not paying attention to the toad. As I said, the pet shop will know of information by good dog trainers of the best way of doing this. And then your dogs and toads can both thrive! Chip

I think it is perfectly on-topic. Frogs (and toads) are wonderful garden companions and help control the pest population by eating tons of pests. Of course, the downside is that the frogs also might devour some of the beneficial insects too. With rampant flooding all around us, we are getting tons of new wildlife showing up in the yard looking for high ground, food and water. The million frogs that showed up in May laid eggs so we're going to have a billion frogs by the end of the summer. Early in the morning, there's so many frogs in the garden that you have to walk slowly to give them time to jump out of your path. I wish we could train the frogs and toads to sit on top of the porch light and eat all the little pests buzzing around it at night. Like George, I leave little brushy corners (and small flat pans of water in dry years) for the toads. It is impossible to have too many frogs or toads in the garden, except that a lot of snakes come to the garden to eat them, so the population never really gets way out of control.