Topic: frogs have left not like last year

[theothermarg]

just checked back to last august 24th where we were saying about all the tadpoles and frogs still in the ponds. i commented i thought it was the dry weather! well this year yes we know what this year has been like :'( i cannot find a frog anywhere  :)
marg

[froglets]

That's 'cos they're hiding amongst my spud tubs in my back yard & under the lobelia cardianalis in my garden.   :)

[Kennywhizz]

Got two looking at me in my pond at the moment:))

[dtw]

I've seen loads this year, in the house :o
My cats keep bringing them in to play with.

They have brought in rats too, but kill them first.

[theothermarg]

just seen the grand-daddy of all frogs in my pond  :o but looking back to last year a lot of us were saying about large tadpoles and lots of little frogs still in the pond probably i thought because of the dry conditions. i havn,t any tadpoles left this year. i think the thread was calling them teenagers that wouldn,t leave home
marg

[theothermarg]

can,t find edit?? spoke too soon just seen a tadpole :-[
marg

[Hot_Potato]

I've not got a pond and there's not one nearby - well not in these communal gardens, but I've the tiniest of baby frogs hiding amongst my pots under all the foliage.....a neighbour in one of the other flats says she saw a big frog hopping away from my patio area to another part of the garden a day or two ago so guess it's Mother & baby :)

[stig]

want to introduce frogs to my pond from dads .
wondering will the goldfish eat them?

[theothermarg]

i don,t know if fish eat frogs but i know that they eat spawn! i love my frogs so i don,t have fish
mmm i really did speak too soon when i started this thread :-[ just been tackleing my too lush jungle of a front garden  :o i,v got loads of small frogs
 grand-daddy sat and watched me all day half out of the water, didn,t move
why do they do that? got loads of pests it could be eating :D
marg
ps i,v heard frogs can drown fish by getting too amorous

[Hot_Potato]

last night when watering my tubs/pots on patio, this little beauty put in an appearance.....she just froze, giving me time to dash and get the camera....was still there when I got back....think this must be Mum as she's so much bigger than the baby one that almost jumped over my toes! :o

[Hot_Potato]

and she (named her Fergie) gave me an even bigger fright last night when I picked up one of my watering cans - the one with Miracle-Gro in it for feeding plants - there she was, jigging around in the water.....made me scream and put can down quick.....eventually picked it up again and gently tipped her out onto the border, into the greenery....

what worries me tho is.....how long had she been in there and will the Miracle-Grow harm her & will she turn into a Monster by growing huge? ;D

[Hot_Potato]

have got to know 'Fergie' her quite well in last week or so and I 'chat' to her every day ::)    well if talking to trees is good enough for Prince Charles, I can certainly 'talk' to my frog ;)

there is a ledge inside the can (part of the handle) and sometimes she sits on there in response but the other morning, she hopped right up onto the rim to get even closer, she sat here for about 20 minutes or more before she realised I'd gone away and went back into her 'pond'

[Baccy Man]

what worries me tho is.....how long had she been in there and will the Miracle-Grow harm her & will she turn into a Monster by growing huge? ;D

Check the ingredients a lot of products in the miracle gro range contain atrazine.

The chemical atrazine (sometimes called altrazine) deforms or shrinks in normal size the male genitalia. It most often affects growing boys causing such things as a deformed hook of the thingy and/or a much, much smaller than normal genitalia. Atrazine, and its closely related chemical forms, is a hormone disrupter but can also produce many, many other devastating effects upon humans or animals including cancers or memory loss or convulsions or headaches or fatigue, etc. Atrazine is used as a herbicide and it also is used as a pesticide. But atrazine is very noticable for its affects on sexual organs. Much less than one part per BILLION is enough of this substance to change the sex of a male frog into both male and female. You read that correctly: Less than 1 part per 1,000,000,000 of atrazine will change a male frog into both male and female. It also causes other deformities. Of course, frogs are not the only organism affected. Many other companies also use atrazine. For now... ...atrazine is common enough that in Iowa a test showed that 40 parts per billion came from a rainfall. The other odd and grotesque deformities caused by atrazine on tested organisms seem to indicate that there could potentially be many other weird physiological growths on humans.

[Hot_Potato]

OMG.....that's just awful!......have looked carefully at the ingredients (if that's the right word) in the Miracle Gro and it doesn't appear to have Atrazine in it, unless it's there under some 'other name'.

Tomorrow (too dark & wet now) I'll tip Fergie out onto the garden, water the stuff onto things and in future, make sure there's nothing more hazardous than plain water in the watering can - will mix it up as I need it....which is what I would normally do but thought I'd save myself some time by always having a can of feed ready - hadn't expected Fergie frog (or possibly Freddie :o to take up residence there....strange thing is, there's another full watering can beside the one with the Miracle Gro in it that contains only water yet she/he/it chooses to 'live' in the one that could pose a danger.

Having read all those worrying comments about what Atrazine does, makes me worry about eating stuff that might have been 'fed' with a product that does contain Atrazine :o

[Baccy Man]

Atrazine is most commonly used in the feed & weed range I think all of the miracle gro lawn care range contains it. I am not sure exactly which of their other products do. A google search will turn up loads of information about it.
I prefer to stick to natural products & avoid all artificial fertilisers, weedkillers & pesticides as so many of them do contain at least 1 ingredient I don't want to consume or be exposed to.

[Hot_Potato]

I know this is 'off topic' now but somehow we've wandered down this road of questioning the use of Atrazine.....until this year, I normally only used it on my flowers in pots, hanging baskets, borders etc. but when I used 'tomato feed' on the tomatoes last year, they looked very sad & sorry for themselves so thought I try the Miracle Gro - will stop using it on anything edible as I don't want to be consuming even the tiniest of amounts :o

thanks Baccy Man for all your info

p.s. Fergie has disappeared - worried about 'her' now!

[Baccy Man]

Frogs & toads disappear all the time I have a large toad which splits it's time between the compost heaps, the greenhouse & the pond who regularly disappears for up to a week but always turns up again. I have a frog tame enough to hand feed slugs that does the same thing although it came back minus one of its back legs recently so I don't know how long it will last.

[lorna]

HP Hope Fergie returns. Just want to say great photos thanks for sharing.
Lorna

[theothermarg]

i havn,t seen grand-daddy for a bit either  mm judging from what happened when i started this thread i,ll start seeing dozens ::) i get a lot of hedgehogs in my jungle do they eat frogs? not noticed any difference in the slug population
marg