This is a picture of David’s pond (see comments yesterday) where frogs were seen dead after the freeze.
David says:
“…. pond is about 12 x 4 x 2m deep.
I did not break ice at any point because it would have just frozen up again as we have had several periods of sub-zero to deal with and normally they would survive that.
I have lots of oxygenating plants [looks like curly waterweed, Lagarosiphon major - JB] and should have the depth to provide adequate habitat.”
So, altogether, it’s not immediately obvious why this pond might have suffered. Maybe there’s just so much vegetation that there were nightime dissolved oxygen lows – just like you can get in summer when there’s a lot of submerged vegetation.
All theories welcome!
February 22, 2009 at 12:37 pm |
I am finding 4-6 frogs per day dead or dying in my small garden pond. Probably lost about 2 dozen this week. Any ideas
February 23, 2009 at 7:09 am |
Dear Helen
Where are you? Has your pond been iced up?
Could they be frogs that died under the ice and are only now floating to the surface?
Jeremy
February 24, 2009 at 9:22 am |
Hi Jeremy
Found another 5 this morning. One dead hanging onto a plant half out of the water. I am finding them dead or dying in the pond, if I fish them out they stay where they are in the garden, with their back legs horizontal, for a couple of days before they die. Two pairs I found this morning are mating, but again their back legs are horizontal, i have put them into a small pond which doesn’t have a pump running.
Our main pond has had a pump running 24/7 throughout the winter. Lost about 4 fish this winter, but the rest seem fine.
This is in Herfordshire and I usually have frog spawn at this time of year.
March 11, 2009 at 8:11 pm |
Hi Jeremy,
Like you I have over the past 4 weeks, found 7 dead frogs in my pond which measers 23 ft by 15ft water pump and filter always running.
spawn as usual no fish deaths (25 goldfish 1 30year old carp & 2 tench)
today found a mating pair just about alive ,this is in Gloucestershire,I too would like to know what is hapening,unable to find a contact at nature watch
April 7, 2009 at 10:53 am |
I have a 2 meter X 3 metre oval pond containing about 350 gallons which is continually filtered and didnt completely freeze at any time this year. It contains plenty of vegetation and probably 30 goldfish. About 30 frogs were in there during march and yesterday when cleaning the pump grills i found one dead bloated frog stuck to the pump and two more on the bottom not far from the pump.
May 17, 2009 at 7:28 pm |
i live in leeds and have lost about 15 frogs all at same time, had pond 10 years and never lost any to my knowledge,cant understand it
May 18, 2009 at 7:26 pm |
Hi Nigel
Is this recently? Sounds like a disease of some kind.
May 26, 2009 at 5:54 pm |
do their legs turn red? if so then they have red-leg disease. this is an excellent site with lots of information including something called winterkill? http://www.froglife.org/Disease/Diseaseranavirus.htm
June 1, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
3 months down the line we now have tadpoles and I have seen one or two frogs in the garden. I am convinced it was a disease of some sort transported by water as I only found them dead or dying in the pond (I have 3 small ponds, not connected to each other).
January 18, 2010 at 9:36 am |
I have a pond 10ft x 6ft x4ft deep due to all the freezing all my big fish are dead
I took the ice of yesterday to get the floating fish out then I put hose in to clear the water found all the small fish OK
but could see strange white things on the bottom
so I fished them out and found very big dead frogs dead frogs and lots of them,
I also have a small pond with frogs and lizzards in but Ice is too thick to remove,
So I exspect the same in that one but hope some thing will survive, it will be a dissaster for nature if all frogs have died.
January 19, 2010 at 3:34 pm |
i have just gone out to my pond this morning. and under underneath the ice and on the bottom of the pond there must be about 60 dead frogs. we have been making air holes in the ice but this has not made any difference to the amount of dead frogs. we have a large population of frogs, so im hoping some has survived.
January 20, 2010 at 10:52 am |
Has anybody please found an answer to these dead frogs. I have found 5 on my pond today, never happened before at all although I realise that this winter are been bad, what am I saying; horrendous. We have always kept the pump working in previous years but as Eon (bless them I dont think) tell us we are using too much electricity, we were advised to turn the pump off. Do pumps on ponds use a great deal of electricity I wonder.
I am so upset at finding these frongs and feel even worse if I think there was something I could have done and didn’t do, or anything I can do that will prevent finding any more. I will turn the blessed pump on if that helps at all.
All suggestions very gratefuly accepted.
January 20, 2010 at 4:53 pm |
HI HAPPENED TO ME LAST YEAR SOME 20 PLUS FOUND DEAD,
THIS YEAR ALREADY FOUND ONE, AS I SAY MOST DIED LAST YEAR
KEN
January 22, 2010 at 2:42 pm |
I have floated large green bottles (quarter/third filled with water) on my pond so I could make airholes each morning. When the snow was coming I half covered it with tarpaulin. After a few days of lifting some bottles and putting them back at night, I had live frogs come up to the surface and hang around the air holes. This is the second winter this has happened, does anyone know why? I lost two frogs that I know of last time.
When I took the tarpaulin off at the weekend, there were three frogs between the tarpaulin with the frozen ice below them, hopping around trying to hide. The next day, I found one very large dead frog underwater but none since though I am going to force myself to look more thoroughly this weekend.
January 23, 2010 at 10:31 am |
Last year, 2009, my pond, the main part of which is up to 1m deep x 2m across, was frozen over for 10 days. I was worried about the quality of the water then, so thawed a hole with hot water and kept it open. There were no dead creatures. This year I kept a hole about 2ft square open all day, but when it all thawed last Sat, 16 Jan, took out 10 dead frogs, all belly up lying on the bottom. I removed another two yesterday, and this morning had to pull a sluggish but alive male off the back of a very dead female with whom he was trying to mate. I’ve found only one dead newt, though many live there, but haven’t seen any live ones. All the fish are fine. Could the cause be that the frogs couldn’t crawl out of the water to breathe? Annoyingly, I came across 3 live slugs on the edge of the water.
January 23, 2010 at 10:47 am |
Hi Jane
Would you be able to fill in a Big Pond Thaw survey form on the Pond Conservation web-site?
You download here: http://www.pondconservation.org.uk:81/bigponddip/welcome.htm
and enter data online here: http://www.pondconservation.org.uk:81/bigponddip/bigpondthawformonline.htm
Jeremy
January 24, 2010 at 4:09 pm |
Hello all,
I’ve just fished out 30 or so dead frogs of all sizes from our 8 ft x 4 4ft 3ft deep pond. No frogs seem to have survived . Last year we had about 50 or so inhabiting the pond at its fullest.
The pond was frozen for about two and a half weeks and we had temperatures down to -10 deg C regularly.
We didn’t loose any frogs in last years freeze.
We’re very sad.
pj
January 24, 2010 at 4:23 pm |
Oh, and I’ve just filled in the survey.
pj
January 24, 2010 at 10:26 pm |
We found 6 frogs dead after the thaw in our pond… lifeless, eyes glazed over non responsive… pond was frozen over for a good 2weeks. i decided to bury them, as i didn’t think 6 floating lifeless frogs was a very pleasant sight in the back garden… was that the best thing to do? i’m just concerned now that they might have been in some sort of hibernation and in my ignorance i did the wrong thing!! definitely going to keep wholes in the ice in future, we weren’t previously aware of the frogs until just now. gutting
January 25, 2010 at 6:13 am |
Dear Phil
Frogs during the winter hibernation are still fairly active so they can move about under the ice to water that has oxygen. If they’re not responsive I think you can be confident they were dead.
If you’ve got a moment you might like to fill in the Big Pond Thaw form on the Pond Conservation website.
Jeremy
January 24, 2010 at 11:11 pm |
Today I found 6 dead frogs in our garden pond. Just returned back from 2 weeks away and was sad about the dead frogs – had broke up the ice a couple of times during the New Year freeze, but never thought about it whilst away. That said, have viewd other sites on the internet who say to leave the ice?? Any comments/views??
Both me and my partner are sad about the dead frogs and will try to find some frog-spawn over the next couple of months to replenish them back into our garden pond.
Have filled in the survey too.
January 26, 2010 at 4:56 pm |
On reflection, I am convinced that the problem of the dead frogs, 10 up to now, is very much my fault and the fact that having turned the pump off, I hadn’t made allowances for any air to get into the pond at all. Why did I convince myself that frogs would hibernate at the bottom of the pond and not need air.
It is some small consolation to know that I am not on my own with the dead frogs, and that other people are upset too – its almost like a “wake” in this house!!
I will certainly be ready for the situation next year and am in the process of trying to establish just how much electricity the pumps do use…….
We live and learn!!
January 26, 2010 at 6:40 pm |
From Cambridgeshire
Second winter with my pond and just found 5 dead frogs. Very sad and upset. But get a boost as it is obviously not just me having this problem.
Confused with dead or hibernating. But believe they were dead.
January 28, 2010 at 10:17 am |
Hi everyone, I too have been fishing out dead frogs from my pond, 15 yesterday and 5 this morning. In my previous garden I never had this problem with the pond being frozen over for any length of time. Always managed to keep the sloping pebble area to the pond ice-free. My new pond ( just 10 months old ) sits in a more exposed area and with the deep freeze and heavy snow I couldn’t thaw an area out to allow gases to escape despite my best effords, hence it is my opinion thoses poor frogs sufficated. The dead ranged from the very small ( last year’s spawning ) to the very big. I am now searching for a ” froghotel ” that I read about some years ago. It is made from polystyrin and floats on the pond keeping the arae icefree and also has spaces for frogs to suface for a breath of air. So far haven’t been able to find any info – anybody heard of these and know where to find them? Might be too late for this year but I want to prevent a repeat in the coming winter. Love the frogs and it is distressing to find them dead!
January 28, 2010 at 11:14 am |
Hi Beate
They are called Ice Guards. Have a look at greenideas.co.uk. I have one. I only found two dead frogs and one dead newt after the big freeze. I know I have quite a few more than this so hopefully they are fine. I also used green plastic water bottles to keep holes in the ice so I could remove them each morning and replace at night. I’ve been experimenting on how to weight the bottles as some tipped sideways with the lid under the ice so I couldn’t remove them but those that stayed semi upright or sideways with lid above ice were easy to remove. Instead of third full water, I’m thinking of using gravel in the bottles to help keep them upright but still experimenting.
January 28, 2010 at 11:16 am |
Sorry Beate, it’s greenideasltd.co.uk
January 29, 2010 at 3:31 pm |
I live in Devon – have just found 5 dead frogs in our small pond, so sad to see this. We have been here for 10 years and never found frogs dead like this before, but we have never had freezing weather for so long since we moved here. Not spotted any dead frogs in the bigger pond yet but will keep checking. I think they mainly lived and spawned in the small pond we use to watch them from the window every January.
January 31, 2010 at 10:28 am |
A friend who lives on a farm on Dartmoor tells me that, in a natural puddle on the farm, she’s seen 8-10 frogs ‘happily bouncing about and having babies’. She has promised me some frogspawn for my sadly denuded pond. So did frogs in the wild, able to snuggle down in vegetation, survive better?
January 31, 2010 at 10:39 am |
Hi.
I live in Blackpool & noticed a dead frog near our pond, on closer inspection of the pond I found 10 dead frogs floating in the ice & under the water. This has never happened before in the 9years that we have lived in our house. I was & still am very upset to think that we may have lost all the male frogs from our pond. Why has this happened?
January 31, 2010 at 10:19 pm |
Hi Marion
Will blog some of the answers in the next couple of days.
Jeremy
January 31, 2010 at 5:29 pm |
Last weekend we had an horrendous time fishing out 44 dead frogs. Today my husband went out to have another look under the pond plants and he’s got out another 24.
Just awful. The pond was frozen over for about 2 weeks but I kept making holes in the ice about a foot wide by pouring warm water on to the ice. But it was freezing again over night. I wasn’t overly worried as I watched ‘Snow Watch’ and heard Kate Humble saying that making holes in the ice wasn’t necessary. maybe I misheard the advice?
I Feel awful, as I’m sure it’s something we did or didn’t so that has resulted in such carnage.
I presume it was because it was frozen over and oxygen levels dropped too far??
January 31, 2010 at 10:18 pm |
Hi Sarah
Sorry to hear about your frogs – it’s one of the biggest losses we’ve hear of.
I will give a fuller reply over the next day or two to your questions.
And yes, you did hear Kate correctly, although I wouldn’t paraphrase our advice in quite the same way as Kate chose to.
Jeremy
January 31, 2010 at 6:35 pm |
Any chance someone can shed light on this.
A pond i worked on for someone was going to be filled in.
No amount of persuasion could prevent this from happening.
Some 20 adult frogs were translocated to a pond site some 8 miles away.
Does anybody know if the frogs will stay in this new site (which is an established wildlife pond) or navigate back to their pond of birth?
January 31, 2010 at 10:25 pm |
Thanks Jeremy,
It is a massive loss and I am ashamed to admit to the huge number (68)
I’d really like to know what happened and how to avoid it happening again, if we ever get frogs again.
The slugs are going to have a field-day this year in our garden. I’m sure it was our resident frogs that kept them at bay.
I look forward to your fuller reply when you have time
February 1, 2010 at 9:21 am |
Hi Sarah
If had a few minutes it would be good if you could fill in a Big Pond Thaw form – on the website – if you haven’t already done that.
We’re trying to get as much info as we can about the ponds where mortalities occurred.
Jeremy
January 31, 2010 at 11:08 pm |
Hi Jeremy,
We have found another 5 frogs today. In desperation we have drained most of the water out of the pond & refilled it with water out of the water butt. While we were doing this we found at least 3 frogs still alive in the mud at the bottom of the pond, we are just hoping that they survive.
February 1, 2010 at 10:58 am |
Hi Jeremy,
I’ve filled in the pond thaw form
Marion’s post about finding 3 live frogs in the pond has given us a little hope that we might also have some survivors.
February 1, 2010 at 11:10 am |
I always thought it was the females that stayed over winter in the bottom of the pond and the males that returned. Am I right?
Having lost approx 60 frogs last year (I am sure with red leg disease), I did get some frog spawn and am hoping for some adults to return in a year or two.
February 1, 2010 at 8:48 pm |
I have found 12 dead frogs in my pond in Gloucester over the past few days. following the thaw. I had kept melting a hole in the ice every day whilst the pond was iced over till i heard Kate Humble say this was unnecessary. However we have had two lots of snow which I had not thought to remove off the ice.
However my son helped me clear the pond rather late…in August …after his degree exams and although i had replaced some oxygenators I did not feel they had reestablished themselves to the same quantity of weed as last year. I also found one newt dead too. All very sad. ( Last year there were 2 dead frogs.)
Please give me any advice so I can prevent it happening again in similar conditions.
February 1, 2010 at 9:18 pm |
Dear Anne
Sorry to hear about your frogsand the newt too – we’ll be writing some more general advice about what to do with freezing ponds over the next few weeks.
In fact we don’t yet have all the answers as so little is really known about what makes wildlife ponds tick – but we’ll be putting together the most authoritative advice we can from the research and survey we’ve been doing on the problem.
The best thing to do is to keep an eye on my blog and the Pond Conservation website – we’ll also be alerting people directly who have e-mailed in.
If you can bear it, you might like to complete our Big Pond Thaw form on the website – we’re trying to gather as much info as we can about what happened at people’s ponds during and after the freeze.
Best wishes
Jeremy
February 2, 2010 at 12:56 pm |
We have fished out about eight dead frogs in the last week from our pond. I’m no expert but I put it down to the big freeze we had recently in the UK. The poor frogs
February 3, 2010 at 8:43 pm |
I’m so glad to hear that it is not just me. I’m in south Cambridgeshire. Our pond had completely thawed out with no loss of life then last night it froze again. This morning I found two frogs under the ice and one half in half out of the water. It was like it had been instantly frozen in time. It is so upsetting. I phoned our local Wildlife Trust who told me that there was nothing to worry about and the frogs would be fine. They all look very dead to me but I will leave them as it is raining now so should warm up the water and perhaps (fingers crossed) they will revive.
February 3, 2010 at 9:40 pm |
Jeepers, PLEASE someone tell me that my 68 frogs would have ‘come round’ and that I’ve discarded them unnecessarily so. Oh no, that’s too too awful to contemplate! Our looked very dead, eyes were clouded over and they made no attempt at any movement at all.
Am now rather worried after Ann’s comment. I hope yours do revive Ann.
February 3, 2010 at 9:40 pm |
I meant PLEASE someone tell me they WOULDN”T have ‘come round’ !!
February 3, 2010 at 10:16 pm |
Hi Sarah
If they weren’t moving and responding they were dead.
Frogs remain active at low temperature during the winter so they can move around and seek areas of oxygenated water under the ice. Not everyone is aware of this, which might explain the advice you were given.
Frogs have physiological adaptations to allow them to move about (leg muscles stay developed overwinter, for example).
I’d be interested to hear from Anne if hers do come round!
Jeremy
February 3, 2010 at 10:59 pm |
Phew…big sighs of relief all round here!! Thanks Jeremy!
February 4, 2010 at 12:01 pm |
im so worried after reading this. im gonna go outside and check my pond. its only a small wildlife pond but i had 6 frogs take up residence last year. wish me luck, im in ipswich
February 4, 2010 at 6:16 pm |
Good luck Claire – you could fill in a Big Pond Thaw form if you like (whether you have any dead frogs or not).
Jeremy
February 6, 2010 at 9:55 pm |
we heared a frog last night and today we noticed a tiny amount of frog spawn in the little pond, so looks like a couple may have survived or would they have come from somewhere else already? also i wanted to ask was the advice given on snow watch about it was ok to leave your ponds good advice? cos up until that point i had been putting a new hole in the ice every day
February 7, 2010 at 8:42 am |
Hi Jacqui – could be either I suspect: survivors or animals that ovewintered nearby on land.
As for the Snow Watch advice: Kate and co were paraphrasing the advice we issued in January. You can read our press release in full on the Pond Conservation website – it’s the third item down on the Latest News on our home page.
If you look back through this blog you can see how the ideas on ice cover have developed – but in essence, it’s pretty clear that making a small hole in the ice doesn’t make much difference.
It doesn’t work for oxygen because oxygen diffuses much too slowly into the water to make any difference, unless you stir up the water. It is still possible that it might let toxic gases out but this wouldn’t do the frogs much good anyway if there was no oxygen. Frogs die in 4-7 days once the oxygen runs out.
At present, we don’t have any measurements on the toxic gases part of the story – so that does need more work.
But certainly there have been quite a lot of people sending back the Big Pond Thaw form who have made holes and still had mortalities.
We’ll be summarising these results soon.
Jeremy
February 12, 2010 at 1:55 pm |
Another upsetting story from a South Cambs reader here (to add to your stats).
All summer every summer our poor frogs/toads are tormented by all the neighbourhood cats. The cats hang around at dusk waiting to play with any thing that moves and we often find dead/dying and wounded frogs the next morning.
We imagined virtually all the frogs had been eradicated from our garden as we had seen fewer signs of them each successive year.
In November, whilst raking up leaves, I disturbed a frog so left him under his little heap.
We were given quite a lift finding that at least one frog was still in our garden !
During the big freeze this winter, after about 3-4 days of the continuous sub zero temps, I checked the pond and decided to make a hole in the (very) thick ice, first by pouring boiling water onto one spot and then breaking through with a screwdriver and finally making a hole big enough for frogs to get through or at least to be able to come up for air or whatever they need to do. If, indeed there were any frogs in there !
Again I was encouraged by the sight of a frog, under the ice, moving away from the disturbance I was causing. So I left a stick in the hole to facilitate breaking the fresh ice, which I did religiously every day till the thaw set in.
After the second day of ice breaking we had several sprinklings of snow so the ice was no longer transparent and I was unable to see what was happening underneath. If only I had brushed that damned snow off !
Finally, the thaw came but there was no rejoicing in our houshold when all was revealed. — No fewer than seven dead frogs floating on the surface all facing the outer edge.
If it hadn’t been for the snow I would have seen the first victim and could then have made a concerted effort to completely clear all the ice from the pond to save any other frogs which may have been in there.
So what with the cats, diseases, the weather and our own inability to see nature around us (ignorance, if you like) the poor old frogs ain’t got a chance.
February 13, 2010 at 8:57 pm |
I’m very glad to find this blog. Our garden pond in Warwickshire is (was) full of frogs, and we’ve never had any deaths until last month, when we fished out about 16, all adults. We’re a busy family and didn’t have time to keep the pond free of ice every day, but I suspected they weren’t having much fun down there.
I had been wondering if the pond had been contaminated when we sawed out a lot of matted iris roots in the autumn, and I was planning to drain and re-fill it, but I think now I’ll wait and see what happens.
February 13, 2010 at 9:01 pm |
Hi Mike
Glad it was helpful – hopefully we’ll be able to provide more useful advice during the rest of the year too.
Perhaps you could fill out a Big Pond Thaw form (on the Pond Conservation website)? I’m just about to do the final analysis of all the forms we’ve had back.
We’re trying to find out more about the ponds where mortalities occurred.
Jeremy
February 14, 2010 at 10:27 am
Yes, I’ve done that too. Thanks.
February 14, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Thanks Mike.
Jeremy
February 15, 2010 at 5:08 pm |
Hi again
After the thaw I discovered that the Wildlife Trust were completely wrong and all the frogs under the ice (and the one half in half out) were dead. One of the underwater ones was half eaten underneath by those shrimp like things you find in the water. It was so upsetting having to dispose of them. I’m so glad I found this website and to know that other people have the same experiences. Fingers crossed it will warm up soon to give any survivors a fighting chance.
February 17, 2010 at 10:36 pm |
Please help….trying to help my granddauhgter with her school work. What would happen to a pond habitat if all the frogs died?
February 17, 2010 at 11:25 pm |
Hi Linda – interesting question!
For the pond it wouldn’t necessarily be bad. There would be less grazing of algae (growing on submerged plants and the bottom) in the spring by tadpoles – which could give other animals that also graze algae (water snails, mayflies, caddis) more food.
Last year in my quite small pond the huge number of tadpoles stirred things up so much that the normally gin clear pond went green!
On the other hand there would be less food for predatory grass snakes, birds and mammals that eat frogs (e.g. herons, sometimes otters); also less food for some of the smaller animals that eat tadpoles (e.g. larvae of some great diving beetle species, backswimmers and so on).
I guess the way to think about this is what do frogs / tadpoles eat and have an effect on, and what in turn eats them.
There’s some more subtle things too: its possible that frogs move other plants and animals between ponds – so fewer of them might make it a little bit harder for some things to spread betwen ponds.
Jeremy
February 26, 2010 at 2:24 pm |
Hi all – Came straight on line hoping to find an answer as to why I just found 3 dead frogs at the bottom of my very small pond – They were all burst open, spilling frog spawn (horrible sight). Very upsetting and I’m now very alarmed by the amount of posts re this subject. It’s been asked before, but is the blame to lie with the cold weather? It looks as if the frog population will take a massive hit this year! I say this as my daughter reported seeing about 10 squashed frogs on her way to school yesterday – This coupled with what I have just found has made me feel very sad and worried. I live in Newport, South Wales. Regards to all, Nigel
February 26, 2010 at 8:39 pm |
Hi Nigel
I’m not sure I know the answer for sure here: but I think this sounds like a winter mortality (due probably to lack of oxygen or running out of food reserves).
But it’s worth keeping in mind some of the other frog diseases too.
We have had a lot more reports of frog (and other amphibian) mortalities this year but frogs are reknowned for being ‘boom and bust’ creatures.
Their populations can grow in one locatilty for a few years, then completely collapse, and they start again somewhere else.
A long time ago one of the pioneers of studies of our common Rana temporaria, Maxwell Savage, said:
‘I know of no exception to the rule that frogs do spawn in any pond in every year’. It’s a good comment.
February 27, 2010 at 9:55 am |
Thanks for your reply Jeremy – Your answer does put my mind at ease but to lose my only over-wintering frogs is still very upsetting (still yet to check for more). You are right, the frog population has grown within this area for a number of years now, more than I have ever seen before. Anyway, what has happened cannot be undone and I can now only hope to see my pond repopulated at some time in the near future. I will post again with any news re future events. Regards, Nigel
February 28, 2010 at 11:28 am |
Hi Jeremy, Good news! After all the gloom and doom felt in my household with the loss of our over-wintering frogs it was great to find 2 “live & kicking” ones in the pond this morning. Even better was finding a load of spawn – Nothing yesterday at all and full of life today! Nature can be both hard and wonderful at the same time. Regards, Nigel
February 28, 2010 at 1:39 pm |
Just counted 7 frogs in our little pond
and there is more spawn:-)
February 28, 2010 at 9:20 pm |
we have fished out 7 dead frogs of various sizes from our pond in the last couple of weeks (x4 today) we have x2 tiered small ponds in oxford. As we have recently inherited the pond with newly bought house thought we were responsible but looks like just the freeze from blogs above. After googling poss causes/remedies thank goodness this blog exists. I really hope we get sone spawn and nature booms again! Will be setting up some terecotta pot homes as well!
February 28, 2010 at 11:23 pm |
No sign of any frogs in our pond yet but there were 5 smooth newts and 6 great crested newts in there tonight.
March 2, 2010 at 1:14 pm |
Hi
We had 19 dead frogs in our pond one week after the thaw in late January 10. Since then we still keep getting new dead frogs floating on the top of the pond. We have also got lots of batches of frogs spawn arrived this week, so some frogs are obviously still ok. Our pond is only small (3ft by 6ft).
We have been advised to get as much of the dead leaves etc out of the bottom of the pond and empty half of the water and fill it back up with fresh. Do you think that is going to help – and do you think it was just the ice that is killing the frogs? We haven’t let the pond freeze over since Jan.
Thanks for any help.
Mandy
March 2, 2010 at 1:29 pm |
Hi Mandy
Probably re-filling the pond with rain water won’t do any harm – although there’s no reason to think water quality has anything directly to do with the mortality. Of course, as I expect you know, it’s best to avoid tapwater unless you’re in one of the places where its OK and not too polluted (you can usually check online at your water companies website – if you want to have a look and let me know what it says because the drinking water data is really only comprehensible to a chemist!).
Removing dead leaves, if there are a lot, is probably a good idea (though again, of course, no one knows for sure yet).
Ponds with lots of leaves do have low dissolved oxygen, and that is quite likely not to have helped the frogs. So if you start from a low base, get ice cover and have little or no photosynthesis in the pond, then oxygen could go very low.
I think in all likelihood it is lack of oxygen that is killing the frogs – so this is not the ice per se but more the way the pond is. My pond was covered by ice throughout the cold weather and oxygen concentrations eventually doubled under the ice – but my pond is very usual in combining shallow water with more or less complete freedom from pollutants, and lots of plants (mosses in my case).
The other thing people say is that mortalities are due to toxic gases. We haven’t yet collected any information to allow us to rule out build up of these (ammonia, methane or CO2) under the ice – though my gut feeling is these are unlikely to be the cause.
Jeremy
March 3, 2010 at 11:46 pm |
My friend keeps finding dead frogs on her patio…yet they got rid of thier pond 2 years ago. Any ideas?
March 5, 2010 at 6:23 pm |
My Daughter disturbed a family of frogs? toads? two adults and three babies while working in her garden today 5th. March…. as she has a two year old and a dog and no pond as they were found under some breeze blocks,I now have the family of frogs….We have put them under a wild sweet pea that I have in a pot with some of the mud that they were in…..I raised quite a few frogs from spawn last year in a dish with water rock and a pipe for them to climb out ….they all fled the pond!!! I found a larger frog under the sweet pea plant the back end of last year….but he fled the pond!!!…..Hope the family survive do you have any advice please.
Pat
March 15, 2010 at 2:37 pm |
Pleased to say we have loads of frogspawn – Manchester, UK. Actually saw six frogs doing the business on Sunday when it was nice and sunny. But unfortunately have over the last 3 weeks found 3 dead frogs. They are always in the same area on the grass by the side of the pond. Always look completely flattened and a magpie was eating one!! Very upset to see any frog dead but at least I know there are 6 healthy ones.
March 15, 2010 at 10:30 pm |
Similar story here. We lost 16 frogs in February (found 2 more since, underwater) but on pumping the pond out this weekend, and shifting some of the mud, there turned out to be at least another 16 live ones in there, all busily mating. (And a goldfish I haven’t seen for years, looking half, but only half, dead). A small clump of frogspawn has appeared and no doubt there will be more. All is well! I only had enough stored rainwater to refill it about 1/3 full – we need some rain now.
March 16, 2010 at 4:31 am |
Good news from Mike – and I was thinking that a bit of rain wouldn’t go amiss as well.
Jeremy
March 16, 2010 at 10:34 am |
After horrendous year last year, when I lost about 60 frogs (I think to red leg disease) we now have frogspawn and probably more on the way.
Nature is wonderful
March 17, 2010 at 12:49 pm |
We had lost 66 frogs this winter. Two days ago I saw a frog limping it’s way towards the pond, it reached the gate of the pond and looked knackered, so I went out to give it a helping hand. I very carefully lifted the frog on to one of the rocks around the pond and it sat there for a few minutes before diving in. Great, I thought, at least i know there’s at least 1 frog in the pond.
It’s been a mild couple of days and today…..we have frog spawn!! YIPPEEEEEE!
I know it’s bit daft getting excited about frog spawn but after losing 66 frogs, it is something wonderful….nature’s a great thing!!
March 17, 2010 at 2:25 pm |
Just heard of an amazing event at our local allotment which happened 3 weeks ago – Apparently 300 to 400 frogs turned up out of the blue which caused quite a stir amongst the local allottees. Pictures were taken of this massing and I cannot wait to see them. Not sure where the frogs were off to as I only know of a few small garden ponds within the location. This mass movement of frogs would account for the large road kill that was also reported about the same time. Nigel
March 18, 2010 at 12:45 pm |
On the 16 March my small pond, 3ft by 2.5f, was smelling and dirty.
So I drained it and found 13 dead frogs and 1 barely alive. I refilled with fresh water.
On the 17 March the pond water was cloudy so I drained the thing again: this time 1 dead frog and 15 live ones. Quite a puzzler as I have lived here for 10 years and not seen anything like this.
March 21, 2010 at 8:18 pm |
Could someone help? I have an orange frog in the pond – what sort is it?
March 29, 2010 at 8:18 pm |
Hi Jeremy,
After losing 16 frogs in January we now have Frogspawn in our little pond. I was so happy to hear the male frogs croaking to the females. Lets hope it all hatches out.
.
April 7, 2010 at 11:26 am |
I used my dad’s old pond heater during the big freeze, just long enough every day to create a large hole in which I placed a large ball overnight then put the heater in again during the day. Found one big dead frog but heard many others ‘singing’ round and about. Then a couple of weeks back the pond was ‘bubbling’ with about 20 mating couples and i’ve now got a pond full of spawn. My biggest problem is rats as one has moved in down the side of the pond again. Last time this resulted in frog corpses with their insides gnawed out, which was upsetting so I’m afraid I get the council in with bait to get rid of the rat (s). The pond is an old pre-formed fiberglass model which has served me well for nearly 25 years!! If anyone has any ideas how I can prevent rats burrowing in down the sides I’d be grateful. It’s due for a clean out so I’ll also be lifting it out to try to get some kind of rat proofing measures in at that point. Don’t be fooled by anyone who says leave the rats, they’re harmless as they’re so NOT!
April 10, 2010 at 12:16 am |
So sorry to hear about all the dead frogs. How devastating!
But the only way to find out what killed them is to get the corpses to a lab. I’m sure that English Nature and ARC would be interested in knowing whats killing them.
I know that red-leg is a disease that is spreading as is chytrid so it’s important to identify what exactly it is.
http://www.herpconstrust.org.uk/chytrid.htm.
I also read this article today – it’s a bit old but I am going to investigate further as I thought chytrid was incurable.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3312487/Deadly-frog-disease-can-be-cured-by-eyedrops.html
Also Sue who posted earlier with the rat problem. – rats are nasty but the bait used to kill rats will kill frogs too! Just a couple of grains of that poison in the water or around the pond is enough to wipe them out. Rats could easily spread the poison all around on their fur and feet so I’d try to find another solution if I were you. It might be best to trap them – so get advice.
Caroline
April 14, 2010 at 9:02 am |
hello all, im so glad i have just found this site. i thought it was just my pond. all of my frogs are dieing at a rapid rate. i have never experienced this before all my fish are fine, we have a good pump and filter and the frogs have been in there for years. we are pulling an average of 3 a day out some seem to be paralised and others seem to have blown up like a big ball. they all mated and left frog spawn then just started to die. …………does anyone know how i can help them…….
or does anyone know of a reason thankyou all kind regards caz
April 15, 2010 at 10:24 am |
Hi Carol
This sounds like the problem I had last year, which I put down to a disease which was carried by water (the tiny frogs from the previous year did not seem affected as they did not go in the pond).
I was extremely careful how I disposed of the dead bodies and this year everything is fine, but with obviously less frogs.
It is very distressing, as it is not an instant death and like you my frogs seemed paralysed
Helen
April 16, 2010 at 1:32 pm |
hi helen, thanks for your reply. i also have been very carefull disposing of the frogs its just so upsetting to see them suffering.
we are still finding at least two a day. last year we counted around 50-60 healthy frogs so im just hoping that we dont lose them all. we even had one or two that would hop down the garden into our kitchen and they were all so used to us that our being here didnt bother them so its kind of like they are our pets. i never heard of frogs getting a desiese before. i always thought the whole pond would be affected not just the frogs. i am learning so much from this forum. thanks again for your reply its really appreciated. know i have an explanation for this suddon episode kind regards carol
April 18, 2010 at 6:15 pm
i have found another 3 dead frogs today. i noticed on these ones they have like white fury stuff on there toes aswell. i am asking about to see if any one else local to me is having the same problems but so far nobody is.
June 24, 2010 at 3:05 pm |
We put in a small but deep wildlife pond last spring and within 3 days had frogs move in from next door’s pond. After the big freeze I pulling 15 corpses from the pond and the water smelt BAD!
After this corpse removal, the smell went totally and we had a load of frogspawn. We have delighted at the emergence of the tadpoles, who were at the tail shrinking, legs almost fully formed stage.
2 days ago disaster struck – the pond started smelling bad and 1 dead tad-froglet was plucked from the surface.
Today I have 4 more.
Still a little live activity but greatly diminished on last week’s positively writhing pond of tadpoles.
Is it a disease?
Is it the water? This pond has no pump and is fed by rainwater only.
Any chance I can stop the rest dying?
Next door had no frogspawn this year, but then again they have no dead ones either.
Any ideas/comments greatly received.
June 28, 2010 at 8:22 pm |
Hi Jules
I topped my wildlife pond up a few days ago using the hosepipe which is something that i never do, always preferring to let the rain do the job sooner or later. But against my better judgement i did it and a couple of days later there were some dead tadpoles. No dead frogs though, and the remaining tads seem to be ok. i always leave the pond to be self sufficient like it would have to be in the wild so never add any food etc and only really intervene if any of the plants are getting too big. The garden is completely organic and the pond is about ten years old. I am really hoping that it isn’t my action of topping up with the hose that has caused these tadpoles to die. It did however remind me that last year about this same time the pond seemed to be full of tads and then there didn’t seem to be half as many. i didn’t notice any dead ones last year but they could have decayed/been eaten before i noticed them.
By the way, I only had one dead frog in the spring and all others seem to be healthy, fingers crossed. I have got newts as well.
Any comments/ideas would be appreciated.
June 28, 2010 at 10:12 am |
I’m not an expert but would suggest adding some more water, preferably rainwater or put the sprinkler on so it overflows.
I had this once where I had been overfeeding tadpoles with fish food, the excess food rotted and the tadpoles/froglets were desperate to get out of the pond. Learnt my lesson
June 29, 2010 at 7:25 pm |
Thanks for the advice.
I did top up the pond on Sunday. It took 10 big bucketfuls of cold tap water – the rainwater butt has been empty for weeks – to bring it up to full level. Since then (now Tuesday) thankfully no more dead ‘uns, and happy to say that I’ve seen a few little frogs hopping about in the margins too.
I think it was probably the heat of the water that was doing for them.
June 29, 2010 at 4:12 pm |
I have found up to eight frogs dead in our pond – they are always on their backs with legs stretched out. anybody know what is causing this?
July 30, 2010 at 2:29 pm |
Dead frogs in summer (or winter) was something I had never encountered in 20 years of having a garden pond her in N Kent, until last summer when after a very sucessful breeding season when 200+ frogs returned, I found at least 50 dead ones from July to September in and around the pond.
I assumed this to be an outbreak of the virus that has been around since the 80s, but had up to then never affected my ponds.
I tried in vain to find really useful advice about what to do about this, and whether to start again with a new pond, but nobody was able to tell me whether this virus was only carried by frogs, or whether it was in the water/mud/or transmitted by any other means.
I did empty the pond, rebuilt and relined it, but put back all the silt, pondweed and pondlife that had overwintered in holding tanks. About 40 frogs returned, spawned and I had masses of tadpoles, but now the dead ones are appearing again. Some large, some this years tadpoles. I am desperate to know what, if anything I can do about this. The newts and other life seem unaffected as last year. Does anyone have any really useful advice to give? Does anyone know if the Frog Mortality project is still going?
Incidentally my ponds have always been topped up with 50:50 rain water and tap water, and have very dense oxygenating weed and are from 10 – 60 cm deep. Frogs thrived in my garden for 19 years.
Shall I just give up and accept it is a good pond for everything except frogs now? I would really appreciate hearing from anyone else who has had this problem.
July 30, 2010 at 4:48 pm |
Hi Judith
Try contacting Froglife who have been running the Frog Mortality Project, with the Zoological Society of London, for some years.
I’d be interested to hear how you get on.
There is advice on the Froglife website – but if you can’t find what you want let me know and we’ll see if we can talk to the people actually doing the testing.
Jeremy