I’ve still got about a month to wait for frogs to spawn here in Abingdon, but in the south and west, things are getting going as you can see on Nature’s Calendar.
Frog spawn in my pond in March 2008
But if you’ve already got early frogspawn, do send me a picture to feature on the blog, and tell me about your pond.
February 16, 2009 at 1:32 am |
No spawn yet in Sussex, but the frogs are back (three seen this evening) plus a couple of adult newts were swimming around tonight. Shouldn’t be too long now!
February 24, 2009 at 10:52 pm |
found Frogspawn in the old well in our garden on the 21 february this is the isle of lewis in The Hebrides
February 24, 2009 at 11:37 pm |
Wow – really cool! Somehow it seems rather wonderful to have someone on the blog from my second favourite place after Harris. Jeremy
March 7, 2009 at 7:39 pm |
My frogs spawned on the 2nd of March. Much to my surprise as I only have a half barrel I installed to grow water lilies in in my small garden in central London. I don’t even know how the first one manage to climb up the sides into it. Having found him there I built a frog ramp out of logs up one side of the barrel and assume that’s how the rest got in.
March 8, 2009 at 8:26 am |
Dear RHD
Would you like to send a picture of your pond for the blog? I think you have to send them to me, rather than being able to post direct.
Jeremy
March 13, 2009 at 7:57 pm |
we have frogsprawn also a clump of white spawn any ideas ?
August 21, 2009 at 11:47 am |
it could be newts?
March 19, 2010 at 7:39 pm |
First time ever the frogs have laid their eggs. I am so excited. Bournemouth.
Are they ok with my fish: someone told me my fish will eat all the frogs spawn??
March 19, 2010 at 8:15 pm |
Hi Beverley
I’m afriad the bad news is that, unless the spawn and then the tadpoles can keep well away from the fish – they will end as fish suppers.
Jeremy
March 20, 2010 at 9:30 am |
Thank you i will go to my pond and observe the good or the bad news,if they are still there i will move them.
Beverley.
March 20, 2010 at 8:05 pm |
Thanks for advice have got them all in a bucket and will see the outcome the pond water is so cold.
Beverley.
March 23, 2010 at 6:01 pm |
The eggs are now little tadpoles i have so many, what do i feed them with?
Thanks.
March 23, 2010 at 6:15 pm |
Try taking some water and plants out of your pond and putting it with the tadpoles; there would be enough nutrients in that to keep the little ones healthy. You could also try making a tiny pond (only needs to be as wide and as deep as a dustbin lid) – they would be quite happy in that as well.
March 23, 2010 at 7:56 pm |
Hi Beverley
I’ve got a leaflet from the Field Studies Council that suggests using the green/brown pellets in rabbit food – no more than 1 or 2 every few days. Also recommended are the outside leaves of lettuce, boiled for 5 minutes and then cooled. Haven’t tried either myself (my taddies have to fend for themselves in the pond!) so won’t swear this’ll work – but it comes from what should be a reliable source.
One thing is to watch out for overcrowding – I’ve seen one suggestion that you should have no more than 5 tadpoles per litre – sounds reasonable but might be hard to achieve. If they’re more crowded you might want to oxygenate the water a bit.
Jeremy
March 23, 2010 at 11:49 pm |
hi jeremy
i feed my tadpoles with a very thin slice of courgette and snails with a very small piece of melon skin. they love this and eat it within two days and are growing very fast . these are tadpoles in an inside tank and in ponds within garden
March 24, 2010 at 12:24 pm |
Living in the east of scotland it has been so cold so far this year but on 21 March, the pond was a seething mass of frogs, all very busy, I counted at least 12 full grown frogs and we have two heaps of frog spawn now. Last year our last fish died so they have no competition from fish this year but we were inundated last year with masses of larvae of the great diving beetle, fascinating to watch, which made short work of the emerging froglets and each other. But there are obviously plenty of frogs around. I also captured a picture of a toad last year. No sign yet of the beetle larvae.
March 26, 2010 at 8:50 pm |
Thanks for all the advice. Put some water and plants from the pond and the tadpoles have died; they are in a bucket but maybe i need to give them some more water. What a shame.
Beverley.
March 26, 2010 at 8:54 pm |
PS. I had been feeding them with fish flakes which someone suggested but i will try other suggestions now. Thanks.
March 26, 2010 at 9:11 pm |
Hi Beverley
If you’ve got any survivors still, you could send a photo of the situation they’re in (to jbiggs@pondconservation.org.uk) I could try a bit of remote ‘pond doctor’ advising! A picture always makes things easier.
Jeremy
June 28, 2010 at 6:35 pm |
Just a quick question….Is this the same Beverley Bailey who used to live in Kings Norton Birmingham?
April 3, 2010 at 6:07 pm |
My garden pond, in an extremely urban area in North London, is a plastic crate inset into the earth. There’s lots of frogspawn which is being ‘hoovered’ by water snails but I can’t make out if they are cleaning it or eating it.
I also have some resident toads that like to live in some black damp flower pots or under a bit of old black bin bag which also attracts slugs so I cant tidy their area of the garden, they seem to be breeding as each year their are more of them however unlike the frogs I have never seen toad spawn- any hints. I was going to send a couple of photos but can’t work out how to do it.
April 3, 2010 at 7:12 pm |
Hi Maggie
You can send pictures to jbiggs@pondconservation.org.uk – I don’t think there’s a way to post them directly on Word Press blogs.
Jeremy
April 6, 2010 at 12:26 am |
hi maggie i watch my snails going over my frog spawn even though i think they do take a munch or too out of the jelly i think they mainly are eatting at the alge on the jelly and i dont ever see any harm to the tadpoles from this though
as to your toads if you can build small log plies or clay pots with front cut out this helps to give the toads a safe place to sit and hunt from
do any of your niebours have ponds as this could be the breeding pond for the toads
April 18, 2010 at 9:41 am |
Hi All
I am new to this and only found the site today but so excited when i did, i came across many 50 at least tadpoles by mistake, my grandaughter has a plastic paddleing pool that i have for her and left it out all winter now nice weather comeing i decieded to give it a good clean out for her and to my amazment it is alive with tadpoles?????????? in a mixture of sizes, what do i feed them ? how long before the turn into frogs ? and should i leave them or make a wild life pond ? ( which im really interested in doing )
many thanks maria
April 19, 2010 at 12:07 pm |
hi maria pete here
if you wish to clean out your paddling pool but want to make a great home for the tadpoles to turn into froglets
what you can do is dig a hole and put in a washing up bowl or a small tub
put a very small amount of mud into bottom fill with water add a rock or a peice log of wood
the tadpoles will feed on alge growing on sides of bowl once they start to grow and if in the mean time you wish to feed them a very thin slice of courgette works well too
ok hope this helps
April 19, 2010 at 8:09 pm |
Hi All,
As a child I used to raise tadpoles in a fish tank, with stones and wood. I used to feed them raw bacon, which they loved… they grew into froglets and I released them locally. I expect they also fed on algae growing on the furniture!
June 14, 2010 at 1:04 pm |
I live in South Florida and have a garden fountain that has lots of tadpoles in the bowl. I am also having trouble with mosquitos. Is there a way to control for mosquitos without hurting the tadpoles?
June 15, 2010 at 6:05 am |
Hi Gaynelle
Well in the UK we have few problems with mosquitoes in garden ponds because usually as the ponds develop there are enough mosquito predators to keep numbers so low that they are not a problem.
I’ve only got a mobile phone internet link but when I get back on broadband I will see if the American Mosquito Control Association has anything useful to say about this.
Jeremy
June 14, 2010 at 2:09 pm |
hi all
only about 6-7 but to my dismay the tadpoles are eating them??????????????? i have now removed them and put them in a seperate bowl hoope im doing the right thing, it has been amazin watching all winter as they change and seeing as we found them in my grandaughters plastic swimming pool was fantastic
i have frogs