GINLC Newsletter: Is a Toad a Frog?

One can easily identify these little amphibians. They are known by their dry, warty skin and swollen bumps on their heads. These bumps are called paratoid glands and contain an irritating substance used to ward off predators, but it is not harmful to humans.

Toads are nocturnal. They sleep during the day and feed at night. Be happy if you find one in your garden, because they can eat from 50 to 100 insects at a time, which can add up to a few thousand per month. A toads diet consists of flies. cutworms, mosquitoes, slugs, and many more bugs.

Toads generally live on land, although the females return to the water in the spring and lay thousands of eggs in gelatin-like strings up to four feet long. Tadpoles hatch from the eggs and live in the water until they develop legs and move onto land. Toads can live 4 to 15 years and sometimes longer. In the tall they hibernate underground. Just be careful when you dig up your garden in the spring and don't get scared when a little, ugly, brown thing jumps from the shovel

To encourage toads to take up residence in your garden, provide them with a little shelter and water and avoid using chemical pesticides. Since toads drink through their skin, keep a shallow container, filled with water, close to the ground so that a toad can easily hop in and a broken clay pot nearby will do nicely as a home. Good luck!