Talkback: Dead frogs - Talkback - gardenersworld.com

27/01/2010 at 11:49

I have not seen any frogs in my garden yet but they must be alive and well as the heron who visits from nearby countryside is arriving every morning to hunt for them. They have to move for him to spot them. Sometimes they wriggle and escape and i have three-legged frogs hopping about the garden.

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28/01/2010 at 19:09

I haven't seen any dead frogs in our newish wildlife pond but suspect there may be. We have however lost all 4 huge Koi carp that we've had for about 10 years. We've had them since they were very small. One was left in the pond when the previous rsidents left. He was only about one and a half inches long and we bought 3 others to keep him company. They have happily survived 10 winters with a floating polystyrene gadget to keep an area clear of ice and allow the exchange of stale and fresh air. While not exactly wildlife, we were gutted. One of them even remembered from year to year how to bang the automatic feeder to obtain food! So much for fish having a short memory!

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28/01/2010 at 19:30

I have fished out three dead frogs one adult and two young, which is quite worrying, I have also lost five fish of various sizes.

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28/01/2010 at 20:01

I am now living in Holland, and this year when the ice on the canals melted, the canals were littered with floating dead fish and frogs. A great shock to most people as we have had frozen canals often. Strangely enough the ice this year never got thick enough to host the intercity skating marathons on the canals, but for some reason was bad enough for the fish to die.

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29/01/2010 at 09:36

I couldn't buy a ball when the harsh weather came, so I used a plastic bottle with a little water in. It worked a treat.

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29/01/2010 at 12:24

No dead frogs...but no frogs at all from before the winter set in. Asking around the neighbours they havn't seen any either.

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29/01/2010 at 12:35

We have a NGS garden in the Yellow book.We are wildlife friendly and use no chemicals in the garden. You mentioned that you had fostered some frog. Please where could I get some. Wer have had many frogs but they have been dwindling away. Only saw one last year. There was much spawn in the pond last year but it was gone within a day or two. I wondered whether the carp ate it. I would also like to have more hedgehogs.

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29/01/2010 at 14:19

We have had temp of -15 our lake and indeed the stream have been very frozen but last saturday we found frogspawn!from north devon

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29/01/2010 at 14:24

I just found 6 dead adult frogs in my lovely wildlife pond. Very distressing but this blog is a godsend. I know that other frogs can recolonize. Maybe others have survived? At least I know what to do next time to avoid this. Thank you

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29/01/2010 at 15:15

Sofar two dead frogs and dead fish. The pond took too long to thaw oout. I have also sen live frogs so where there is life there is hope.

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30/01/2010 at 16:41

Many dead fish but so far no sign of ailing frogs. Does anyone know of a way I can attract hedgehogs to my garden. I have been told that because there are badgers living in the area, they will eat the hedgehogs, hence their non appearance - but I am trying to make my garden badger proof as I have tall, thick Yew hedges.Any suggestions?

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30/01/2010 at 17:44

I feel quite upset now, reading about the loss of so many frogs and fish. I'd be devastated if I had created a pond to attract frogs, and then found they had suffocated in it due to the ice. Maybe next winter a feature about how to prevent these deaths could be issued again, before the ice sets in!

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30/01/2010 at 18:47

i found a dead frog in my pond there was no marks on it. it was just like it was frosen

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31/01/2010 at 11:18

hi people,sadly like many of you froglets i to have had to fish out 3 very large frogs from my pond.i guess they were adult frogs that had been in my garden for a good few years cause of the size of them, 'very sad'. i am very worried that i may of caused it as i had been putting hot water [pouring] into both my ponds in the morning....i feel awful now. does anyone know if my newts will survive?

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31/01/2010 at 14:52

We built our pond last April and soon had frogs. We were utterly dismayed to find 11 adult frogs and some babies in a spreadeagled, lifeless position in our pond 2 weeks ago. We have left them in the hope that maybe they were just partially frozen and would come to life once the warmer weather comes. Now having read your e-mails and seen the pictures of other peoples ponds they must all be dead. Great to have some useful tips for next year.

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01/02/2010 at 13:02

My puppy kept bringing me dead frogs and I thought he was catching them so I told him off! On looking at my very small wildlife pond I've found about 10 frogs, various sizes and all dead. Next year I'll be more vigilant in checking to make sure the ice is clear.

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01/02/2010 at 17:08

Sorry to hear about all your treasured frogs. At least now, we can do something about it to avoid similar tragedies in future. Pond Conservation has just launched a survey to find out more about garden ponds, so if you have time please do tell them about your garden pond: http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/aboutus/News/latestnews/launchofbigthawsurveyform

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03/02/2010 at 14:26

We lost over 70 frogs. This also happened a few years ago after severe weather. The good news was that the numbers recovered again, so fingers crossed!

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03/02/2010 at 19:22

does anyone know if the newts will be ok,and also what about the poor hedgehogs... i have one hibernating in a hedge-house,when will it start coming round.....as i want to check it but im not sure when to.

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04/02/2010 at 18:53

I keep my pond pumps working throughout the winter but a few weeks ago when we had a sudden drop in temperature, the pump froze. When I opened the filter box , I found three dead frogs in the top of it.