Talkback: Frogspawn - Talkback - gardenersworld.com

20/03/2007 at 15:54

I have just looked in our pond which is just a narrow strip of water edged with red bricks with various stones and plants at each end. I saw what I thought was some horrible gunge and assumed it was caused by my ducks getting into the pond last summer as they made it very dirty.I have looked again and feel sure it is frogspawn or toads. I only have vague childhood memories of frogspawn. We certainly have had toads. Any ideas?

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22/03/2007 at 19:24

In the autumn I made the mistake of netting mine to prevent leaves dropping in. However, one morning I found a hedgehog which hadn't been unable to unravel itself... I cannot ever think about it without feeling sick. Please remove your netting!

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15/03/2008 at 19:27

I found the post by richard jones re wrestling with frogs spawn a little but worrying.surely he would have been kinder to let the spawn hatch naturally and then catch some tadpoles to let the children rear.frogs are already in decline and messing about with their spawn isnt going to help things improve.please richard,leave wild life alone!

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17/03/2008 at 10:14

I live in Windsor and dug my pond (9' dia) last May and put fish in it in June and have since had baby fish (don't know if they've survived the winter as they didn't appear until September). About 2 weeks ago I could see the surface of the pond was moving and went to investigate to find 4 sets of frogs on the surface (it's netted). A day later i noticed loads of frog spawn and lo and behold they came back again last week and laid some more. You can see the tiny tadpoles being to move in the first lot of spawn. I was so excited, as my pond is new, that wildlife have moved in.

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19/03/2008 at 10:41

We have had a pond in our garden in Lancashire for two years now and have increasing amounts of wildlife visiting. This year we have an extraordinary amount of frogspawn. At one point we had over 50 frogs in just one 'corner' of the pond. I wonder why they are so active this year?

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20/03/2008 at 12:39

We usually had frog-spawn in early March when living in South London. This year in Salisbury we had the first spawn on January 22nd.

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20/03/2008 at 14:42

We live near Stroud in Gloucestershire and, like Claire, I noticed that the frogs had returned and laid their spawn. We have had our pond for about ten years now and always know each year when the frogs have returned by the sound of their nightime chorus of squawking and croaking. Our two dogs are very interested but have more sense than to touch either the slimey frogs or their spawn. My seven year old son is fascinated by the fact that the frogspawn that he has been looking after indoors has fully developed into tadpoles yet outside they are still just 'commas in jelly'.

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20/03/2008 at 15:26

What is this I've heard on the grapevine about a disease of frogs? Is there a disease and what can we expect to see or not to see as a result?

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20/03/2008 at 16:20

We have only a small garden pond but we back onto RSPB nature reserve ground in Weymouth, Dorset. 3 weeks ago my wife and I watched 6 huge frogs helping each other to squeeze out each others spawn. There is masses of it. We now have thousands of small tadpoles swimming about and its not the end of March yet. Also the Blackthorn is in flower - this is usually an early May event.

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20/03/2008 at 16:24

Better to move frog spawn to a pond where they are more likely to develop, then leave them somewhere where their chances are zero!!

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20/03/2008 at 17:01

Last year, for the first time in the 20 years of having my pond, I had some frog spawn but unfortunately it all 'died'. Is it because it wasn't fertilized? I have some more this year and a larger amount. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. A neighbour a few houses away recently sold her house and the new occupants filled in her pond. She used to get loads of frogs so I'm hoping they'll all move to me.

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21/03/2008 at 11:22

This is the second year for my pond and I have already got several lots of spawn. Last year to my amazement, when the tadpoles appeared the blackbirds went fishing and the edge of the pond and caught and ate them. Consequently the hundreds of tadpoles became just a few frogs. This year,I am waiting to see if I was imagining it!

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21/03/2008 at 12:14

I live in South Cumbria and have a fairly deep at one end shelved garden pond with the other end sloped for wildlife, and where the frogs spawn. The last 2 year the first spawn has arrived early feb and then the rest about a month later. All previous years we have had so many tadpoles but last year very few, and this year the spawn just seems to be "melting". Any ideas?

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21/03/2008 at 12:20

Our pond is 5-6 years and this year the first frog spawn of the year was seen at the end of February. Unfortunately due some hard frosts the spawn nearer the surface has been affected. There seem to be quite a few pairs using the pond, great joy is we dont seem to have as many bugs in the garden.

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21/03/2008 at 21:44

I have only a small pond in my garden, but I am always impressed how the frogs come back every year to spawn, on a mild evening I can hear them making quite a racket! For for the size of the pond I am suprised just how much frog spawn there is. It just shown that one doesn't need a very big body of water to attract the wild life.

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22/03/2008 at 11:15

If anyone finds frog spawn anywhere then please leave it to develop. I've had lots of frogspawn in my pond since 20th February. I have spotted at least 13 frogs. The pond is only 3 feet wide.

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23/03/2008 at 08:02

We have had frogspawn in our pond now for a few weeks. Unfortunately, like last year, most of it seems to be over a large stone we have at the edge of the pond that we put there to assist frogs or animals to get out of the pond, a sudden drop in temperature resulted in the eggs freezing. we have tried to push it further into the pond so more is covered by water, but we too have found it too sticky and welded to the stone to be moved.

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26/03/2008 at 13:55

We only have a small garden and also I have a young brother so we cannot have a big pond. How big does a pond need to be to attract frogs?

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27/03/2008 at 21:01

You are not alone ....our resident (very successful breeding pair)blackbirds not only enjoy the frog spawn and tadpoles but have been seen with adult newts in their beaks later in the year feeding their young. They break them up in the same way as they do slugs.

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28/03/2008 at 11:58

We have what I thought was frog spawn which I first noticed yesterday. When my husband went down to have a look he saw a newt swimming away. Do they both lay eggs in the same way?