Always a joy when I see a green frog at my place ......
Green frogs seem to be few in number these days compared to several years ago or so. I have had them sitting my my laundry tubs and the very little ones appearing inside the front entry. Maybe they are busy foraging for food like all animals. They eat insects, like mosquitoes and cockroaches which I think is fabulous. Who likes those things? I read that big green frogs eat little green frogs so I can just wonder at the wonder of nature. Everything for a reason hey!
There are also green tree frogs live in the Eastern and Northern parts of Australia and probably many are happily living away in Kakadu and the Daintree.
But they are not visiting me of late. Why? Are they dying off? Is there a predator attacking the green frogs? I hope not. I do know that cane toads are growing in number and that is scary because they are killing off the toads as they migrate down through Australia. The toad tadpole larvae even kill the frog tadpole large. Toads are very resilient surviving just about everything. Toads have venom poisonous glands on their backs and if ingested by a native animal or pet dog they will die unless a hose is thrust down their mouths to wash out the poison. Many Australians have done this with their dogs. Thankfully our pet dogs have left them alone.
So toad hunting in the backyard is a big thing with everyday Australians. Armed with a torch, spray bottle of Dettol antiseptic or a shovel to cut down on the toad population in our yards.
The irony of this enormous problem with cane toads is actually Australia's doing. They were purposely brought into Australia in 1935 from Hawaii as an effort to save the sugar cane industry from the pesty sugar cane beetles. At that time sugar cane was a flourishing profitable industry. The positive part to this story is that in Australia dragonflies, nymphs and water beetle eat toad tadpoles. It has also been found that water snakes called keelbacks can tolerate low levels of toad poison. The biggest enemy of the toad then is the everyday Australian. I also hear that some Australians freeze them in their freezer for science laboratories.
Too much for me to see a frozen toad in a plastic bag in my freezer!
Cheers
howdy angiemitchell! haha, I wouldn't want to see that either. Wow that's quite a strange problem you guys have down there, I hope those things don't keep spreading!
Hi janton, unfortunately cane toads are survivors. I hope that we can stop them too. .... the scientists find a way.
yes the scientists need to come up with a natural solution but I don't know what that would be, but they might.
We also have green frogs in Cameroon and frog population in general is also decline here. I pray this little creature don't get extinct one day.
@manka
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