With our unseasonally dry autumn weather many Perth residents have left their reticulation switched on.  This pseudo rain has attracted the interest of the lonely hearted Moaning frogs who have moved in and set up digs.  Unfortunately they seem to prefer the garden beds located under bedroom windows.  This can have only one result – sleep deprivation!

But never fear!  The Frog Doctor has a solution for all you bleary eyed frog lovers.  He has a method of locating the burrows, digging the little sleep botherers out, and re-homing them somewhere less likely to unhinge you and yours.   And the good thing is the whole family can get involved!  Here’s what he has to say:

First you’ll need a helper and a torch each.  Now go out to the area where you hear the frog, standing at 90 degrees to each other.  Point the torch light in the direction of the call.  Where the torch beams meet should be the entrance to the hole.

To dig them out you will need a small trowel.  Refrain from using a large spade as the hole has lots of twists and turns where the frogs burrow around tree roots, rocks etc. Place two fingers in the entrance of the hole and carefully start excavating the soil.  Always keep your fingers in the hole otherwise you’ll lose the burrow.

When you get about 30cm down be alert as you may feel the frog’s soft head. When you
feel the frog dig down under the frog so you cup him in your trowel.  Don’t grab him from 
above.  Place the frog in a bucket of sand, not water (remember they will drown in water).
Now you can return your frog prince to a wetland close by, a seasonal wetland preferrably
at dusk.

If you prefer the idea of these guys inhabiting your own garden you can build a frog
friendly garden, it’s all about installing a pond but incorporating it with a boggy area that
floods in winter.  

I hope this method helps some of you reclaim the night.  Let me know if you have any success.

Sometimes in life we are privileged enough to meet a beautiful person.    A person who lives life beautifully, who is so fertile that everything around them blooms and grows and reproduces.  Music follows them and people and animals flock to them.   Sally is such a person.

I received an email from Sally, via the Frog Doctor, because she had so many tadpoles and she wanted to share her bounty with others.  It just so happened that I had received two emails the previous day from people who wanted tadpoles for their backyard ponds.  I call it serendipity.

I wanted to check out Sally’s pond and bag myself some taddies so Sally invited me over for a look see.  What I found was a wonderland!  A lush, green paradise home to many, many fat froggies and their offspring. 

Sally dipped a jug into her pond and came up with a swirling mass of wriggling black bodies, again and again.  She lifted a shade cloth concealing one end of her pond and frogs jumped this way and that for cover.  We looked at another pond under her balcony and observed the circular dance of thousands around the pond edge.

As we lingered visitors came and went through Sally’s home, jovial and friendly.  What a comforting magnet her place must be, not only for friends and family but for wildlife as well.

Thank you Sally, for your generosity and your beauty.