Native Frogs in Your Own Backyard
If you are looking for tadpoles for your backyard pond I have a couple of people who want to share their bounty.
A lady in Forrestfield is trying to clear the tadpoles out of her pool so she can re-vamp it, and a man in Leeming has so many frogs and tadpoles he hopes someone will help by taking some of them off his hands.
If you live near these suburbs and would like some tadpoles, use the comment box below to send me a line and I will put you in touch with a tadpole donor.
Due to recent habitat loss caused by development around Balcatta the frogs have moved in BigTime to Watergarden World. And they seem to have been having a breeding frenzy.
The guys at Watergarden World report that they have been inundated with tadpoles and are desperate for help. So if you live in the area and would like to take some tadpoles off their hands just call in and see them. Ask for Paul and mention I sent you. Watergarden World is located 2 Erindale Road in Balcatta.
Happy tadpole hunting.
Gary’s Tip of the Month
It is a fallacy that fish will only grow to the size of their pond. What growing bodies really need is a balanced array of vitamins and proteins with trace elements too, just like humans. Your Pygmy perch will greatly benefit from this ideal and rather inexpensive additional feeding program I have been using with great success…
King prawns!
No, not for you. For your Pygmy perch! Buy a few of the cheaper ones (raw), take off the head, shell and de-vein them, then wrap them individually in a small piece of cling wrap and freeze them. They will last up to 4 months or longer, so only buy a few at a time.
The good thing about raw food is it will last longer, fish will gain maximum growth from it and it is easy to handle and store in the freezer. I have about 30 or so Pygmy perch and only feed them once a week as a supplementary food to keep them strong. They will usually browse on the tiny pond life and what falls into it such as mosquito’s etc.
Feed your fish with prawns once a week and only one very thin slice of prawn per 10 fish. Cross cut a section of prawn as thick as a razor blade and then finely slice and dice this small piece – an ideal finished size is about as big as a pin head. It is not hard with some practise. Do not mash it. Then carefully scrape it off the cutting board into a cup with about 20mm of water in it and swish it around with a fork to separate any lumps.
Now, if you have water snails in your pond (best found near the surface at night), crush one up with two small stones left at the pond edge for this purpose and wash the mess off in the water and watch them rip that apart!
One snail a week and one prawn every 3 months is all it will cost you to keep them in top shape and they will gain full size very fast, but don’t overfeed them as it only makes them sick and fouls the water. Pygmy perch are rather a small fish reaching 60mm, so the bigger you get them the healthier they will grow and be easier to see.
Minerals are another good idea for healthy fish. Add one heaped tablespoon of natural rock salt - NEVER IODISED SALT - to your pond per 1000 litres once a year. If you only have a small pond a teaspoon is enough. It is rather vital that fish and frogs have sodium in their diet as it has been known to also keep other diseases from affecting your frogs, fish and pond life. Here, in Western Australia, our scheme water is rather soft and as I only add rain water from my tanks it is very much needed for my ponds.
One last thing – Before you tip the food mix into the water, tap gently with your finger nail on the side of the pond a few times then pour it in. Your fish will quickly learn that this sound means dinner. My fish are trained to come to the edge as soon as I pass by. When friends arrive you can show them the fish by tapping a few times and they will come over fast! Who wants to miss out on King Prawns!
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.
I received this email from a reader about some out of season action in her frog pond recently.
Yesterday evening I was alerted to the call of two banjo frogs in our garden. I discovered the two frogs in our pond and they appeared to be fighting, although not too seriously. They were both calling but one was much louder than the other. I was pleased to see them as we have been hearing the calls recently but not actually seen the frogs. To my delight when I looked at the pond this morning there are two foam nests. The larger one attached to the vegetation at the side of the pond and the other floating loose. One of the frogs was hiding in the vegetation next to the large nest.
The pond has been established for a few years now and we have had several lots of motorbike frog tadpoles. The pond was out of action for a year due to a leak which was fixed last december but the pump no longer works. So the pond has changed from having moving water to still. In fact although it is a fair size pond the water is a bit murkey. The information I have read also says that that now is not the usual breeding season for Banjo frogs. Any thoughts?
We live in Rockingham and always have lots of motorbike frogs in our garden, occasionally see a banjo frog and slender tree frogs. We have seen herons in the pond on a few occasions and sometimes have visits from a Rufous Hight Heron, acting suspiciously. Our neighbours also have a pond so easy pickings for frogs and tadpoles I think.
Banjo frog breeding season is usually winter to spring, so these guys are getting it on a little early. I wonder if the change in the pond conditions has suited them perfectly and they just couldn’t wait to try it out!
Each species of frog have evolved quite specific breeding requirements and sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation and attention to detail to create just the right habitat for all our beautiful native frogs in your own back yard.
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.
Bonking Frog Winery, Dardanup, WA
Julie swears he is plotting his revenge after being summarily dismissed from her pantry for jumping out at her from the plastic bags and taking ten years off her life!
Embrace the Pantry Frog, Julie! And thanks for the wine and frog figurine.
One of the people I contacted from the WA Museum Tadpole Register was (another) Lisa and she shared with me her frog pond story. It shows how passionate frog lovers can be!
Our story started out fairly simple – we have a fishpond with a multi-stage filter, part of which is an old concrete laundry tub, set higher than the pond and creating a waterfall into the main pond. Several years ago, we found that motorbike frogs had laid eggs amongst the vallis in these tubs. Unfortunately, many of the tadpoles went over the edge and into the waiting mouths of the fish below. Well, that wouldn’t do!
So we got an old corner-style bathtub and set that up (without a pump) and stocked it with vallis and western perch (a very small native species that doesn’t eat tadpoles because their mouths aren’t big enough!). That worked fine until the herons and egrets found the pond – the birds thought it was an open-air restaurant. A mesh “box” over the top stopped that.
In the mean time, frogs were still breeding in the fishpond filter – and those that didn’t go over the waterfall were turning into frogs. Even some that did go over the edge managed to evade the fish and turn into frogs! And of course, the fish food was equally palatable to the taddies so they grew pretty quick…
So when we found out about Frog Watch, we joined up right away – frogs return to where they grew up and we were knee-deep!
The biggest problem we have had is turning down people who live too far away. (According to the Frog Watch information, tadpoles shouldn’t be moved more than 2-3 suburbs away and shouldn’t be transported into a different “region” e.g from the Coastal Plain to the Hills.)
We haven’t had any other types of frogs make our place into their home. I suspect that is because all of the ponds (yes, there are now three) have fairly steep sides. I suspect other frog species would prefer some shallower water or even water-logged soil for breeding.
However, what we have found is that the frogs need some sort of shelter (e.g. water plants) and protection from marauding birds. Some small native fish (e.g. the western perch) will help control the mosquito larvae so you don’t create a serious bug problem (note that the tads won’t eat the mosquitoes!).
When we run the bore, the sprinklers also provide some top-up to the ponds (without adding chlorine and the other chemicals that are in the mains water). This also helps to cool the water down a bit. Speaking of which, if the water is too shallow, it will heat up to much and too quickly, so at least part of the pond should be reasonably deep.
Put all those together, get yourself a “starter pack” of tadpoles, and you’ll soon be knee-deep too! knee-deep, knee-deep!
I often receive emails from people asking questions or telling me stories about the frogs they see in their backyards. I love replying to them and learning more about frogs as I research answers to their queries.
Recently, Julie Hutton from Bonking Frog Wines contacted me to ask if I had any idea why frogs at her winery seemed to like sitting on top of her verandah posts under a hot tin roof in the middle of the day. Why wouldn’t they seek a cooler place to rest?
I did some research and found that this occurence has been documented before by Mickael J. Tyler in his book Australian Frogs : A Natural History. He noted that far from roasting in the scorching conditions, the frog’s internal temperatures were 10 degrees below the ambient temperature! Julie and I therefore agreed that if several frogs were vying for this position, then that must be the place to be!
Julie also had this to say about frogs and her fabulous property:
I love frogs, which influenced our label – I knew the name was a bit out there, and I hesitated to use it for awhile, but the frogs kept popping up everywhere, in my boots, in the bathroom, congregating behind the cushions on the verandah – in the end I thought they’re trying to tell me to go for it! And as we are trying to create a sustainable vineyard, having a healthy frog population is a great indicator of how we are going. Plus the name makes me smile and most people like it – although some get a bit grumpy. We’ve copped a serve in our local paper recently, because someone thought the name was obscene – thankfully he’s the exception.
I’m also trying to follow the ‘Bonking Frog’s example – when he starts up his call can be heard over all the other frogs – and as a small wine label in a very over crowded market, we need to stand out from the crowd, just like him.
I’ve started packaging frogs with our wines in gift packs at Christmas time
- mainly for friends, but they proved so popular I’ve added a couple to our website and hopefully other people will like them – I’m having the best time going to distributors looking for frogs, I’ve got them in all shapes and sizes.We are very small and the cellar door is also our home, visitors are welcome 7 days a week and we have tastings on our verandah. Because we are so small we always say if someone would like to make sure we are home, just give me a ring on 0408 930 332 beforehand and I can make sure I’m around.
I’ve started a ‘frog watch’ photo diary of our frogs, which I’m showing to visitors, because so many are like us ‘frog lovers’. Although I had a visitor recently who was terrified of them, she had heart palpitations when the pot plants rustled – I didn’t dare tell her there was three sitting above her head in the rafters
She was a lovely lady, poor thing just found frogs really scary.
I wonder if this lady’s name was Helen?
Thanks Julie, and thank you to all my visitors who take time to contact me with frog stories or questions or who post comments to my stories.
The photos in this story were supplied by Julie Hutton of Bonking Frog Wines.
I received this email from Ronda Green recently and I asked her if I could share it with you. I just love hearing about other peoples experiences with frogs in their backyards.
We put in a small frog pond a couple of years ago, with some water weeds collected from the creek and a bit of nardoo. We surrounded it on three sides with Dianella and other dense low vegetation, partly for the appearance, partly for other wildlife, and partly to deter cane toads which seem to like more open ground.
On wet warm nights we often see and hear the ornate burrowing frog calling while floating in the water. We also have spotted marsh frogs, green tree frogs and common sedge frogs using it, plus freshwater snails that came in with the water weed.
We bought six native Pacific blue-eye fish to control mosquito larvae without eating tadpoles but they don’t seem to have survived (perhaps taken by birds). There are other frogs on the property that don’t seem to have discovered the pond yet.
The first pond we tried to make before this was done mixing bondcrete with cement, overlain on sand and plastic sheeting, with some natural local rock embedded into the concrete. Then we coated all with bonddcrete as well but it still leaked. This time we bought a ready-made pond from Bunnings and put rocks around the edge, overlapping in an attempt to disguise the black plastic. Doesn’t look quite as good but working well for the frogs.
