Healthy well maintained gardens invite all types of guests, some unwanted ones like varmints can do damage. Even birds can take a toll on fruits and other plants in your garden. Toads on the other hand are always welcome.
Toads eat and can help control slugs, grasshoppers, and worms. They are the guests you want coming back, again and again. If you can get them to come, and they are comfortable with the habitat provided, they will stick around for years.
Toads are easily confused with frogs which can have a detrimental effect on your garden. Toads start off as tadpoles in the water but prefer drier environments. The likely source for how toads ended up in your garden is from a nearby pond, ditch, or source of water.
Toads mostly feed at night and take cover under rocks, or damp soil during the day to stay out of the heat. To cool off toads absorb water through the skin on their belly. If you want to make your garden a more attractive habitat, build a toad area with a pile of rocks and loose soil that has plenty of nooks and crannies, along with several small saucers of water.
In late fall, toads will simply burrow down below the soil surface and hibernate until spring. And whenever you discover that a toad has taken up residence, be sure to leave its habitat undisturbed. Once it finds a safe and secure place, this may be its home for a very long time.
Toads are very patient and can lay in wait for hours until a tasty meal, usually something that is detrimental to your garden and plants. Like the blue birds we mentioned in a previous posting, toads are a very effective form of pest control. Using all mother nature has to offer sometimes isn’t enough, for further pest control management remember to contact Earth Guard Pest Services at
916-457-7605
[email protected]