My love for toads began when I was a little girl. My mom brought home some tadpoles one day that she collected from a pond. We watched them metamorphose into tiny little toadlets and I remember how fascinated I was.
That was long forgotten and much life happened, until one day my husband came home to tell me that the puddle in front of my neighbor's house (which always seemed to be there) was filled with tadpoles. I said, "Really?" and went outside to look. Sure enough. I got my scooper and a large container and I collected some. Thus, my love for toads was reborn and I began a hobby.
Mike and I lived near the Museum District in Houston for 8 years. This was where I started finding the tadpoles - in the streets! That area is pretty old, with houses built in the 1940's, lots of tear-downs and lots of old trees. Many of the streets have "sunk", allowing water to accumulate when it rains. Some places seem to always have water, regardless of the weather.
ReplyDeleteI had several "spots" where I would capture tadpoles. One day I discovered what the eggs looked like - super long, clear gelatinous strands with tiny black dots all in a line! Let me tell you, it's so much easier to capture them like this than chasing them with a fish net!
Knowing my love for tadpoles, a friend gave me a large plastic container with a ventilated top. I used this to collect my first batch of tadpoles. I placed them in my tiny courtyard in the shade so they would be outside and not get too hot.
ReplyDeleteOne day, there was a wasp nest in the courtyard and I used that wasp spray that shoots 25 feet to kill them. Works every time. Unfortunately, some of the spray landed in the tadpole water. The tadpoles were all dead within seconds. I was shocked and surprised at how toxic the wasp spray was. After that event, I was more careful with ALL chemicals around the tadpoles.
At my daughter's school, the biology instructor and I want to see how we can "build" an ecologically balanced, self-sustaining pond near the forest. This pond would promote all sorts of wildlife in Northwest Houston. There are legal, environmental and financial issues pertaining to this project. If anyone knows anything about this type of endeavor, please let us know.
ReplyDeleteI think it was about 10 years ago when the George Bush income tax refund checks came in the mail. I used this money to buy a granite "tub" to house my pet tadpoles until they metamorphosed into toadlets and hopped away. The tub was about 3'x2'x1.5'. I partially filled it with rainwater and dumped a new batch of my babies in there. This was my second batch, so I still didn't know much about tadpoles. In fact, I didn't think about what they ate - I guessed it was algae or something that would magically occur in the water. After a day or so, I noticed that they were cannibalizing each other, so I ran to the pet store and - believe it or not - bought a container of "Frog and Tadpole Bites". That did the trick!
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