How to Keep Frogs out of your Fish Ponds

Though harmless, frogs can be pesky critters, leaving their droppings underfoot and croaking all night. It is an entirely different story when a fish pond is involved. Frogs can cause havoc on plant life, fish and filtration systems.

It is a well known fact that frogs always return to the pond where they hatched to breed. Thus, when left to their natural vices frogs’ numbers will grow exponentially, turning a nuisance into a real problem.

-         Keeping fish pond Frog population under control can be challenging, thus ideal situation is to scoop out any eggs and relocate them to a nearby natural pond.

A frog is an amphibian, which simply means it is an animal with two lives, that is, one in water and the other on dry land. Their life cycle begins when eggs are laid in water, hatching into larvae, tadpole and eventually into adult frog. They are made up of a smooth skin that needs both wet and dry environment for survival. They breathe both through their nostrils as well as taking half of their oxygen through their skin.

During their first development, they use gills like fish to breathe and later develop lungs. Feeding is mostly on bloom and algae that develops around plant and nonliving surfaces in water. You are more than clever to barricade your inlet channels with charcoal and sieve screens.

You can fight and control frog population using Irritants and frog Repellants. Here is a list of irritants and how to use them to repel frogs around your ponds.

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1.      Common Table Salt

·        Use a cup full of table salt and add it to a jar of water.

·         Get a Spray bottle with nozzle

·         Pour 1 cup of table salt into a spray bottle andfill the spray bottle with water from the jar

·         Shake thoroughly like making brine solution

·         Spray the salt water around the pond directly on swimming tadpoles. However, always take note that applying salt water sparingly, most plants may not survive including most phytoplankton.

2.      White Distilled Vinegar

Vinegar is an irritant, it repels tad poles and frogs on contact with their skin.

·        Use1 part of white distilled vinegar to one part of water

·        Stir the mixture of vinegar and water

·        Place the mixture in a spray bottle and spray around the infested area of your ponds, thus depending on how large your pond is you might require enough for the areas affected.

The vinegar solution will cause a burning sensation on the bottom of the frog’s foot, but otherwise leave the frogs unharmed. The period of availing the burning sensation should be long enough to discourage frogs returning from that area.

3.       Citric Acid.

·        Buy crystals of 16% citric acid from a grocery store.

·        Add the crystals in fresh water dissolving the mixture according to instructions laid on sachets.

·        Spray on the frog infested parts

Note, citric acid is known to kill frogs when applied in excess and this method can be practiced by using lemons obtained from an orchard.

·        Chop the lemons and add them in a potato porch

·        Place the porches in areas infested and observe frog behaviour

-         Keep few plants in your pond; starve the frogs by not leaving pet dishes outside except when feeding. Use bird scares or glowing cat eyes around a pond.

-         Keep Ducks and fence the pond with at least 0.5m high, small sized mesh net or wire to keep frogs out of reach of your fish pond.

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