Another toad bites the dust

Yesterday we went out to my parents' farm. It was a beautiful sunshiney day. The swallows and hummingbirds had just arrived from the south and butterflies were already flying. I love when the trees begin to bud and the flowering plum trees are blooming. We dug up some strawberry plants that needed to be thinned and set them in buckets to replant at my home. After we dug up about 25-30, which was way too many (imho!) we walked to my mother's very large pond and watched the koi swim around.


The kids tried catching some of the toad polliwogs. We ended up with only one. They are huge... this one was about 3.5 inches long. The babies! So gross. My mom found a few toad egg clumps and we pulled them out and into a bucket. The toads eat the baby koi- when there are some- and that is terrible. They also eat the gambuzi fish. Gambuzis are about 1 to 2 1/2 inches and eat mosquito larvae and therfore beneficial. They are so cute! Toads actually will take over the pond if left to eat all these gambuzis and baby koi! Dilligence is the only thing to keep those nasty things at bay. Caught toad eggs and polliwogs are dumped in the bushes far away or buried. As the spring comes along more, toads get bigger or down right huge, more disgusting and more plentiful. I am sure we will have better toad hunting then.