Help - Which critter has been eating my baby frogs?

[jpinard]

I've received ~30 Green Frog tadpoles over the past month. My wife and I simply love frogs, and each year we've worked very hard to make the best home possible for both the fish and frogs in our little pond. All of the baby frogs were actually still tadpoles, but had arms/legs and were about to become air breathers. Sadly, since their expected maturation date passed, we've seen none sitting on lily pads or in the pebble beach area. However, as we think back to the past month, each time we'd see a tadpole on the pebble beach (it's the perfect area for them as there's lots of algae and it's warmer than the rest of the pond), they'd disappear by the next day. This morning, much to my chagrin (but no surprise), I found a half eaten tadpole on the flagstone in front of the pebble beach. I was out positioning the garden hose so I'm sure I interrupted someone's feeding time.

The question I pose to you? Which critter do you think has been eating them? All of the following bathe and/or drink out of the pebble beach area.

Birds:

* Grackles
* Robins
* Cardinals
* Morning Doves
* Sparrows

Mammals:
* Chipmunks
* Squirrels

Yes, I know Sparrows seems ridiculous, but I added them for completeness sake. Thanks for the help!

[Mike O'Malley]

Can you raise the pollywogs inside until they're actually frogs?

[Nellie]

The obvious choice to go for are cats. Herons tend to really like tadpoles for lunch as well.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Second cats. Where do you live? That could help us find the culprit. Getting them to stop is a simpler, though probably less aesthetically pleasing affair: cover the pond with chicken wire.

[Enidigm]

Each other?

I raised frogs in a fish tank, indoors once. We started with 50 or so little guys, ended up with about 4 frogs.

Worst example of that was my native-stocked aquarium, full of perch, a soft shelled turtle, and a crawdad (Crayfish). All the fish died mysteriously, and so it was narrowed down to the turtle or the crayfish. Then the turtle, which was very cute, kicked the bucket - and Mr. Crayfish just sat there all alone snapping his claws content in his spear-won (or claw-won) dominion. He earned a trip to the toilet for that one.

[balut]

Heh, that sounds like the AP Bio classroom aquarium way back in high school, where we had a couple crayfish and several assorted fish. Then an oscar was added to the tank, and within a week all the other fish were gone. A day or two later one of the crayfish was missing an arm, and the oscar's fins were a little cut up. The next day the only ones left were the oscar and one really tough bastard of a crayfish.

[ElGuapo]

On a related backyard note, I killed around 20 carpenter bees on my back deck with my bare hands this weekend. You can kill em quick by swatting fast and making nunchuku scene Enter The Dragon sounds. The males are really, really aggressive, they will buzz right up to your face and hover there like little helicopters. At one point I started into this primal rage making Godzilla sounds, swatting the little fuckers down. Bastards are tearing up the underhang on my gutter.

Then I found out the males don't have stingers, and it was less dumb redneck manly and more like the F-18s against the alien ship from Independence Day, pre Powerbook virus.

Oh well. They still needed to go. Poor little bastards.

[Talisker]

It's not a chipmunk or a squirrel. Given where you live, it's probably a cat or a raccoon. If it was an owl or some other sort of bird, it wouldn't've eaten it right by the pond -- it'd swoop down, grab lunch, then go up to a tree or a rooftop somewhere to munch on it.

[Enidigm]

I raised bees once, and it was pretty neat getting honey out of their combs later in the year. Of course the bastards became africanized a short time later and swarmed everyone during a barbeque. So i had to caulk up their hive and drown them. Sucks, but can't let them, you know, kill someone.

Biting in half is pretty indicative of a cat. I find mice bitten in half all the time (i guess, you know, once a year) by cats.

[Theodore Rex DX]

On a related backyard note, I killed around 20 carpenter bees on my back deck with my bare hands this weekend. You can kill em quick by swatting fast and making nunchuku scene Enter The Dragon sounds. The males are really, really aggressive, they will buzz right up to your face and hover there like little helicopters. At one point I started into this primal rage making Godzilla sounds, swatting the little fuckers down. Bastards are tearing up the underhang on my gutter.

Then I found out the males don't have stingers, and it was less dumb redneck manly and more like the F-18s against the alien ship from Independence Day, pre Powerbook virus.

Oh well. They still needed to go. Poor little bastards.

They buzzed you in your face and they don't have stingers? Those are some courageous motherfucking bees.

:'(

[Nellie]

I like bees, I raise them for the fur.

[Brendan]

Baby frogs are the peanuts of the animal kingdom. It would be easier to list the carni/omnivores that don't snack on them.

[Met_K]

Actually it's the mischevious fox that's been eating your baby frogs. By the way, did you see Bambi?

[Lunch of Kong]

Bambi bought it.

[Hanzii]

The french eat frogs and they don't like Americans.
Just sayin'!

[Glenn]

Of course the bastards became africanized a short time later and swarmed everyone during a barbeque. So i had to caulk up their hive and drown them. Sucks, but can't let them, you know, kill someone.
I'm sure Cleve considers this a very useful allegory.

[Raife]

Which critter do you think has been eating them?

It's obviously Twiddlebugs.

[jpinard]

O...K....

Well, I should have clairified. When I first looked out, there were no half eaten tadpoles on the flagstone (the frog beach area is right under our bedroom window). From the time I looked, to when I went out - was about 5 minutes. I saw a Grackle and Robin hopping around the area. My primary suspect (for the dead drowned baby birds we find in the pond) is the Grackles.

[Enidigm]

I'm sure Cleve considers this a very useful allegory.

I like "Traveling through the dark (http://www.unc.edu/~jmware/1233/stafford.htm)" better.

[Backov]

How do bees become "Africanized" - it's not like the Killer bees got their hive with a Culture Bomb or anything - aren't your bees gone and the "killer" bees have killed them all and are living in the hive?

[Mike O'Malley]

I was curious about this and hit Wikipedia:

The Assassin Bee?

The lore
In Brazil, the Afrucab bee and its hybrid are known as the Assassin Bee, for its supposed habits in taking over an existing colony of European bees. According to this lore, their queen waits outside while several worker bees infiltrate the hive by bringing in food, where they will then locate and kill the queen. The new queen will then enter and take over the hive.

The danger to apiculture and agriculture
It has been established that in a partially Africanized hive these aggressive bees can even "recruit" more gentle bees in attacks upon intruders. If true, this habit can make Africanized bees dangerous in areas where European bees are kept for agricultural purposes, since an existing queen may be replaced without the usual out-swarming or supersession, conditions more readily observable by the beekeeper. To the extent that the Africanized bees make pollination management more difficult, they are a threat to the production of all crops which require bee pollination.

Genetic evidence
Evidence for the accuracy of the assassin report can be found in the fact that of Africanized bees in Brazil, about one third have mitochondrial DNA indicating a female ancestor of African origin. If the Africanization was attributable only (or even mostly) to the well known superior breeding efficiency of Africanized (male) drones, such "mother" DNA would be much less prevalent. Although some bee species (such as the Cape Bee Apis mellifera capensis of South Africa) are known to be able to propagate additional females via egg laying female workers, this is not believed to occur in either A. m. adansonii or A. m. scutellata.

Behavioral evidence
Apis mellifera scutellata is well known for sending from the hive numerous tiny swarms - a queen and only a few attendants. Such a small swarm should be incapable of starting a colony on its own, lacking enough workers for all the tasks required to support a queen and in particular incapable of beginning a new colony. For this behavior to have survived through natural selection it likely has some utility to the survival and propagation of the sub-species. The supposed assassin behavior is consistent with this argument and is actually reinforced by it.


I love insects, so many nasty little behaviors going on.

[Brad Grenz]

Hey, did anyone ever write the screenplay for that survivor bee versus the Japanese wasps thing from that video posted a long time ago? 'Cause I remember the thread being absolutely brilliant.

[claybob]

I would vote for Grackels because I absolutely despise them. Reminds me of a Carey Sweeney (sp?) song...

[Bill Dungsroman]

jpinard's "To-Do" list must be frightening to behold.

[Leah C]

Grackles. My friend worked for years at a pond shop/fish farm and they were constantly at war with the grackles. They love frogs, little lizards, minnows, etc. If you ever catch a grackle, they smell fishy 'cause they spend all their time at the edge of ponds/lakes catching food.

[BaconTastesGood]

Oh well. They still needed to go. Poor little bastards.

Carpenter bees are an interesting problem, because they're annoying and destructive, but also key pollinators. If you have a lot of nice flora then you want them around. So the way I keep the peace is I kill any fucker that starts drilling into my deck or porch or house.

A badminton racket works great. You smack 'em out of the sky, but they're so tough that it's hard to kill them like that. So you follow up with the Bruce Lee Stomps on O'Hara move from Enter the Dragon.

"It's like a finger pointing to the moon..."

[Raife]

Carpenter bees are an interesting problem, because they're annoying and destructive, but also key pollinators. If you have a lot of nice flora then you want them around. So the way I keep the peace is I kill any fucker that starts drilling into my deck or porch or house.

What's the best martial arts style to use against bees? Are there specific bee-fighting schools?

Can the you use the Way of the Wasp or Hornet Hands on them, or will those bee ineffective?

[Sparky]

We decided to put a groovy fish pond in our hillside backyard in San Francisco. Dug the pond, added water, plants, and last but not least, a bunch of feeder goldfish. Later that evening, we saw several raccoons up to their little furry elbows in the pond, stuffing fish into their mouths as fast as they could go. So...we had basically set up a fabulous fish buffet for raccoons (the "feeder" in "feeder goldfish" was accurate, at least). Fucking raccoons.

[BaconTastesGood]

What's the best martial arts style to use against bees? Are there specific bee-fighting schools?

Well, it depends. In the ring, some styles work great against the bee, but the minute you're in the tree or, God forbid, in the wild, all those fancy forms and strikes go to complete hell. I mean, what rules are we talking about here?

Picking the best method to fight bees really depends on the bee, the situation, the fighter, and the rules. If it's up to me, I'm bringing my Raid Bee & Wasp Spray...with a lighter. But some would argue that that doesn't prove anything since anyone can use a spray can.

I hope I never have to fight a bee in the wild, but I think that if it happens, I'll be prepared.

[BaconTastesGood]

So...we had basically set up a fabulous fish buffet for raccoons (the "feeder" in "feeder goldfish" was accurate, at least). Fucking raccoons.

Out here, we's call 'em raccoon bait.

[jpinard]

We decided to put a groovy fish pond in our hillside backyard in San Francisco. Dug the pond, added water, plants, and last but not least, a bunch of feeder goldfish. Later that evening, we saw several raccoons up to their little furry elbows in the pond, stuffing fish into their mouths as fast as they could go. So...we had basically set up a fabulous fish buffet for raccoons (the "feeder" in "feeder goldfish" was accurate, at least). Fucking raccoons.

I used to euthanize them, but it made me feel bad when one wasn't as nasty as normal. So now we re-locate them - along with the opossums.

Which reminds of a really gross story. A few years ago I kept sunflower seed in a plastic container on the deck. A raccoon, pull the safety latch and lid offand proceeded to eat 10 lbs of seed in one setting. He ate the whole friggen lot. When I went out there to scare him away, it was obvious he climbed between the 2x4's that make up the deck fencing. Well, he'd eaten so much when he tried to squeeze back through, he didn't fit... but tried anyways. He proceeded to poop out raw seed and red stuff all over our deck. About 2 gallons worth (imagine the stuff from inside of a pumpkin <-- that consistency). It was horribly disgusting.

sara tonin - thanks. I think I need to get a BB gun or pellet gun to take them out. I'm sick of them bringing their poop and dropping it in my pond - not to mention all the things they eat.

[Kunikos]

I'm surprised nobody has thought it may be jpinard eating them or feeding them to his dog. Munchausen's much?

[jpinard]

I'm surprised nobody has thought it may be jpinard eating them or feeding them to his dog. Munchausen's much?

First of all Kun, that's getting old and certainly isn't true - and is frankly exceptionally insulting. I can take a lot of ribbing, but that goes too far. Second, for pets, besides our nice indoor cat, we have ~40 pond fish (30 of which were born in our pond), and previously - some very nice frogs.

The following pic shows the "pebble beach for frogs", that the birds enjoy so much.

http://www.jeffpinard.com/Pond2006.jpg

The pic below is our fav frog from last year that didn't make it thorugh the winter. She would come out of the water, up to our feet, and beg us for food (worms) when we'd go outside.

http://www.jeffpinard.com/happy_frog.jpg

[BaconTastesGood]

Am I the only person who screamed a bit like a little girl when he saw that frog? It's like, looking at me, smiling, thinking "I know where you live, Bacon. I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE....*ribbit*"

[Jason McMaster]

Which reminds of a really gross story. A few years ago I kept sunflower seed in a plastic container on the deck. A raccoon, pull the safety latch and lid offand proceeded to eat 10 lbs of seed in one setting. He ate the whole friggen lot. When I went out there to scare him away, it was obvious he climbed between the 2x4's that make up the deck fencing. Well, he'd eaten so much when he tried to squeeze back through, he didn't fit... but tried anyways. He proceeded to poop out raw seed and red stuff all over our deck. About 2 gallons worth (imagine the stuff from inside of a pumpkin <-- that consistency). It was horribly disgusting.

WOW!!