Frogs and toads are common. They like to live in ponds and lakes, and also regularly visit gardens. This is nice and convenient because they eat mosquitoes and snails. However, it can also get tricky. There are usually few natural enemies in the garden and there is a lot of food. Thus, an almost unlimited number of frogs and toads can arise.
This can become a problem because you can no longer easily walk through the garden, cats leave dead toads or people no longer want to visit. There are a number of ways to make the garden toad and frogs unfriendly. This can be done by removing or modifying a pond, draining the garden, and removing hiding places. Structural drills can also be removed to reduce the number of toads.
Why Keep?
Many people appreciate frogs and toads in the garden. They eat snails and mosquitoes and are therefore very useful. However, when there are too many, they can become a problem. In the spring, a possible pond is full of ‘orgies’ of five or six frogs on top of each other. At night they jump at your feet, and if you don’t pay attention you will find yourself on a thick toad. 
Or a cat plays with a toad and leaves it dead. This is of course never fun, and if you don’t clean it up in time, it attracts flies too. Once there are so many frogs or toads, the problem can be solved by making the garden frog-unfriendly and/or toad-unfriendly.
Some frogs and toads, such as bullfrogs, cause noise pollution. Fortunately, native frogs and toads in the Netherlands and Belgium cause a lot more noise.
Difference Between Frogs And Toads
Frogs and toads are often lumped together, but they are in fact easy to distinguish. Adult frogs are smooth, toads are rough, and have been described as ‘warty’ or ‘pumps’. Frogs spend most of their life in the water, toads are more often found on land. By the way, frogs also live on land. They can breathe underwater through their skin, but they can also breathe outside the water. The eggs can also be distinguished from each other. Frogs lay their drills in a cluster, while toads lay down a long string.
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Protected
All native frogs and toads are protected under the Flora and Fauna law. This means that the animals may not be killed. The duty of care applies here, which means that human actions must not have any adverse consequences for the game (in this case frogs and toads) in endangered species. Still, you can keep frogs and toads out of the garden, as long as you don’t kill them or put them in a place where they can’t survive.
Keeping Frogs Out: No Pond
Frogs are relatively easy to keep out of the garden, they always stay near water. If there is no water, there will be no frogs. As long as you or your neighbors don’t have a pond, frogs will stay away.
A Fence?
Frogs and toads can crawl through very small holes, holes that you can hardly find yourself. A fence is therefore generally ineffective against frogs and toads unless it is buried in the ground and made of material without gaps. A wooden fence, for example, will never be able to stop frogs and toads.
Incidentally, even in a perfectly enclosed garden, frogs and toads can sometimes be seen, this is because cats and birds take them, but they taste bad. This causes the animals to drop them again, sometimes in a completely enclosed environment.
No Pond Or Unsuitable Pond
A pond attracts frogs and toads. If you want fewer frogs and toads in the garden, it is best not to have a pond. You can also make the pond unsuitable for frogs and toads. This can be done by putting a few plants in it so that herons can reach the frogs more easily. You can also release predatory fish, such as goldfish or ideas, into the pond, which eats tadpoles. Please note that predatory fish are not easy to combine with a few plants, otherwise herons will eat the fish.
Drain Lawn
Do you have a lawn in the garden? And is the lawn often wet? Then this is the ideal place for toads. The lawn can be drained so that it is wet less often and for less time. Frogs and toads will sit less in it, and therefore less in the garden.
Remove Hiding Places
Frogs and toads like to hide in damp, covered places. The fewer of these places available, the fewer frogs and toads will be in the garden. Well-known places are gaps under standing tiles, planters, and under statues. Old wood can also be suitable, or leaf waste. By searching for some time you will automatically find the places that are your favorite. Make these places unsuitable for frogs and toads by flattening or removing stones.
Remove Drill
In the spring, the strings of toad eggs and clusters of frogspawn can be removed from the pond. Put them in a bucket with plenty of water (water from the pond) and take them to a suitable place. This can be a pond or lake nearby, for example in a park or forest. The drill must not be killed, which means that it must not be thrown away or discharged into running water.
Tadpoles and tadpoles (young toads) cannot survive in running water.
Do this consistently every year for at least several years in a row. In the first two or three years there will still be many tadpoles and tadpoles, but after a few years, there will be much fewer.
Floor Tiles
Are you really tired of frogs and toads? Can’t stand it anymore? Then the only option to get rid of it is to tile the garden. This makes the garden completely unsuitable for frogs and toads. If there are many with the neighbors, a few can come into the garden, but the great majority will stay away. The problem with frogs and toads has been solved, but the garden unfortunately looks less cozy. So it is always a choice. Usually, tiling is not necessary.
Finally
Frogs and toads can be a problem if there are a lot of them, but they are actually quite fun. They provide extra life in the garden, they eat mosquitoes, snails, and even spiders. So a few frogs and toads are definitely handy to have. Many people think they are scary animals, but in fact, they do nothing. They don’t bite, they don’t sting and they don’t transmit disease. You don’t have to worry about warts either. And who knows, if you kiss one, a prince can spontaneously stand in front of you!
