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Subject: Re: I want toads!
From: pburch@condor.mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu (Paula Burch)
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 99 18:10:54
Message-ID: <MOD$990412.1713@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$990324.17350@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



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>>Anybody know how I can get my hands on some toads?>
Last year, for fun, my six-year-old son and I went on a toad hunt:
we went for a walk at dusk, and caught a number of the neighborhood
toads. Here in Houston, at this time of year, the toads are just
starting to come out on the sidewalks in the evening, and there will
be many more in the next few months; if you walk very quietly and
pay close attention, you can detect them by the sound they make
in the leaves as they hop to run away from you. I'm always amazed
at how many toads are out in the evenings, given how many people
use toxic lawn treatment companies. Although I'd imagined they would
mate in puddles, they often seem to be together in pairs when we
find them in people's dry grassy yards. They seem to prefer the cracks
that open at the edge of sidewalks, for hiding in.

We caught several, gently, and put them into a very small
plastic screen-topped bucket, then took them home and released
them under our deck. Our neighbors didn't seem to mind. This
is not the sort of activity an unaccompanied adult can engage
in without raising the neighbors' suspicions, however.
If you don't have one of your own, you may need to borrow a
child. :-)

Undoubtedly most of the toads hopped back to the neighbors'
yards afterwards.

--
Paula Burch
pburch@bcm.tmc.edu
http://mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu/pburch.html or http://www.flash.net/~pburch/