Have you thanked your toads lately?

I have a very strict rule about all toads. On sight you are to gently catch and release immediately INTO the garden's Toad habitat. Why you may ask. Because they eat the insects and bugs silly!

"They're particularly fond of slugs, sow bugs, earwigs, cutworms, and gypsy moths. In fact, nearly 90 per cent of a toad's diet consists of garden pests. In a single growing season, a busy toad can consume more than 10,000 of these uninvited guests. Toads like to hide in cool, dark places during the day and come out a night to hunt."

Picture on right shows the corner of our garden which has been made into a toad habitat. Hosta's planted around water filled shallow plastic tubs.click on pic- Look closely and you may see the 2 toad houses we have hidden under the hosta's.The wood board is also a toad home. There is a small trench dug then the wood placed over it. Always have toads under them too.-ignore the puny tomato plants. I direct seeded in that half just to see if they would produce timely without the indoor start.

We have experimented with various Toad Houses. Like placing wide wood boards over small trench's next to the garden beds, And recently burying terracotta drain pipes half way into the ground. They like to burrow down into the soil, so try to break the pipe as close to in half as possible. And try to have another way out such as a "back door". Snakes can slither in for a snack or a coon could dip their hands in for an amphibious morsel without any escape for the toad.
Of course after covering the pipe with dirt, pimp your toads pad out with some rocks, plants, and compost! I assure you, they will Thank you.

This is a sketch to show a "toad den" using an intact pipe like above but angling it into a dirt hole surrounded and covered with rocks.

A simple over turned terracotta pot with a lemon size hole punched out does just as well ( toads come in all sizes and widths). Be sure to provide some shade to keep it cool.I recommend checking out this site. and this site for American toad information, pictures, and sounds. May help you understand a little more about their needs and how you too can attract them into your yard.
We had a massive hit in our frog/toad population last year- during egg laying season! When the road department came out to repair the drainage ditch "wash out", they took with it majority of our frog/toad population. So today, we went to a local park to do some frog hunting. We recovered 4 frogs and some kind of frog salamander. We had gone in hopes of bringing home tadpoles. We will just have to keep checking whenever we happen to stop by. Hopefully what effort we have put into recovering the population is successful.
Speaking of helpful bug eating populations, I really must get another bat house. Hopefully, we get a few more in the yard and we can have a massive hit on the mosquito population!
Sweet dreams,
~Tammie