Amphibians are very beneficial to the environment and to people by eating many of the insects that are harmful to humans and our gardens.

A single toad might eat up to 1,500 earwigs in a summer! In addition to the above insects, larger female toads also tackle Japanese beetles and June bugs. Although a toad will unfortunately eat the occasional beneficial insect, over 81% of its diet consists of unwanted insects (Organic Gardening, May/June 1994).  Urban Outback

It would be difficult to keep frogs or newts or salamanders in your garden unless you had a pond.  It is relatively easy to attract toads, however, because they do not need as much water.  They need water to lay eggs in, but once they go through their metamorphosis they leave their pond to live and hunt on land.

A Toad image courtesy of wikipedia.org

Toads are nocturnal, which means they are awake at night and asleep during the day.  During the day, they find a cool dark place to sleep.  To attract them to your garden, you can make a toad house!

All you need is a flower pot.  You can even use a broken flower pot.  You can also paint it.  It is better to use natural colors, but it will make the flower pot look nice rather than just something buried in your yard.  Then find a shady spot to place your toad house.  Bury it half way so there is an entrance for the toads to go in.

Hopefully this will help you attract toads to your garden to help control slugs, snails and other pests that harm your garden!

Sonoran Tiger Salamander – Watch today’s top amazing videos here

There are many kinds of salamanders:

1. siren
2. olm
3. axolotl
4. spring lizard
5. water dog
6. mud puppy
7. hellbender
8. triton
9. newt
10. and congo eel

Whew!

Salamanders eat:

1. earthworms
2. slugs
3. snails
4. fish
5. mice
6. and shrews

Here are a couple of pictures.

A salamander image courtesy wikipedia.org

A newt, image courtesy Wikipedia.org

Mouse studying pond life

Have you ever gone to a pond and seen tadpoles?  Have you ever caught a toad in your garden?  Have you ever watched the newts at a pet store?  These are all examples of amphibians, a class of animals that start out living in water and breathing with gills but end up developing lungs!

The word amphibian comes from two Greek words: amphi and bios. Amphi means double and bios means life.  Therefore, amphibian means double life.  The reason amphibians are called “double life” is because when they hatch the babies have gills and when they grow up they lose their gills and have lungs.

The same word is used for other things, too.  An amphibious vehicle can operate in two different environments, just like a frog.  An amphibious airplane can fly but also land on water and be used as a boat.  Here is an example of an amphibious airplane.  It is used for putting out forest fires.

Another kind of amphibious vehicle is the car that turns into a boat.

There are many kinds of amphibians in the wild.  They are slimy and interesting because they start out like a fish and end up kind of like a lizard.   They serve many important roles in the environment and for humans.  But did you know that they are almost all in danger from a serious disease spreading rapidly through the whole world?

I hope you enjoy this edition of The Science Mouse and learn lots more about amphibians!  You can also download a copy in pdf form.  If you find any amphibians in your yard, do any artwork or try the garden project, I would love to see pictures!  You can send them to me at thesciencemouseATgmailDOTcom and I will share them through my Reader Gallery.  Here are the articles in this issue.

Welcome to the world of amphibians!

Why should we care about amphibians?

The great amphibian die off

How frogs grow

Caecilians!

Salamanders and Newts

Biologists study the endangered tiger salamander

Amphibian fun

Frogwatch

How to attract toads to your garden

A closer look at the Cope’s gray tree frog

The frogs and toads of North America, a review

Here is a very simple recipe for making a suet substitute which will attract insect eating birds such as woodpeckers and nuthatches.  It provides them with the oils and fats they need.  It gives them a yummy treat while you watch!