According to John Yazo at Ezinearticles.com, "Toads are a very beneficial method of insect control in your garden. They thrive on insects and eat thousands of them." I have encountered three toads, including the little guy shown in this post, in less than two weeks. I had suspected that they would be of value to my garden. There is a swamp nearby. There is moist soil, lots of hiding rocks, and hopefully more than the three toads I have already found.
Interestingly, now that I am getting back, closer, to nature, I am recalling that when I was eight, I won two awards at Camp Sebaiik in
Sebago, Maine. They were: Most Interest in Nature, a lathed wooden plate with a frail, spindly fawn hand-painted in its center. I also received a paper certificate with subject, Best Frog Catcher. I remember proudly holding an enormous bullfrog with its pulsing yellow throat, its natural smile, comical eyes, and smooth swimmer's skin. Of course, there were many toads in the woods along Lake Sebago. I caught them, too. Although toads tend to, reportedly give warts, and they pee nervous pee in your hands, they are a nice frog substitute.
The threatening weather stays with us all day. Regardless, I arrive at Wychwood around one-o-clock, and Deb shows at four with refreshments and a discussion topic. We finish clearing weeds in the bush bean rows. Deb cleans out most the enormous cucumber patch while I lay hay between all of the exposed plants. I notice a potato beetle has taken residence on one of the cucumber hills. It has eaten a lot of the leaves, but the plant is still alive.
"Deb, how the heck is a ladybug going to eat a potato beetle," I ask, simply to break the quiet in the garden. This is a small beetle, with a black and yellow seersucker pattern on his wing covers. I have read that Colorado potato beetles are capable of producing up to three generations per season, That's a crowded insect column, for sure!
"I think ladybugs eat aphids, small larval stuff," she tells me, adding, "They're no ladies!"
"Maybe the toad will get this guy," I decide.
I am one of these odd people who hates killing anything, including bees, flies, ants, and common garden pests. My plants are mostly healthy, and the garden is alive with promise. My soil may be, although uncertified, organic, depending on whether anyone has used chemicals in the past three years... I need to ask Farmer Brown, but I will not make such claims because, why should I? The possible fact makes me hesitant to start now.
By eight-o-clock, I look across the garden. Order is returning. Stray stones and rocks are finding their way into the low center wall. Debbie has found the nasturtiums I seeded a couple of weeks ago, and she cleans the weeds away from the small seedlings growing around our dill weed patch.
"Pizza?" I ask.
"Sure," she cries, as Deb finishes rescuing the last nasturtium she can find.
It is close to 8:30, and I am thinking that I'll make Debbie a nasturtium salad later this summer.
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