Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Frog Pond is hopping!

With all of the rain that has fallen in the past week, the Frog Pond is quite the active place..hehe..you could say it was "Hopping"!  Still not feeling the best, I decided to follow "doctor's orders" and be lazy.  Well, I just could not stay inside so I went to check the pond for any recent additions.  Sure enough just as I imagined, there were tons of new eggs!  Every night, the American Green Tree Frogs have been calling with their high-pitched chirps and the American Toads with their shrill tunes.  (Seems as if I have an "All American Frog Pond..how patriotic can you get??)  Numerous tadpoles of various sizes already filled the pond so unless they get a move on and grow up, the area will be overrun!   As I was peering into the depths of the water, I noticed that the strings of toad eggs were wrapped through and around the Water Hyacinths.  Uh-oh...that was not supposed to happen!  Not the fact about the toad eggs..the Water Hyacinths being plural...as in they were multiplying!

A little toad visiting the Frog Pond!


About a month ago, Mark brought me a single Water Hyacinth that he found floating in the Bay.  He knows that I always like to keep the Frog Pond supplied with lots of plants as this gives the critters places to hide from any predators.  I told him that I would keep the Hyacinth in check and not give in to its wishes to take over the pond.  Ha!  Too late!  I had no idea that it would multiply this quickly!  Of course in all fairness, I have not been particularly observant of any outdoor activities of late so it has been over a week since I last checked!  I had the thought of ripping the Hyacinth from the pond but that meant I would kill a goodly number of "future" toads.  The Hyacinths will stay for now.

Water Hyacinths in mass production!  


Water Hyacinths can be highly invasive since they are one of the fastest growing plants.  They can double their population every two weeks clogging waterways and choking out any other aquatic plants!  I would definitely have to pull and discard some but that will have to wait until I feel a bit better.  Struggling with a rake at this point seems a bit strenuous!  The good news?  The Hyacinths are floaters making harvesting them relatively easy.  They have bulbous stalks that keep the whole plant afloat.  The roots hang down into the water gathering nutrients to feed the plant.

A closeup of some of the strings of toad's eggs wrapped around the Water Hyacinth's roots.

The bad news..I gave a single plant to my sister for her Dragonfly Pond a couple of weeks ago.  I do suppose I should contact her.  Perhaps she should keep an eye on her pond just in case she has an overactive Water Hyacinth, too!



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