THE KANSAN (Newton, Kansas) 27 July 07 Toads — insect removal technicians (Steve Gilliland)
As I stood amidst the evening shadows watering my wife’s flower bed, the ground beneath the greenery suddenly came alive with hopping little four-legged amphibians.
I finished the chore and headed to the backyard to water the vegetable garden. Seemingly every step I took through the damp evening grass sent them bounding ahead of me. Once at the vegetable garden, the scene was the same. They crawled and hopped from under potato, broccoli and tomato leaves that had sheltered them against the sun’s heat, and prepared to begin their night-shift task of keeping my garden free of bugs.
Tiny toads, which a couple weeks ago were the size of nickels, are now as big as half-dollars on their way to becoming as big as baseballs or larger, and this year the seem to be as thick as the hair on a dogs back.
A recent study showed toads worth $25 each to farmers in cutworm control.
Toad … the name itself conjures up visions of witches adding eyes of newts and wings of bats to a bubbling caldron of potion, or a derogatory remark about a person’s physical appearance. They’re fat and pudgy. Their blotchy skin is covered with lumps and warts. Their spring mating call sounds like a poor lost calf calling for its mother and they pee on anyone attempting to pick them up. You gotta’ love ’em! Their saving grace comes in the form of a voracious appetite for insects.
Just when I thought life was simple, and a toad was a toad, along came Ken Brunson, wildlife diversity coordinator for the state of Kansas, to tell me toads have names too. Brunson says 95 percent of the toads seen in Kansas are either Woodhouse’s toads, or Great Plains toads.
Eastern Kansas also has some American toads and spadefoot toads. Brunson linked this year’s abundance of tiny toads to this year’s abundance of standing water in places where water hasn’t been for ages. We’re probably also seeing more around our yards this year because the flood waters have forced many from their homes near the streams and swamps where they hatched and sent them scrambling for higher ground.
Whatever their clan, all toads begin their life as jelly covered strands of eggs laid in the shallows of swamps, streams and ponds. In about one week, the eggs hatch into tadpoles. Next, hind legs begin to grow, then front legs, then lungs replace the gills, the tail is absorbed into the body, and finally, two to three weeks after hatching, the youngsters hop out onto dry land. Woodhouse and Great Plains toads both grow to be three to five inches long when fully mature.
Although not particularly athletic, toads are efficient predators and have a ravenous appetite for insects. Research suggests a toad is capable of eating two-thirds its body weight in insects daily. Worms of all kinds seem to be favorites as they’re probably easier to catch (and I’m sure more filling!)
A study done on Great Plains toads in Oklahoma found because of their fondness for dining on over-wintering cutworms, these toads were estimated to be worth $25 apiece per year to the agriculture industry there.
Contrary to the old-wives tale, handling a toad does not cause warts. The warts on their skin and the glands behind their eyes do however produce a toxin capable of making you sick if accidentally ingested. You’ve witnessed this toxin at work if you have ever seen your dog frothing and foaming at the mouth after playing with a toad in the yard.
With that in mind, I guess my advice to you concerning toads would be three-fold — 1. If you suddenly find your dog foaming and frothing at the mouth, don’t shoot him, he probably just licked a toad; 2. Don’t lick a toad yourself; and 3. ALWAYS hold a toad facing you and at arm’s length or you’re liable to get your shoes wet!
Toads — insect removal technicians

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